Social VR Leading Edge Behaviors

LEADING-EDGE BEHAVIORS FROM THE NEW WORLD OF SOCIAL VR

Institute for the Future January 2019

Institute for the Future (IFTF) is celebrating its 50th anniversary as the world’s leading Institute for non-profit strategic futures organization. The core of our work is identifying emerging discontinuities that will transform global society and the global marketplace. We the Future provide organizations with insights into business strategy, design process, innovation, and social dilemmas. Our research spans a broad territory of deeply transformative — trends, from health and health care to technology, the workplace, and human identity. IFTF is based in Palo Alto, California. Future 50

FUTURE 50

This work is supported in part by IFTF’s Future 50 partnership—a circle of future-smart organizations that think strategically about near-term choices to reshape the long-term future. Future 50 draws on a half century of futures research from our labs focusing on society and technology, the economy and the environment, food and health. Its goal is to create the perspectives and expert viewpoints, the signals and the data, to make sense out of disruptive forces in the present. Grounded in a framework of Foresight- Insight-Action, the Future 50 partnership invests in critical research, boundary- stretching conversations, and strategic experiments that will shape the business, social, and civil landscapes of tomorrow.

LEADING-EDGE BEHAVIORS: at a glance...... 15

5 BIG STORIES...... 16

LEADING-EDGE BEHAVIORS full set...... 40

DESIGN FRAMEWORKS...... 125

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 3 INTRODUCTION: “It takes thirty years to become an overnight success” is a phrase we often apply to transformative technologies about the study and business models - like the smart phone or Uber. The insight: when something scales super fast, it’s the result of decades of innovations converging in just the right way, at just the right moment.

VR and AR technologies have been decades in the making, with multiple cycles of emergence, astonishing promise, and disappointing results.

We believe it is social applications - social VR - that will finally deliver "overnight success” for mixed reality applications, and a mind-and-body-altering world of embodied, fully dimensional digital experiences.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 4 INTRODUCTION: On a handful of platforms around the world, a small group of pioneers are hanging out in 3D environments in 3D about the study bodies. They are willing to endure technical challenges, limited content, and lack of standard practices and etiquette to be the first to inhabit and explore new shared virtual worlds.

IFTF spent eight months exploring their environments, communities, and practices.

Their experiments provide early signals that point to a future where we each have a personal digital body, and content can be experienced in full 3D space. This will have profound implications for how we socialize, learn, work, engage with content, and take care of ourselves.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 5 INTRODUCTION: This study contains 10 LEADING-EDGE BEHAVIORS: what is a emerging and innovative user practices likely to play out leading-edge more broadly over the next few years. Leading-edge Behaviors inspire and inform new behavior? products, experience and service ideas, and reveal emerging opportunities and implications.

Leading-Edge Behaviors are created through a blend of expert interviews, observational and ethnographic research, and horizon scanning with people pushing the edges of new applications, devices, and platforms.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 6 INTRODUCTION: We looked across the implications of each individual what is a “big behavior to synthesize 5 BIG STORIES. These are the areas most likely to truly impact the future of media, story”? work, wellbeing, learning, retail, collaboration, entertainment and a host of other domains of human life in the future.

These are the areas of opportunity and threat.

These are the stories that point toward how the world might be different in 2030.

Jessica Outlaw Ethan Summers Laura Smith VR/AR Behavioral CEO and Founder CEO, Co-Founder Scientist Underground Engine Slanted Theory

Jesse Damiani Marcia Edelman Chuck Shipman Emerging Technology Somatic Movement Digital Alchemist Journalist Therapist Cisco VRScout Embodied Culture

Kent Bye Adam Arrigo D.J. Soto Producer CEO and Co-Founder VR Pastor and Voices of VR Podcast TheWaveVR Filmmaker VR Church

Philipp Lenssen Graphics David Eagleman Creator Monkey Co-Founder and CEO Anyland + Manyland VR Creator NeoSensory

Research Toshi Anders Hoo Quinault Childs Emerging Media Lab Research Manager Team Director at IFTF at IFTF

Ben Hamamoto Susanne Forchheimer Research Director Research Manager at IFTF at IFTF

FROM SOLO TO SOCIAL

Most people, if they’ve tried VR at all, have had a solo experience.

Social VR platforms connect VR systems to the internet, to share virtual experiences in real time with others in VR headsets, sometimes physically co- located but mostly in different geographic locations.

Many social VR experiences are about building relationships through play, exploration, and “hanging out.” But leading-edge users are also working, learning, shopping, performing - even praying together.

“OTHER PEOPLE ARE THE ULTIMATE CONTENT” Think of VR as a form of immersive computing. Personal computers were adopted at a slow rate until the 1990’s, when we were able to use them to communicate via chat rooms and email. We moved from talking to our machines, to talking through our machines to each other.

The next stage of VR and AR will require the same kind of shift.

DEFINITION

• 3D computer-generated space • Supports visitors in VR headsets, may also support non-VR users • Users are represented by avatars; communication is between users sharing the same space • Users are free to move around • Platforms are open-ended • Content is completely or partially user-generated. - Ryan Schultz, Social VR blogger

Full body VR factory training system. Source: Holosuit YouTuber HeyImBee in VRChat. Source: YouTube

EMBODIED PRESENCE

Being social in an online world is nothing new: gamers explore vast maps every day and Second Life still supports a community of 50,000+ people.

What’s different about being social in a VR world is the deep sense of presence - just as seeing a video of a place is dramatically different than visiting it. As VR pioneer Jaron Lanier, puts it, “The visceral realness of human presence within an avatar is the most dramatic sensation I’ve felt in VR.”

VR Headset sales 2017-2018 and projected 2019 sales. Source: Statista VRChat daily user statistics Source: Steam

STATE OF PLAY Experimental VR tech has been around for decades, but consumer level VR headsets costing $200-2,000 were only launched in 2016. Over 14M headsets have been sold over the past 3 years, but adoption has currently slowed: too much technical complexity and too little content.

Several dozen social VR platforms have launched, among the hundreds of VR applications available. The most popular include: High Fidelity, AltspaceVR, RecRoom, Oculus Venues and Facebook Spaces. VRChat is the most popular, with typical daily user counts in the 7-9,000 range - still very low.

10 Managing multiple embodiments going back and forth between realities LEADING-EDGE Re-negotiating personal space BEHAVIORS: a new etiquette for social interactions

Unwittingly generating data bodyprints at a glance expanded surfaces for personal data capture

Thinking with data in three dimensions turning 2D data into 3D data objects

Expanding the dimensions of familiar content a new way to consume media

Re-inventing audience experience better than being there in person

Setting up marketplaces in social VR from communication to commerce

Bridging siloed metaverses connecting worlds across platforms

Streaming into the wider mediascape integrating VR content into other social media platforms © 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 15 BIG STORIES: key takeaways 1. Embodied Interface 2. Embodied Cognition

3. Recreating and Reinventing Content

4. Cross-Reality Media

5. New Negotiations of Trust

We will inhabit social virtual reality experiences inside a limitless variety of expressive bodies—from photo-realistic scans to alien creatures to walking pieces of buttered toast.

Photorealistic avatars. Basic default avatars in AltspaceVR . Source: High Fidelity Source: AltspaceVR

More than just simple icons, our avatars will be our interface for 3D virtual worlds - walking, talking, gesturing, life-sized replacements for keyboard and mouse.

Wide variety of custom avatars in VRChat. Source: VRChat

As we move through 3D digital spaces, our 3D body interfaces will be controlled with our real bodies, simultaneously moving through real and virtual space. Our avatars will become the input and output medium for computing, content creation, and social interaction online.

Facebook's custom avatar designer Full body motion tracking systems track add leg and Source: Facebook torso tracking

• New identity layer Avatars will be a focal point for organizing our reputation and communication identities, for individuals and organizations alike. 2D identity markers (think social media profiles and email accounts) won’t go away, but some of us (probably youth in particular) will prefer the more immersive, tangible, and expressive medium of the avatar. Looking forward • New communication choices to 2030, how Not for every single communication, but for some of them, we will be able to choose how we want to show up - in “flat” 2D representations or as fully embodied avatars. We’ll also might the world choose how much of our real body’s movements we want to translate, in real-time, as we be different? understand the impact that embodiment has for us and for others. • New talents and skills We’ll be managing, collaborating, and transacting via embodied interfaces. Communicating and engaging people and content via an avatar will become a critical new capacity. Those who excel at this new form of communication will make the most out of social VR learning and work environments.

“Embodied cognition” is a concept from cognitive science and philosophy. It challenges the notion that we just think with our brains. In fact, we think with our bodies, we think with each other, and we think with our environments.

The Routledge Handbook of Embodied Cognition Editor: Lawrence Shapiro

Philosophy in the Flesh explores the topic of embodied cognition Authors: George Lakoff and Mark Johnson

Every interaction in 3D environments will leverage our spatialized intelligence, spatialized pattern recognition and spatialized memory - powerful forms of human intelligence that evolved over thousands of years in concert with the real world.

Jumping rope is a complex set of processes and a Beat Saber, the most popular VR game of 2018, involves rhythmic rhythmic kinetic oral tradition. What else could we interaction with flying targets synchronized to a music track. learn in digital environments, using, for example, Source: YouTube user Ruirize bodies, rhythms, songs, and other people? Image Source: Wikipedia

Shared virtual worlds will let us explore topics through multiple new dimensions. Social dynamics, spatial and kinetic relationships, and the element of time will all be part of the same experience.

eleVR’s “Venn Diagram Museum” in Anyland social VR, places people inside life-sized mathematical models. Source: eleVR

We’ll be able to co-create dynamic 3D models the way we co- create documents today. Our new ability to test and refine these digital objects, with other people, will result in deeper understanding of complex systems.

WorldViz's social VR platform Vizible allows remote Vizible allows users to collaboratively explore 3D models collaboration. Source: WorldViz of objects and systems. Source: WorldViz

• New learning environments 3D space will be a tool in its own right, a place to store, access, and interact with content and people. In schools, work places, and homes, we will collaborate in environments that support embodied learning. We won’t be limited by the design constraints of the physical world, as we are today. Organizations will master the art Looking forward of designing new spatial learning architectures. to 2030, how • New pedagogies Educators will integrate tangible physical-world learning techniques with the might the world limitless options of virtual reality. After several decades of being lost down the rabbit hole of 2D digital life, we’ll have returned to a more traditional human way of be different? working and learning - but this time, with digital super powers.

• New data analysis Our data will live in multiple dimensions beyond the flat screen, the cloud, and the lone analyst deep in a database. This will supercharge our ability to map, display, and manipulate vast amounts of data, transforming the field of data science - and the profiles of those who do the analysis.

Everything that is now 2D digital content (in other words, the whole internet) will have potential to become 3D content that can be walked into, touched, and potentially modified. What’s more, it will be social. Essentially, we will be able to create the equivalent of a live face-to-face mass experience for any kind of content.

Wreckit Ralph started as a video game, became a feature film Large gathering of over 400 avatars at social VR event in and is now a VR experience Source: The VOID High Fidelity. Source: High Fidelity

People will naturally seek out familiar stories, characters and content. So all the content we already love today, from TV shows to sports, movies, music, and so on - will be a magnet for social VR engagement.

The Void’s Star Wars-themed location-based social VR experience Source: The Void

As audiences get familiar with social VR, we will invent new genres of storytelling and storyliving. We’ll move from simply imitating 2D content to developing transformative VR-first stories and experiences.

Carne y Arena, an Oscar winning VR film by Alejandro Museum of Other Realities allows visitors to scale down G. Iñárritu, places viewers in the shoes of immigrants in size and enter VR artworks Source: MOR crossing the Mexico-U.S. border who get stopped by border patrol. Source: Carne y Arena

There will be unlimited new worlds in need of content that will need to be created over the next decade. New virtual worlds, items, and avatars will be the basis of a broad economy of cross-reality merchants and marketplaces.

Alibaba’s virtual shopping mall experience. Source: Alibaba

• New content catalogues Traditional content will be re-imagined with the affordances of embodied interfaces, embodied cognition, and social audience experiences. Designers will take adaptive and responsive design beyond fixed screens and handhelds to include headsets and glasses. 2D content will be commercialized for 3D Looking forward experiences. • New content genres to 2030, how We will stand-up life-sized, modifiable 3D avatars and object-rich worlds as might the world easily as we create a website or video today, for hanging out in and sharing with friends and family. All this 3D content will generate billions in revenue for creators be different? curators, IP owners, and platform owners – and new headaches for IP protection. • New brand experiences Experiential marketing will give new meaning to “product placement,” as brands blur the lines between content and marketing. Brand touchpoints will evolve from being expressed through simple logos, discreet user impressions, and TV ads, to interactions with embodied personalities in public and private virtual worlds, driven by real people or AIs. Brand personas, ensconced in virtual environments, will develop ongoing relationships with customers.

No media can exist on its own. If VR is to succeed, it will need to be connected and connectable with the larger mediascape.

Not surprisingly, people will build these connections themselves, despite platforms trying to create walled garden environments.

Steaming VRChat channels on Youtube VRChat channels on Twitch

People will consume all formats of media inside social VR.

They will also push social VR content into 2D platforms to reach their audiences where they are at.

We will consume existing media formats in VR. Facial tracking phones will allow users to control avatars Source: Big Screen VR in VR, even when they are not fully immersed. Source: Apple Insider “Animoji vs AR Emoji”

Cross-reality media will extend beyond traditional media content: we will also want to own, verify, and transport our digital identities and virtual assets between platforms.

JanusVR portals allow movement between virtual Users collect virtual items. Source: Apple insider “Animoji worlds. Source: Big Screen VR. Source: JanusVR vs AR Emoji”. Source Epic Games

• New content engagement models All content will be cross-reality content, mixing 2D and 3D delivery and interaction formats. There will still be plenty of room for simple lightweight and 2D-only interactions, but there will also be new media genres that can only be experienced through our avatars, with their expansive abilities. Devices and platforms will take Looking forward this into account through new device features and storytelling formats. • New digital geographies to 2030, how Standards for assets and data will allow interoperability between platforms. We’ll port in and out of 3D might the world avatars, objects, and worlds, just like we do with 2D content on the internet today. Worlds will become linkable, streamable, and embeddable between and within each other, creating a new map of the spatialized be different? web. • New social geographies Just as we are segmented into different social worlds today depending on where we engage (Snapchat? Wechat? Facebook?), those who spend time in 3D environments will have very different capabilities and experiences than those in simple 2D. Whether it’s learning, working, or buying and selling, those who can afford and access the time, bandwidth, hardware, and content required for embodied computing will have a distinct advantage.

While we consciously know we are in a virtual simulation, our subconscious minds and bodies have no category for “fake.”

Social VR will introduce new trust issues at multiple levels: • Self - How will we trust our own perceptions as we move in and out of digital worlds that feel increasingly real? • Each other - How will we form trusted relationships with the real people behind simulated avatars? • Platforms - How will we trust that our data is not being used in ways we didn’t intend?

TRUSTING OURSELVES We will learn new ways of acting that we can take back and forth across realities. Parts of our VR social lives are likely to be more satisfying than our real world lives. Frequent code switching across realities will impact psychological and physical health, positively for some, negatively for others.

Walking a virtual plank in VR. Source: Richie’s User POV of looking down from virtual plank. Source: Plank Experience Richie’s Plank Experience

TRUSTING EACH OTHER While the experience is simulated, the psychological impacts of our social interactions will be real. Platforms will need to build more tools to keep users safe, while users will increasingly seek out more highly curated communities of trusted friends or brands.

Facebook Spaces only allows trusted VRChat’s trust and safety system. Source: VRChat friends into your virtual room. Source: Facebook Spaces

TRUSTING PLATFORMS The biometric tracking technologies that provide the deeper sense of presence in social VR will also become an intimate behavior surveillance and modification system. These systems will be able to track everything we look at and touch, test our reactions to changing environments, and try to influence us. .

User data is easily captured by VR systems and shared to cloud without the user being fully aware. Source: How to Build an Embodiment Lab: Achieving Body Representation Illusions in VR

• New reality toolkit We will have an expanded palette of acceptable simulated “realities.” Our definitions of what is real will shift as we build new neural pathways confirming that our virtual experiences, however implausible, are functional models of reality. Having AR and VR as everyday options will throw the benefits and unique qualities of real life into high relief. We’ll Looking forward appreciate it more. • New embodied communication filters to 2030, how By 2030, embodied 3D experiences will be part of how we socialize and communicate with might the world certain friends and family – if, and only if, we have shared online spaces that allow us a full range of protected one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many interaction modes. If not, be different? social VR may not be widely adopted in 2030. • New persuasive tech Third parties, armed with massive amounts of new personal data and real-time AB testing, will design highly personalized VR environments, avatars, and interactions that subtly influence our decisions and opinions. On the positive side, this will provide improved health and wellbeing assessment and hyper-personalized education and coaching. On the negative side, immersive environments will be even more invasive and persuasive than what we have today.

LEADING-EDGE Managing multiple embodiments BEHAVIORS Re-negotiating personal space

Unwittingly generating data bodyprints

Thinking with data in three dimensions

Expanding the dimensions of familiar content

Re-inventing audience experience

Setting up marketplaces in social VR

Bridging siloed metaverses

Streaming into the wider mediascape

Designing new bodies

People are “wearing” and controlling avatars: 3D bodies that can take the form of realistic humans, fantastical creatures, familiar characters - even abstract shapes.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 41 • People are “wearing” and controlling avatars: 3D bodies that take the form of realistic humans, fantastical creatures, familiar characters - even abstract shapes. They can be any body and any thing they want, all with a first person perspective. • People are using these life-sized, fully dimensional virtual bodies - which map real-life movements - as Designing their interface to computing and content creation, new bodies rather than a keyboard and flat screen. • Leading-edge social VR users are navigating a new set of design choices for self expression: their new bodies’ appearance (e.g., “do I need legs?”), its capabilities (such as changing size, changing shape, or affecting the sensory experience of others), and its use permissions (private/personal or public/shareable).

INGRID | 34 | GAME ARTIST | OSLO, NORWAY

Ingrid has been a professional game artist for over ten years. In the last year she has spent over 150 hours in VRChat, today’s most populated social VR platform, creating worlds and avatars. As a skilled 3D artist, Ingrid has a wide range of custom avatars, depending on her mood or social setting.

Ingrid’s main “ready-to-load” avatars include a “Fish Person” (half fish/half human) with blue skin, and a shark that swims around in the air. While “Fish Person” is reserved for her personal use only, her shark rig is publicly accessible: anyone can wear it to air-swim with the other sharks.

One of her favorite hangouts is a virtual dance club, where she meets friends in a wild variety of custom avatars: toothbrushes, toast with butter, a hand drawn scribble - even the chalk outline of a dead body, who likes to suddenly jump up from the floor and surprise people. Ingrid says that the virtual club triggers the same brain chemicals as being in her favorite real-world club, making it feel even more real.

To amplify the “social fidelity” of her interactions, Ingrid programs her avatar rigs with custom facial expressions to convey happiness or anger. Scripted eye contact is also important to her, so other avatars feel they are actually looking into her eyes the same way they would in real life.

When she has time to set it all up, Ingrid loves using her full body tracking system. It lets her control her avatar feet with her real feet, giving her a deeper sense of embodiment and more fine-grained movements for things like dancing.

One unexpected gift: Ingrid’s time in VRChat has helped her develop her social skills in real life.

MORPH 3D’S READY ROOM

• Ready Room is an avatar design tool that lets users create and customize avatars inside of social VR worlds. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, the company partners with VRChat and High Fidelity. As CEO Jim Thornton notes, “What we’re really excited about is that opportunity to help people start with their identity, to create their character, and be able to take that identity into multiple platforms.” Users can stand outside their own body and sculpt a new virtual version of themselves.

Photo Credit: Morph 3D’s Ready Room DOOB3D’S DOOBLICATOR

• Users who want high quality, full body 3D scans can visit one of Doob3d’s scanning locations in seven cities around the USA. In under a minute, dozens of cameras capture a high resolution 3D scan of your entire body. For around $300 USD, you walk out with a photorealistic version of yourself that can be imported into platforms like High Fidelity or VRChat that support custom avatars.

APPLE’S MEMOJI FEATURE

• Released in 2018, the app helps people easily design a cartoon avatar version of themselves and animate it with their own real-time facial movements, using the iPhone X’s facial tracking camera. Creating and controlling digital characters with motion-tracking technologies built into our smartphones means users can be present in virtual worlds without always being in a VR headset. Facial tracking phones will give people real-time embodied control of their characters’ faces, and reduce the barriers to participation in virtual worlds.

Photo Credit: iJustine ”Memoji in iOS 12!” PERCEPTION NEURON FULL BODY TRACKING SUIT

• Popular social VR platforms like High Fidelity, VRChat and AltspaceVR support “full body tracking suits” to control avatars. The Perception Neuron Pro tracking suit $1,500) includes 32 inertial sensors that attach to the limbs, trunk and head to give precise control of an avatar’s every movement. Accurate, responsive, full-body tracking creates a more realistic sense of embodiment, compared to most of today’s experiences that track only head and hand movements. Perception Neuron is made by Noitom, based in Miami, FL.

MOTIVATIONS AND TRENDS

• Rise of visual identity play • Falling cost of VR headsets People are increasingly comfortable using digital For most users around the world, high quality VR images to playfully express personal identity, experiences are still out of reach, requiring a steep whether it’s crazy Snapchat filters, selfie culture in investment in hardware. Manufacturers are cutting general, animated emojis, or game world avatars. prices to try to drive demand.

• Easier 3D tools • Multiple avatars for multiple contexts There are more accessible tools for avatar creation More settings where social VR will be used for and experimentation, such as easier game engine professional collaboration, education, programming tools or simple mobile apps for 3D therapeutic, or training purposes, which will capture and image manipulation. drive need for diverse avatar forms.

• Better tools for modeling and animation: The area is growing by leaps and bounds, but demand for tools to create avatar expressiveness and realism still outstrips availability. • Avatar marketplaces: Marketplaces for purchasing avatars for those who don’t have the skills to create their own and don’t want to be limited to generic default options. • Cross-platform, interoperable avatars: As people spend more time developing and investing in their virtual bodies, they will want to move them out of single-use platforms. • Increased one-to-one avatar-human realism: Facial, eye, body tracking and haptic systems to enhance immersion. • Mobile and social media portals: VR needs to be accessible from the vast array of other places where people currently spend their digital time. Avatar diversity in VRChat. Source: VRChat

More than just simple icons, avatars are our interface, identity and embodiment to 3D virtual worlds.

• We will be able to test out all kinds of new bodies, from toast- • Social VR platforms will provide ever more realistic testbeds to with-butter to a hand-drawn scribble, expanding the way we explore blended physical and social interactions without real- interact with one another online. world consequences. This could allow us to try out new aspects of our personalities. • 3D bodies, controlled with our real bodies as they move through real space, will become a new interface for computing • We will access social VR through our phones, using avatars we and content creation. create and control with motion tracking technologies built into our mobiles. • Gestures, postures, eye contact, and other physical movements of our avatars will become a new layer of personal expression, evaluated the same way we evaluate other expressions of online reputation, identity, and brand.

Managing multiple embodiments

People are moving back and forth between real and virtual spaces, creating liminal moments where their brains try to make sense of virtual and real reality at the same time.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 49 • People are starting to spend extended amounts of time in life-size 3D virtual bodies (avatars), which can do things our real bodies cannot. Physically moving back and forth between real and virtual spaces creates Managing liminal moments where our brains try to make sense of multiple virtual and real reality at the same time. embodiments • Leading-edge social VR users are feeling the phantom effects of their virtual selves’ abilities, such as being able to fly, teleport, change size, change bodies, pass through “solid” objects, and control the world with hands, gestures, and voice commands.

OSCAR | 27 | CONSTRUCTION WORKER | SWEDEN

Oscar has been a gamer since he was 13, so when VR headsets finally came out, he was excited! He got a room-scale VR system and logged over 3000 hours in-headset in the last 2 years. He started with multiplayer VR combat games, but the games’ realness heightened his anxiety levels - in and out of headset. Luckily, Oscar discovered Anyland, a social VR platform where he can explore endless magical virtual worlds and make his own avatars, environments, games, and objects, using Anyland’s in-headset creation tools.

Oscar sometimes stays in Anyland for 10 hours at a time, absorbed in conversation, exploration, dancing and collaboration, with short “bio breaks” to eat, hydrate and relieve himself. All the actual physical body movement has made his muscles sore and he’s lost about 20 pounds. After long stints in Anyland Oscar sometimes finds himself more clumsy in the real world - what he calls “bumping into reality.” He has tried to teleport in real life; when he’s in a hurry, using an imaginary hand controller. And he has “waking dream” moments where he feels a fleeting confusion about what reality he’s in.

When a roommate who’s not in headset tries to talk to Oscar who is in headset with other people, it’s confusing: embodied social situations are happening in different realities at the same time. The roommate is clueless about where Oscar is, who he’s with, what he’s doing, or when would be a good time to interrupt with real life topics. Oscar’s attention is socially torn in these types of “reality quagmires.”

Oscar’s avatar is a flying robot with a human brain. It represents how he feels inside; intelligent, gender-neutral and helpful. In real life he is introverted and slightly shy, but in social VR he feels more socially confident, more Image representative of Oscar’s avatar like himself; he’s noticed he’s more verbose and moves his arms more when he talks. Switching between identities, bodies, and realities feels a bit like living a double life. And honestly, he prefers his virtual life.

EMBODIED CODE-SWITCHING • Marcia Edelman is a registered somatic therapist and author of Moving Between Identities: Embodied Code-Switching. Embodied code-switching refers to the physical and psychological identity-shifting we do as we move between different cultural environments. She notes, “Most times we can see the switch happening through a change in language, or behavior. But what about the internal experience of code- switching: the nonverbal signals we receive, the way our movements change, our sense of personal space - even the thoughts and emotions that go along with code- switching?” Social VR requires code-switching between virtual worlds and between the

virtual world and the real world. Photo Credit: Embodied Code-Switching SNAPCHAT DYSMORPHIA

• Snapchat’s photo feature puts filters on facial images to make you look thinner, have bigger eyes, lips, erase blemishes, and so on. The filters have spawned a new type of body dysmorphia called “Snapchat dysmorphia,” coined by surgeon Dr. Esho because he was getting so many clients who wanted plastic surgery to look more like the Snapchat versions of themselves. How might similar issues arise as we identify more with our VR avatar image and form?

Photo Credit: Snapchat Dysmorphia

TIME-BODY STUDY, PERFORMATIVE EXPERIMENT

• In 2016, researcher and artist Daniel Landau’s Time-Body Study explored the impact re-embodiment in virtual reality has on the boundaries of body, identity, and self. Participants wearing VR headsets saw themselves re-embodied in the bodies of a 7-, 40- and 80-year-old person. Subjects were surprisingly convinced they had been transformed into another age, even when the virtual body was a different gender. As we start living in lots of different kinds of virtual bodies, we are likely to feel quite differently about our real body when we return to it. We may find it suits us better, or that a virtual body matches our sense of self better than our real body. Photo Credit: Time-Body Study WALK AGAIN PROJECT (WAP)

• In 2013, Duke University connected paralyzed people to robotic exoskeleton legs controlled via brain interfaces. Unexpectedly, subjects who used VR as part of their training formed new neural pathways to their real legs. “The longer they spend controlling avatars of themselves [in VR], the better the chance that they will regain control over paralyzed parts of their physical bodies,” the lead scientist said. The study suggests that virtual embodiment has the power to rewire neural pathways, even to overcome the limitations of our real bodies. Can virtual embodiments help us extend our physical and mental abilities beyond what we think is possible? Photo Credit: Walk Again Project © 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 53 LEADING EDGE BEHAVIORS Managing multiple embodiments WHY THIS BEHAVIOR?

MOTIVATIONS AND TRENDS

• The dopamine economy • Finding opportunities in cross-reality 2D digital experiences are already designed to There will be a slow but steady rise in ways to keep people glued to their devices, and the make a living in VR and AR environments, doing same business models and economic things like creating content, acting as a tourist incentives will keep people in 3D bodies and guide, or working in an online shop. Result: environments for longer periods of time. people will spend more time in multiple bodies.

• Self-experimentation and exploration • Next-gen avatars The sheer joy of discovery will draw people to A host of hardware and software options will explore immersive embodiment, especially as make avatar creation and use more user-friendly, hardware gets cheaper and more accessible. compelling, and trendy, drawing new users to experience multiple embodiments.

• Shared best practices: For the vast majority, social VR and solo VR are new experiences. With new spaces, new friendships, and new lives in social VR, people will develop techniques, practices, and rituals that help them move comfortably across realities. • Deeper research: Better understanding of the psychological and physical effects of switching between realities and long term use of both VR and AR. • Better gear: Hardware and software that support longer term use, comfort, and easier transitions in and out of headset.

A VR user looks into a virtual mirror and sees that their avatar looks different than their real self.

What impact will VR experiences and identities have on our real lives? As more people spend more time in social VR environments, we will see a wider array of physical and psychological effects. The effects may lessen over time as people become accustomed to the devices, transitions and embodiments.

• There will be a period of personal, physical, and • Just as in other domains, some people will want psychological adaptation as humans spend more to integrate their identity across embodiments; time in virtual embodied worlds without the physical others will want to compartmentalize. limitations of the real world, and their brains can’t tell the difference. • In the future, people may be able to choose which form of embodiment they want to use for • Increasing discomfort or disorientation with one’s which purpose, possibly leading to new ways of real body due to prolonged experience inside other working, learning, and socializing. avatars.

• People will increasingly bring social VR practices back into the real world, integrating the two embodiments.

Marcia Edelman, Embodied Culture: www.embodiedculture.com/embodied-code-switching

Basic VR Side effects article, March 2018: http://resourcemagonline.com/2018/03/the-negative-side-effects-of- virtual-reality/87052/

VR used in health, July 2018: https://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrist/2018/07/10/virtual-reality-isnt-just-for-gamers- anymore-it-will-change-your-health/#497a91c94c0a

Paraplegics walk again with VR, Aug 2016: https://qz.com/757516/paraplegics-are-learning-to-walk-again-with- virtual-reality/

Re-negotiating personal space

With their 3D bodies, social VR users are both bullying each other and protecting themselves in new ways.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 58 • Building on the broader culture of social media, open world, and gaming environments, social VR users are creating a new etiquette for embodied, life-sized, often- anonymous avatars. • Social VR bullies are inventing new forms of abuse: overwhelming sensory inputs; invading people’s virtual Re-negotiating body spaces’ “crashing,” “swarming,” and teleporting personal space others out of an area; and displaying offensive avatars, visuals, sounds, and gestures. • Lead users are protecting themselves by flagging/reporting behaviors, rating people, using personal space bubbles, video recording, blocking undesirable people, creating trusted social groups and managing sensory inputs.

LIAM | 32 | VIDEO EDITOR | LONDON, UK

Liam bought his VR system a year and a half ago and his first download was VRChat. Little did he know that the very first time he went on the platform he would come face to face with VR cyberbullying.

On his first visit Liam loaded into a private room. Simple instructions taught him the basics: teleporting and accessing nested menu panels through his hand controllers. He chose an “Art Gallery” with nineteen users in it because he wanted to meet people. The realistic art and architecture was amazing, and different avatars roamed about, chatting in circles. The scene was fun, active, noisy...and definitely a little surreal for a newcomer. An adorable cartoon kitten avatar approached, looking up at him with huge eyes, so he kneeled down to pet it and introduce himself. The kitten screamed: “Call me n***er or I’ll flag you!” Shocked, confused and angry, Liam stood up to teleport away. But he was immediately overpowered as a ball of light engulfed his face, distorting his vision with star-like particles and bombarding his hearing with a loud laugh track. He tried to walk or teleport away - but the whole experience moved with him. He tried to access the menus - but couldn’t see them. Finally, the sensory attack faded away.

Liam frantically searched through the nested menus for the “personal space bubble” feature to create a protective zone around himself. Anyone closer than two feet would be invisible and muted until they moved farther away. Meanwhile, a crowd of concerned avatars surrounded him, explaining how to flag and block people. The kitten was gone. Later, Liam realized he could have removed his headset. But it had all seemed so real in the moment. He’d forgotten he even had a headset on. He didn’t go back into VRChat again until they added new safety features a year later. Avatars circle around a user who is under sensory attack in VRChat

VRCHAT SAFETY SYSTEM

• VRChat launched Feb. 2017 and is one of the most popular social VR platforms, partly due to a few famous gamers who livestreamed videos of themselves griefing and harassing people. VRChat found itself in an arms race with bullies. In Sept. 2018, the company launched a beta Trust and Safety System. People can configure their avatar safety settings with features like choosing preset or customized safety levels, hearing other voices and sounds or not, avatars, particles/lights, and shaders (visual effects to computer pixels). Of course, harassers are trying to find ways to get around the safety system. VIDEO REPORT

• In October 2018, Oculus launched a set of new safety features for the Oculus Go, Gear VR, and Rift. Video Report lets you record a 2.5-minute video when other users have engaged in abusive content or behavior. You can send text and video reports from inside your headset on any social VR app or game on the Oculus platform, for review by the Oculus Community Operations team. To report abusive behavior, you physically engage the Video Report option from the Oculus menu at the time of the offense.

VIRTUAL HARASSMENT SURVEY

• In April 2018, Oregon-based researcher Jessica Outlaw’s team conducted a survey of harassment experiences from 609 respondents who use a VR system twice a month or more. They discovered that harassment is common and users fear it - a serious obstacle to the growth of multi-user VR platforms. Men and women are subject to multiple types of harassment in VR, but users perceived as women are harassed more often. Blocking or muting tools were deemed the most effective protective solutions. Outlaw concluded that already, bullying causes people to avoid meeting strangers, or to leave social VR entirely and do solo experiences instead. Photo Credit: Mike Le Sauvage, CreativeClo FACEBOOK SPACES

• In April 2017, Facebook launched its social VR platform Spaces. In Spaces, people sit around a virtual table in a small area, share three-dimensional drawings, chat, and socialize. Anonymity is a main driver of harassment on other social VR platforms, but Facebook seems to have reduced the problem by restricting users to people who they’re already connected to on Facebook. The automatic known- friend base is likely to feel safer.

MOTIVATIONS AND TRENDS

• Not recognizing humanity • New ways to wield power There is a large number of gamers in social VR As we see in other online world experiences, a who are used to interacting with NPCs (non- subset of people enjoy trolling and bullying. In player characters). They don’t always social VR, these users have new ways to be comprehend that there are real people in all the offensive and try to dominate others. avatars they meet.

• Industry under pressure • Same environment, different experience Gaming and social media platforms are taking Many social VR platforms allow embodied and steps to address the toxic online environments non-embodied participants to mix together in- that turn away large groups of potential users. world, creating an empathy gap between those Social VR will be the next venue where who have a physical virtual presence and those companies can either make or break their who don’t. reputations with users.

• Better UI for self-protection features: Platforms need to make “emergency” features that can be accessed more quickly, like a wrist button or voice command, than navigating through cumbersome nested menus. • Standard safety features: Safety menus that work the same across all platforms, just like in the real world. • More transparency, more options: Sometimes people want a safe experience and other times a provocative experience - like choosing between Disneyland and Las Vegas. • Socialization and education campaigns: Social VR users need to be taught about the difference between traditional digital avatars in games and human-driven digital avatars in social VR. • Reputation management systems: Better ways to track, rate, and evaluate strangers in social VR. Image from Extended Mind’s ”Women’s First-time Experiences in Social VR” research, 2017

Part of having a virtual body is learning its unique vulnerabilities and strengths. Leading-edge social VR users are developing a new set of tools for bullying others and for protecting themselves against abuse.

• As social VR platforms and hardware become more • The growth of social VR depends on platforms’ ability to create widespread, there will be new forms of embodied virtual abuse safe and enjoyable environments. Educators, developers, and harassment, beyond what we can imagine or have platform owners, and social VR content providers will need to experienced today. Just as in traditional 2D online interactions, carefully consider the potential for abuse and proactively create these “innovations” in bullying will be appropriated for other rules and responses. purposes and platforms, such as entertainment and marketing. • People will form new trusted social circles of groups in private • The opportunity to harass people in more realistic ways will worlds which could lead to safer experiences, but limit their attract bullies to social VR platforms. interaction outside of their circles. Will social VR follow current social media and develop a broad set of options for public and • Since embodied virtual harassment feels “more real” than non- private interaction? embodied virtual harassment, some people will be more traumatized by abusive encounters - and therefore less tolerant of bullying - in social VR than they are in other online environments.

Reddit thread about experiences of being “crashed” out by bullies: https://www.reddit.com/r/VRchat/comments/7qvlyd/help_more_hackers_in_this_game_now_can_crash/

Unwittingly generating data bodyprints

As people move through social VR landscapes, they are creating millions of unique data points that track to their physical and digital actions.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 67 • As people move through social VR landscapes, they unwittingly create millions of unique data points that track to their physical and digital actions. • Simple, seemingly innocuous actions like walking through a VR landscape, looking at certain objects and Unwittingly not looking at others, moving your hands, opening and closing menus, talking - all of these create massive generating data amounts of data that can identify a user with bodyprints unprecedented accuracy. • Leading-edge users are raising awareness and organizing to pressure manufacturers and platforms, but at the same time they are giving up even more types of biometric data by using new technologies like haptics, eye-trackers, and full body suits.

MELISA | 30 | WAITRESS | SAO PAULO, BRAZIL

As soon as Melisa puts on her Oculus headset and enters Rec Room, an invisible pool of biometric information begins to fill with data describing the exact points of her head position, the distance between her hands, and where her gaze falls – a digital bodyprint of sorts. When she talks to her friend, the system collects data on the duration and frequency her microphone is active. Perhaps a future advertiser might find it useful to know that Melisa speaks in short but frequent comments. When she enters a new area, the system records which objects her eyes fall on first, and how long she spends there. When she tries out a new tennis game, the system measures the distance between her hands as she swings the virtual racket. Within seconds it’s able to quantify Melisa’s unique backhand, and will forever be able to identify her by this information, no matter which space she’s in, which avatar or voice change she uses, or even which software she’s using. Even a sliver of this dataset could identify this user as Melisa beyond a shadow of a doubt. Unaware, or at least unconcerned, Melisa goes through her usual routine in Rec Room, chatting with friends and meeting new people. An hour later when she takes off the headset, over six million new datapoints have been collected by her Oculus. Despite the fact that this data is no longer necessary for the system to function, it’s sent to the manufacturer - and there Melisa’s relationship with her own biometrics ends. She has no way of knowing who has access to it, how it is used, or how long it will be stored.

VR DATA PRIVACY SUMMIT

• In November 2018, the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab held a summit for industry leaders to discuss collective action on privacy and data collection. Organizers hope to stave off the unintended consequences of unethical use of personal data, a potential pitfall for the future of VR. Organizers aim to bring the conversation to the wider public.

Photo Credit: VR Identity + Privacy Summit

OCULUS EYE TRACKING PATENT

• Oculus, Facebook’s VR platform, patented a system for eye tracking using lightfield cameras in late 2018. The system can not only understand the 3D position of the pupil as a VR user looks about the headset, but also increase the realism of the experience, as well as the feeling of social presence - since avatars will now be able to display accurate eye movement. The position and direction of the pupil will reveal precisely where the user is looking, when they make eye contact with other players, for how long, etc.

Photo Credit: Occulus Eye Tracking Patent © 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 70 LEADING EDGE BEHAVIORS Unwittingly generating data bodyprints EMERGING SOLUTIONS

TESLA SUIT

• The first full body VR suit that includes haptic feedback, temperature control, and most importantly, full motion and biometric capture. Built by a London-based company, the suit will capture much more data – and much more intimate data - about the user’s body than current generation VR input systems. The Tesla Suit exemplifies the trade-off of VR data capture: on the one hand, it allows for a much richer, more immersive experience; on the other, it forces the user to give up lots of personal data.

Photo Credit: Tesla Suit OBSERVER ANALYTICS

• In San Mateo, California, Observer is a new analytics platform that collects data from VR and AR platforms. They analyze complex user interactions - like physical interaction with other players and gaze tracking - and pave the way for hyper- targeted VR advertising, identification, and data collection. Observer Analytics already works with 50 companies to record and track this kind of data.

Photo Credit: Observer Analytics

MOTIVATIONS AND TRENDS

• Functional necessity • Lack of regulation In order to deliver a VR experience that knows Private companies have no incentive nor reason where your body is in space, every VR to stop collecting data or use it responsibly. hardware system must track movement, There is no top-down regulation or pressure to gesture, and interaction. Platforms and systems keep companies from collecting this data, but can store or monetize this data. there is an incentive for them to keep doing it.

• Privacy management fatigue • Massive identifying datasets It’s now fairly common knowledge among VR Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab has users that the biometric data they leave behind shown that for every twenty minutes spent in VR, is identifying. Yet there have been few user-led nearly two million data points are collected by behaviors to stem the flow of personal data. Is the system - far beyond the amount needed to this because users are simply accustomed to uniquely identify a person. giving away their data, or because they feel disempowered to stop it?

• Identity ownership: Tools for better ownership and management of 3D identity. There are currently several experiments with blockchain networks for users to retain data and identity in social VR.

• More ethical tech: Hardware and software solutions that don’t automatically track all user data in real-time, that auto-delete it, or that return it to users for their own use.

• New business models: Alternatives to the ad-based business models that have caused so many problems for other social media platforms.

Current hardware, like this haptic feedback glove, tend to automatically track all user data

People are exposing themselves to new levels of personal data tracking in social VR. Biometric data is personally-identifying data taken to the extreme. In a world in which every SVR user is casting off enough data to catalogue their actions, the collectors of that data hold immense power.

• Advertisers will have more detailed data about a person’s • Biometrics will create new categories for market segmentation. speech, typing, walking, gazing, and socializing patterns, This could lead to improved health and wellbeing assessment, organized in a single place. This could be used to target users hyper-personalized education and coaching, health diagnostics. individually. It could also create new forms of discrimination. • Social media data collection unexpectedly resulted in massive • Driven by the growing global movement for data privacy, the political disinformation campaigns. In an analogous world of availability of alternative blockchain-based solutions, and anger popular SVR, in which hundreds of millions of users might about social media platforms’ loose approach to data protection, congregate and generate this detailed biometric data, the risks social VR-generated data bodyprints might be the tipping point for digital propaganda would be far amplified. For example, for new action about personal data. once a digital bodyprint exists, it could be used to identify the same person in another context - medical records, physical surveillance, etc.

Thinking with data in three dimensions

Leading-edge developers and analysts are transforming traditional datasets into a new menagerie of 3D objects that we can analyze with intuitive physical gestures.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 75 • Leading-edge developers and analysts are creating multi-user data sensemaking environments. • They are transforming traditional datasets into a new genres of 3D objects that can be manipulated with Thinking with intuitive physical gestures. data in three dimensions • People are gaining new perspectives on data they have only ever seen stuck inside 2D spreadsheets and charts. They can now stand inside the data, resize it, survey it from multiple angles, and analyze it with others in real-time.

CHUCK | 38 | DIGITAL ALCHEMIST, CISCO SYSTEMS | CHICAGO, USA

Chuck prototypes next-generation data environments for Cisco HR. He’s spent the last several years as lead developer for Cisco’s Intelligent Human Network project, a 2D platform that helps people understand the state of the organization’s collaborative processes. Now, he is bringing his data to life in an entirely new way. The Organizational Network in Virtual Reality (ONVR) application is a proof-of-concept prototype that enables multiple users to interact with network graphs in the volumetric space of virtual reality.

Chuck steps into the ONVR application and finds himself in a room with five others. In front of them they find a suspended cloud of nodes – people and their connections across a subset of employees. The system visualizes human vectors of innovation and collaboration in terms of information flows, individual and team strengths, and their relationship to specific innovation projects. Chuck can easily walk inside of the cloud, grab it, rotate it, expand it or shrink it down. Grouped around the node cloud, Chuck and his colleagues each get to control what they see and what they consume; each directs the order in which he or she processes information. “I can focus. I can slow down. I can absorb. I can see disconnections, bottlenecks, and isolation,” Chuck says. What’s more, everyone is enlisted in the data manipulation and discovery process: their insights are immediately consumed in the same context by everyone else – what Chuck calls “parallel, multi-context, physical multi-threading.” It’s a powerful experience: “When I got into the experience” for the first time, Chuck says, “it was enough of Four people using Cisco’s ONVR platform to a shock that it took my breath away. I was super excited. It almost brought tears to my eyes…I could be a explore a data cloud. bit of that data represented in there.”

SLANTED THEORY

• Founded in 2016 in the UK, Slanted Theory is a VR/AR start-up specializing in “immersive, collaborative data visualization”. Their cloud service, Alaira, takes organizational data and turns it into novel 3D data structures that can be manipulated with multiple users. Slanted Theory partnered with Cisco on the Organizational Network in Virtual Reality (ONVR) project.

VIRTUALITICS

• California-based Virtualitics blends AI and VR, leveraging multidimensionality to interpret the powerful affordances of AI-enabled data analytics. Their products start with algorithmic interpretation of big data, and deliver it via collaborative immersive environments that can also be accessed via desktop. Their current focus: finance, pharma, and energy.

GEOMETRIC WEB XR 3D CONTENT-BUILDING TOOL

• Making it easier for ordinary people to create immersive data experiences, New York-based Datavized’s Geometric software lets you upload your own data set and customize visualization with drag-and-drop desktop tools. Geometric specializes in visualizing map-based datasets like the example to the right, of the top 10 most- searched online terms related to U.S. midterm elections in fall 2018. Geometric also helps with distribution of the content, allowing you to easily load in a browser, embed in a website, share with a tweet, or send via a link in email.

GENDERED THINKING TOOLS FOR 3D LEARNING

• It’s not just data objects that will be reconfigured for better embodied learning. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen’s Virtual Learning Lab have shown that different kinds of “pedagogical agents” help young boys and girls learn better in VR. Among a group of 7th and 8th-grade students at a “science talent school,” the girls learned best from a teacher-avatar in the shape of young woman, while boys were most engaged via an avatar in the form of a flying drone robot.

MOTIVATIONS AND TRENDS

• Under-utilization of human learning capacity • Cognitive overload Our brains naturally recognize patterns in the visual Machine learning and AI applications provide the and spatial environment. We also exhibit a wide opportunity to work with a much larger volume of variety of learning modalities such kinesthetic, audio, datasets - but we’ve already got too much data. and visual. Current systems only scratch the surface Social VR environments literally add another of what we’re capable of. dimension for data display and use.

• Inaccessible data • Seeking collective intel Data formats are evolving but remain woefully Data analysts spend most of their time - alone - inadequate. Even data scientists have trouble deep in the data, often struggling to share insights keeping up with new languages and platforms, with others. Being able to stand in the same work much less leaders who are not technical experts. environment, focusing on the same data set, Organizations are seeking new ways to efficiently enables real-time collective storytelling. generate insights from valuable data.

• Multi-user, multi-threaded data display formats: We haven’t designed data to be explored by more than one person simultaneously, in the same context. We’ll need to come up with new ways of supporting it technically, visually, and socially.

• New data consumption practices: We are used to quickly absorbing familiar 2D data formats. There will be a learning curve for making sense of old data in a new form.

• More intuitive interactions: There is a need to move away from hand controllers toward direct finger-to-data interactions such as those enabled by Leap Motion. The more natural the manipulation, the more users can focus on the meaning of the data they’re working with. • Public and private experience management: Multiple users need shared and separate workspaces, audio streams, What we really want: the “Tony Stark” experience with his processes, and features that allow them to think together and AI data viz system, J.A.R.V.I.S alone but side-by-side.

Leading-edge developers are building next-generation multi-user data analysis environments that hold the promise of transforming how we process information and create insight.

• Data analysis will be reinvented as we can both touch and feel • Data can get to people with insights, who don’t necessarily know new connections and sense new contexts for individual data how to access and view data inside an organization. Non- points as well as for systems-level data. We will learn how to specialists with analytic skills, who may not be able to absorb craft our own, self-directed data journeys where we determine traditional 2D data formats, will also be empowered. the viewpoint that makes the most sense to us. • Data analysis could be much faster, as we remove some of the • Embodied cognition – being able to think with our whole interface barriers to thought and analysis. bodies, moving through space – will open up new avenues for data analysis – and new kinds of data analysts as well. • Organizations who can think with data in three dimensions will have a competitive advantage. • Data organizational systems will be reinvented as data breaks free of 2D windows and can be touched. There will be a new design language for mapping 2D data objects into 3D data objects, and eventually, for creating 3d-first data experiences.

Expanding the dimensions of familiar content

Leading-edge social VR users, many who don’t consider themselves artists or coders, are turning their favorite 2D content into 3D social experiences.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 83 • Leading-edge social VR users, many of whom don’t consider themselves artists or coders, are learning professional and platform-specific creation tools in order to turn beloved movies, books, cartoons, and other content into 3D experiences for socializing Expanding the and interacting. dimensions of • They are tracking down and ripping images and familiar content designs to modify and personalize familiar content for real-life, human-scale interactions. • People are also commissioning others to code their favorite stories, art and characters into their social VR home worlds and avatar personas.

LADY EIGHT | 27 | HOTEL MANAGER | SAN DIEGO, USA

Lady Eight splits her free time between social online games and a social VR platform called Anyland. There, users have in-world 3D creation tools to make avatars, objects, and areas without computer coding skills or importing from a desktop. Many creations are inspired by popular culture content - from World of Warcraft avatars to entire villages based on Star Wars worlds. In the over 500 hours she’s spent in Anyland, Lady Eight has made some close friends. One day a friend invited her to a new area he had been working on. As she landed, she saw the cover of the science-fiction book she had written, floating near a building she thought she recognized. It was her main character’s lab: “Oh my god - you read and built my book!” she cried. Inside, she found the life-sized objects, characters, and environments that had only ever existed within her own imagination; they were different but familiar. She shrunk herself down to mouse-size to look at gem details on a sword, and reverted to human scale to carry it as she climbed on the back of one of her mutant creatures. She loved the creature so much, she copied it, shrunk it to hat-size, and put it onto her avatar head.

Her friend had surprised her with a touching, meaningful gift. It was inspiring, reigniting her enjoyment of her story. Together, they continue to collaborate; it’s now a place where they can develop new details and storylines beyond her original novel.

On her desk at home, back in real life? A framed copy of herself in her new, but familiar, sci-fi world.

Lady Eight avatar in Anyland

VRC TRADERS DISCORD SERVER

• VRC Traders, a server on the Discord platform (an all-in-one voice and text chat service popular with gamers and VR explorers), helps people find coders and artists to make custom avatars and worlds for VRChat. It currently has over 3000 members and over 100 artists/coders looking for commissions. Most requests are for personalized mods of familiar characters and objects to wear as avatars or put in custom worlds.

Photo Credit: VRC Trader Discord Server RECREATING LIFE SIZE VIRTUAL SESAME STREET

• Social VR designer Graphics Monkey has recreated Sesame Street in the AnyLand platform. He painstakingly built it to scale using online fan sites, imported reference images, and a unique translucent 3D measuring grid system developed by AnyLand. The grid system helped him build the neighborhood and characters; when he turns off the grid tool, he has a true-to-life-size, virtual version of all the buildings and characters for people to explore.

Photo Credit: Recreating life size virtual Sesame St.

AVATARDZ DOMAIN

• High Fidelity lets users host domains on their own servers, where they can offer free avatars. The Avatardz domain provides a variety of familiar avatars from games and pop culture, accompanied by a prominent disclaimer sign that they’re not infringing on IP because it’s fan art, and free. The Avatardz domain is not officially sanctioned or supported by High Fidelity.

Photo Credit: Avatardz IP issue REC ROOM’S PRINCESS BRIDE PERFORMANCE

• The Rec Room platform specializes in games like soccer, paintball, and ping pong, and a rec center like a high school auditorium where people hang out in virtual cocktail and dance parties. In late 2018, 12 Rec Room enthusiasts produced what's likely the first full-length play performed in VR, based on the movie "The Princess Bride." It took them a year to prepare and practice, using the platform’s limited in- world creation tools. Rec Room developers made new tools so the troupe could raise a curtain, change costumes, change scenes, and push scenery around.

Photo Credit: Rec Room Princess Bride © 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 87 LEADING EDGE BEHAVIORS Expanding the dimensions of familiar content WHY THIS BEHAVIOR?

MOTIVATIONS AND TRENDS

• Quest for reality • Internet meme and fan fiction culture In new social VR environments, people are While most story franchises haven’t made drawn to experiences they’ve had in real life, 3D assets for easy purchase and import into including interactions with familiar content. non-proprietary platforms, internet users are accustomed to playing with images, logos, and designs with little fear of repercussions.

• Finding new friends • Making content their own Fan-fiction content is way to visually signal, find, People want to copy, mod, and personalize attract and connect with like-minded people in a familiar content, creating deeper connections virtual sea of endless worlds and avatars. through more agency and personalization.

• Democratized creation tools: User-friendly content tools that empower less tech-savvy people to create or modify avatars, objects, and environments. • Legal usage: Clear IP and trademark use rights and permissions. • Markets for franchised assets: The ability to collect or purchase legal IP 3D assets, worlds and avatars from story franchises so that people can import them into their preferred platforms. • Cross-platform import/export: Standardized content that can be exported/imported into any platform. • Branded worlds, avatars, and objects: Right now people are creating their own, but there is a clear need for high quality affordable content that uses original IP and storylines.

Student using Maya 3D program to recreate Star Wars scene for VR

Social VR users want to engage familiar content in personalized ways, and share it with others.

• Just like in other online forums, a large proportion of social VR • IP owners will need to decide to allow or prevent fan art activity will involve familiar content that has until now only usage. been available in windowed, 2D environments. • IP owners can create new genres of immersive and social • There will be growing demand for high quality 3D content that interactions that allow people to step into the stories and can be experienced in social VR. worlds they love. They should develop strategies for 3D-ifying selected content. • As they do currently, fans will create new types of immersive and social interactions that go well beyond the original • Beyond recreating known stories and characters in social VR authors’ intentions. platforms, what “VR first” stories and worlds will become popular and how will the stories and themes be different than those created for traditional media?

Earning Money Creating Custom Avatars, blog post: April 2018: https://ryanschultz.com/2018/04/27/vrchat/

Real IP issues in VR, Jan 2017: http://www.ip-watch.org/2017/05/01/real-ip-issues-surface-virtual-world/

Blizzard copyright issue with parody magazine, Feb 2017: https://www.pcgamer.com/the-overwatch-playboy-parody-playwatch- magazine-has-been-shut-down-by-a-copyright-claim/

High Fidelity IP issues, April 2018: https://forums.highfidelity.com/t/intellectual-property-and-copyright-issues-in-social-vr-spaces- virtual-worlds/14080

Intro to VRChat avatars and VRC Traders commissions

Why VRChat and High Fidelity are the most popular SVR, because they give people the ability to import creations...andmany are inspired by familiar content

VRchat and familiar character avatars

Re-inventing audience experience

People are attending live VR events, participating in traditional audience formats and exploring new ones that are impossible or too expensive in real life.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 92 • Leading-edge users are going into social VR platforms to attend live events with groups of friends and strangers alike. Some of the events take place simultaneously in the real and virtual world (like a basketball game), while others happen only in VR. • They are watching live and archived sports games, Re-inventing performances, media, and attending workshops and audience religious services. experience • They are having traditional audience interactions, like watching games from the sidelines. But they are also getting new experiences even better than real life - like sitting in a front row seat, being on stage or on the field, walking around inside a virtual artwork, or attending events with friends no matter where they are in the real world.

NICK | 19 | STUDENT | BERLIN, GERMANY

Nick’s parents bought him a Vive VR system in 2017, mostly for gaming. But as a music lover, he was excited to discover a new VR concert platform called The Wave VR.

Nick’s first social VR concert was the British electronic musician Imogen Heap, who performed at 4am Berlin time (he drank some energy drinks to stay awake). Once inside The Wave VR he met people from America, Brazil, Germany and Japan. There were multiple instances of the show happening at the same time, each with 20 audience members, and he moved freely throughout the venue so he always had a good view. Even more amazing? The app and the show were both free.

As the concert began, Nick found himself in the middle of a virtual forest. The forest slowly transformed into a Victorian building with an elaborate chandelier made of energy particles that rhythmically throbbed. Imogen soon appeared in an avatar made of energy particles, and as the show went on, her avatar changed size, broke into pieces that rained down on the audience, and reformed into a normal size. After her performance of 25 mins, he was automatically sent back out into the public area.

To Nick’s surprise, the virtual “after party” was as good as the show. That’s when he got to talk over the performance with other audience members and collect hidden virtual coins that he traded for pulsing light sticks. The light sticks beamed strands of light connecting him to people nearby – a fun new way to play and socialize. And with a special “trip” object, shaped like a small globe, he could share a private, two-person 90-second interactive psychedelic visual experiences that only the two of them could see.

Nick spent about half an hour meeting folks, collecting coins, and trying out the shared social toys and trips before saying goodbye to his new friends, pulling off his VR headset, and collapsing into bed.

Nick in Wave VR

VR CHURCH

• VR Church was founded 2016 by Pastor DJ Soto in the social VR platform AltspaceVR. Pastor Soto chose AltspaceVR because it supports the widest range of VR devices, making it as accessible as possible. Multi-faith services happen every Sunday and include a sermon, prayers, and Christian music videos on a large virtual screen. He’s also experimenting with “experiential sermons,” leading the congregation through virtual environments like the Sea of Galilee. Half the congregation is shut-ins or disabled people who are now able to attend services as embodied avatars. Pastor Soto lives with his family in San Diego, CA Photo Credit: VR Church on AltSpace MUSEUM OF OTHER REALITIES

• Museum of Other Realities (MOR) is an invitation-only social VR art museum exhibiting a wide range of VR art from around the world. It creates new kinds of audience experiences for artistic works. You might step right into the virtual artwork through a portal or shrink yourself to explore the artwork at miniature size. The art might respond to your movements and gestures. New art is released in a public monthly gathering, where avatars can clink virtual drinks and give virtual high fives with a satisfying slap. MOR was created by VR developer Colin Northway, based in Vancouver, Canada

Photo Credit: Museum of Other Realities exhibit hall © 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 95 LEADING EDGE BEHAVIORS Re-inventing audience experience EMERGING SOLUTIONS

OCULUS VENUES

• Oculus Venues lets users attend live events such as concerts, stand-up comedy, sporting events (MLB, NBA and pro soccer), and watch movies from Lionsgate Films. You can sit with strangers or meet up with Facebook friends. Venues works with low cost Oculus headsets like the Go and GearVR. While most social VR platforms cap their experiences at 30 or 40 people for performance reasons, Venues supports rows of 28 seats, sectioned into curved 4-person pods, for a grand total of 252 people per section - a full crowd experience. Some events, like live theater, place the virtual audience by positioning a VR camera next to a live audience in the actual theater. Oculus is owned by Facebook. Photo Credit: Oculus Venues pro soccer match HIGH FIDELITY “LOAD TESTS”

• High Fidelity load tests are scheduled events in the popular social VR platform, designed to push the limits of server capacity and see how many avatars can simultaneously join a single virtual location. A load test in October 2018 supported over 400 simultaneous users, and in November 2018, a VR festival supported over 500. High Fidelity can host large meetings, live music events, conferences, festivals, and large classrooms. The company is based in San Francisco, CA and has raised over $33M in funding since being founded in 2014 by Second Life CEO and founder Philip Rosedale.

Photo Credit: High Fidelity load test Oct 2018 © 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 96 LEADING EDGE BEHAVIORS Re-inventing audience experience WHY THIS BEHAVIOR?

MOTIVATIONS AND TRENDS

• Expanding real-time audiences • Amplifying the sense of participation in live events Virtual events are a powerful way to expand the Live events provide a focal point for people across time audience for performers, preachers, educators, zones, creating a unique sense of urgency, excitement and others who rely on live events as their and connection. Engagement in immersive experiences primary medium. is deeper than watching a video on a computer screen.

• Expanding real-time experiences • Reducing cost of live event experiences Social VR lets event creators build environments, High quality, immersive entertainment is very objects and interactions that are too expensive or expensive. Virtual events allow audience members to not possible in real life. access close-up perspectives they could never afford in real life, such as being on the playing field or stage.

• Capacity for larger groups: Social VR server tech that can support larger numbers of simultaneous users • User safety: ID management and anti-harassment tech and policies to ensure safe, comfortable experiences in new public spaces • Wider VR accessibility: Lower cost VR hardware and body tracking systems to allow more users to be fully immersed • Virtual fashion options: Marketplaces for spectator avatars, costumes, and accessories • Wider range of events: More performers and promoters developing VR-specific experiences and easier content development tools.

Next VR

Audience experience and media consumption are ripe for transformation, as people seek VIP access to all kinds of live events and archived content.

• More content of all kinds, both live and archived, will be • High quality, “better than real” social VR audience experience could consumed in social VR environments. both threaten or expand ticket sales for all kinds of live events such as movie theaters, games, and concerts.

• Virtual performances will bring together audiences and • All live events could amplify their sales, reach, and impact with parallel performers who would never connect, in experiences that social VR events. aren’t possible in real life - driving entirely new genres of spectator experience and sales. • People might spend more time at home, going out less frequently into the real world, with significant social and psychological impacts for themselves and others. • Content will need to be reformatted for social VR environments, including support for cross-reality, cross- • In social VR environments, human performers, athletes, and platform communication. presenters will have the opportunity to collaborate with automated or non-human virtual characters.

Setting up marketplaces in social VR

Leading-edge users and developers are creating virtual p2p marketplaces accessible from webpages on the internet and in-world, and in fully immersive 3D retail environments.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 100 • Without necessarily having a background in programming or advanced 3D graphics, people are designing and setting up virtual storefronts. • People are sharing, selling and purchasing virtual objects (avatars, accessories, clothing, furniture, and Setting up entire worlds), as well as programming scripts (in-world marketplaces actions) and other services. in social VR • Leading-edge users and developers, often building on experiences in 2D social worlds like Second Life, are creating virtual p2p marketplaces that are accessible from both traditional and in-world web pages as well as from fully immersive 3D retail environments that support trade, advertisement and financial transactions.

CHRISTINA “XAOSPRINCESS” | 40’s | ARTIST AND FILMMAKER | MUNICH, GERMANY

XaosPrincess is a creative filmmaker and VR artist who has spent more than 2000 hours in High Fidelity and is a well-known user and creator in the community.

Using tools like Google’s Tiltbrush and Gravity Sketch, XaosPrincess has designed a collection of wearables, including a skirt, hat, top, bracelet and necklace, all available on the High Fidelity Marketplace, an online store for digital assets. For now she’s advertising mostly on social media and YouTube, but in the future she plans to promote XaosPrincess as an entire brand.

To register her goods on the Marketplace, she submitted her collection to High Fidelity’s Digital Asset Registry. The High Fidelity team assessed the originality of the designs and their technical specifications. Once approved, she received a certificate and the asset appeared on the Marketplace. People can buy her designs by visiting the Marketplace webpage while they’re in the real world, or by pulling up the virtual Marketplace tablet while they’re in-world. Payment is made using High Fidelity’s proprietary cryptocurrency, High Fidelity Coin (HFC).

Eventually, XaosPrincess plans to open her own storefront on her own High Fidelity domain, XaoticA, where people can visit, hangout, and buy her clothes and jewelry directly in a life-sized retail environment. By using her own domain she will be in full control of her inventory and can build out her own brand and experiences without having to conform to anyone else’s guidelines.

XaosPrincess shopping in High Fidelity (above); her VR design collection on the High Fidelity Marketplace (below).

HIGH FIDELITY’S AVATAR ISLAND

• Avatar Island is a fully immersive, social VR retail environment that uses High Fidelity Coin. Its stores carry all kinds of wearables created by users from the High Fidelity community. Just as in a physical store, you can pick clothing and accessories off the shelves and try them on in front of a virtual mirror. And if you try to walk out with an item without paying, it simply disappears.

Photo Credit: High Fidelity’s Avatar Island

ADMIX

• London-based Admix is a new advertising option for VR platforms. The company partners with High Fidelity to help people drag and drop ads directly from the High Fidelity Marketplace into their own virtual worlds. The user is in full control of the size, position and content of ads, and gets a share of the revenue when people visit their virtual space and see the in-world ads. Admix takes pride in not using personal data, but instead suggests ads based on contextual data from the virtual environment.

AMAZON SUMERIAN CREATION TOOL

• Amazon Sumerian is a hardware-agnostic application creator for XR formats (including VR, AR, mobile and web). It helps people create immersive virtual worlds and hosts directly from the web browser without “requiring any specialized programming or 3D graphics expertise.” With Sumerian, it’s relatively easy to create scenes and landscapes, as well as import 3D objects and script the logic behind how they behave. Virtual hosts can be designed to speak multiple languages, help guide people, interact and converse. Photo Credit: Amazon Sumerian

PAYSCOUT VR COMMERCE SUPPORT

• Payscout is a global payment processing provider headquartered in Sherman Oaks, CA. In 2017 they launched Payscout VR Commerce, an application that helps people browse, shop and buy products from within an immersive VR experience - and get them delivered directly to their real-world home. One of their first collaborations was with online retailer merchant Body Language Sportswear. With a Google Cardboard headset, the user can visit a virtual Body Language Sportswear store and explore products by rotating and viewing them in greater detail. With the complete shopping experience happening inside the VR world, the user never has to remove their VR headset to input payment or shipping information. Photo Credit: Payscout Media YouTube channel © 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 104 LEADING EDGE BEHAVIORS Setting up marketplaces in social VR WHY THIS BEHAVIOR?

MOTIVATIONS AND TRENDS

• Market advantage • Lack of content People are trying to gain first mover advantage To support rich and diverse VR experiences, in new markets. As of now, anyone can become virtual worlds need sharable, user-generated a designer or creator and sell their 3D assets. content. Because of the small user base and The market is up for grabs. technical challenges, there is still a dearth of quality content, much less content that can be bought and shared.

• Brand engagement • Financial incentives Traditional brands are exploring the benefits of “VR is expected to grow into a trillion dollar using VR to track and analyze purchase industry for buying and selling virtual goods behaviors to sell more items virtually, compared with 20,000 transactions per second.” to physical stores or 2D online shopping. – Philip Rosedale, CEO High Fidelity.

• Standardization and infrastructure: There is a need to standardize the creation, ownership, trading, and cross- platform integration of virtual objects. • Commissions and donations: People want easier ways to commission virtual assets, services, and scripts as well as to offer donation-based assets. • IP protection for designers: There is already infrastructure to help track ownership of virtual assets, but creators require better tools to prevent their designs being stolen, copied or altered by other users or brands. • Tactile influences: You are more likely to buy things that you’ve touched. Haptics in VR is still under-developed, but people want tactile feedback when shopping in VR.

Alibaba VR Shopping Experience

Social VR marketplaces are opening up a new world of embodied digital trade, transactions, advertisements and brand engagement.

• Larger companies and brands investing in VR today are mostly • New job opportunities will emerge as people get paid to design focusing on solo experiences, with simple virtual assistants for and sell virtual objects and scripts. Many traditional retail jobs guidance. The true potential of social VR marketplaces lies in could be transferred into virtual marketplaces, such as store embodied, human-to-human engagement that blends the clerks and bank tellers. There will be a wide range of new jobs as convenience of digital, human persuasiveness, and the well, such as real-time VR object crafting or virtual world presence of VR. vacation guides.

• With a growing virtual marketplace and the emergence of • Major brands should create small pilots to explore the potential technologies such as 3D printing, there will be a cross-reality of social VR environments, such as product placement, branded exchange between digital and physical objects. Virtual clothing worlds and experiences, co-creation with leading-edge users, can be sent to a seamstress for a physical copy and real 3D and even new genres of emboded, social buying and selling. scans can be imported into VR for lifelike avatars or objects.

Clip from Interview with Xaos Princess by Technology Artist: https://ryanschultz.com/2018/05/14/an-interview-with-high-fidelity-content-creator-xaosprincess/

Bridging siloed metaverses

Leading-edge developers are building tools that create portals and links between siloed social VR platforms.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 109 • The vision for a fully interconnected “metaverse,” where virtual worlds are linkable and connected, is Bridging siloed hindered by the siloed status of most social VR metaverses platforms, which limit users within walled gardens. • Leading-edge developers are building tools to create portals and links between social VR platforms.

MIGUEL | 27 | ARTIST AND WEB DEVELOPER | LOS ANGELES

Miguel, originally trained as a painter, taught himself enough about computer security to get a job in that field. Living in LA, he was exposed to VR through his friends and the programmer community. He began experimenting with digital art in VR – at first with programs like Quill and Tiltbrush – and taught himself to develop as well. Miguel’s art background directly influenced his interest in VR: I “always wanted to work larger: life size, bigger canvas, murals...VR is the biggest canvas of all,” he says. He’s especially excited about building collaborative virtual spaces.

As a creator, Miguel wants to make and share art in VR, with other artists. He’s frustrated by the limitations of self-contained “walled gardens” that only allow users to travel between worlds within a single platform. Using Web VR software, Miguel is building multi-user workspaces that nest virtual worlds within a larger platform. He creates portals, or bridges, to other platforms, such as virtual “vending machines” that let you buy objects and services from other virtual worlds and platforms, without leaving the world you’re in. Miguel regularly livestreams videos of the collaborative work sessions via Twitch, so others can view and participate from their desktop computers even if they don’t have VR equipment.

Janus VR portal

WebVR API

• WebVR is an experimental Java API released by Mozilla and Google in 2016 that makes it possible to experience VR in your web browser. The goal is to make it easier for everyone to access VR. WebVR users can join social VR worlds from all types of devices, including low cost mobile headsets, high end VR headsets, and mobile or desktop browsers

JanusVR

• JanusVR reinvents what it’s like to browse the web by displaying content in virtual spaces interconnected by “portals” - links or tunnels that users can pass through. As co-founder James McCrae says: “Instead of a piece of text that you click that gives you this discrete jump from one page to another, we thought of this portal, where it’s almost like a tear in space. It seamlessly connects two pages that are adjacent.” Janus is based in San Mateo, CA.

THE VIRTUAL REALITY BLOCKCHAIN ALLIANCE (VRBA)

• Founded in 2018 by High Fidelity and JanusVR, this consortium of organizations works to enable people, property, and money to move freely between virtual worlds. The VRBA believes VR will be used on a global scale for entertainment, work, communication, and commerce. The Alliance establishes best practices, protocols, and standards to support that transition and to establish and defend the rights of VR users.

THE SKETCHFAB + MOZILLA HUBS CLUBHOUSE

• A design competition sponsored by Sketchfab – the leading online resource for digital 3D assets, and Mozilla – the creators of Hubs, an online VR platform that aims to let anyone become a creator of worlds, in fall 2018. The winners enabled a nearly-seamless “drag-n-drop” feature to move assets from Sketchfab’s website to the 3D environment at Hubs - one of the clearest existing examples of moving assets between virtual platforms.

MOTIVATIONS AND TRENDS

• Lowering the barrier to exploration • Personal drive to thrive People are in discovery and exploration mode in Within a true bridged metaverse, creators will be social VR environments. Freer movement between able to reach wider audiences. Leading-edge platforms opens up access to more content, more developers are building tools and developing the experiences, and more interactions, without the cost space out of a personal desire to see the of setting up entirely new identities and avatars. medium thrive.

• Reducing duplicated efforts • Creative collaboration It takes a lot of time to build a new avatar or Just like the web itself, people seek an ultimate design a world. People want to maintain valuable collaborative environment - a virtual space 3D assets and transport them from one where they can work with anyone, any tools, and “metaverse” to the next. any virtual medium, and display content across every platform.

• Consistent ownership between metaverses: When people buy, create, or trade virtual assets, they need ways to irrefutably claim ownership over it so their work isn’t lost between platforms. • Drag-and-drop transfership: People need to be able to transfer their own valuable assets to other virtual identities or platforms with ease. They want to be able to move assets with a natural, simple action - akin to drag-and-drop. • Cohesive strategy from platform owners: Without the consent of the largest SVR platforms, there will be no bridging of metaverses. There is a need for more transparency and coherent strategy from leaders in the social VR space.

JanusVR cross reality portal

Social VR developers are creating ways to easily move themselves and their things across different software platforms, virtual worlds, and experiences.

• Just as early internet tech needed HTML to create interactivity, • As virtual worlds become repositories of information, virtual VR worlds need links to create interactivity and enable objects and community interactions, we will be build 3D trade discovery across platforms and worlds. and cultural exchange – but only if we can transport data, objects and people between platforms. • Transferable identity would allow standardized preferences across worlds. For example, if you don’t want jumpscares, • Standardization and interoperability will be critical for ads, or interactions with strangers, your identity would block professional use. those automatically.

Streaming into the wider mediascape

People are broadcasting their activities in social VR worlds into 2D social media channels.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 117 • Leading-edge content creators are using social VR platforms to control embodied avatars they stream to people outside of VR. They broadcast themselves hanging out, flirting, dancing, building, and playing with other avatars in virtual worlds. • Some are streaming to broadcast platforms like Twitch Streaming into and YouTube to build followings and make money. the wider Fans can view them on the 2D web or join the social mediascape VR platform to interact in full VR. Some streamers even charge for immersive VR “meet and greet” sessions. • Others are streaming into video chat apps like Facebook Messenger or Apple iChat, connecting their friends to 2D representations of 3D virtual world experiences.

“VTUBERS” IN JAPAN

• vTubers are a new type of streaming media celebrity in Japan. They use VR to embody and animate their (mostly) female anime characters (aka “Lolis”). For a premium price, viewers with VR systems can have a full immersive “meet and greet” session with their favorite vTuber. Kizuna AI is currently the largest vTuber, with more than 2 million YouTube followers. These “VR influencers” have become so popular they are being hired to appear in Japanese TV ads. Japanese mobile app developer, Gree, is investing $88M over the next 2 years to develop new vTuber talent and technologies.

Photo Credit: Kizuna AI YouTube channel FACEBOOK SPACES

• Spaces is Facebook’s social VR platform. People go into private rooms with up to three friends to hangout, play with costumes and virtual items, share media from their Facebook walls, and watch immersive 3D animations. Spaces helps you personalize your avatar and animate custom facial expressions for non-verbal communication. You can also place Messenger video chat calls from inside VR to friends who are not in VR. The caller from Spaces appears as an animated avatar on the call, while the Messenger friend appears as a live video of their real self - a cross-reality video chat.

MICROSOFT’S MIXER LIVESTREAMING

• Microsoft’s Mixer, launched in 2016, supports livestreaming video from games and VR experiences. Mixer’s SDK reduces latency of live video streams (allowing better real-time interaction with fans), integrates micropayment systems for “tipping,” and incentivizes followers by rewarding them with tokens for watching and engaging. Microsoft has made big investments into VR and owns the popular social VR platform AltspaceVR.

Photo Credit: Mixer

IKINEMA MOTION CAPTURE

• Ikinema is a a realtime motion capture and animation software that lets users control high quality VR avatars with their VR system. Many high end vTubers are using this software for more precise physical control of their avatars, enabling things like realistic dancing (a popular activity for vTubers). Ikinema is a private company founded in 2006 and based in Guildford, UK.

Photo Credit: Ikinema website

HEYIMBEE | 25 | GAMER/YOUTUBE STREAMER | SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

In January, 2018 popular game streamer HeylmBee noticed the potential of social VR when she saw a viral video meme from VRChat, called “Ugandan Knuckles.” Swarms of VR users, all wearing the same classic video game character avatar, were chasing other avatars shouting “Do you know the way?” This strange group behavior was based on a collection of obscure internet memes that became famous when the video went viral. The first social VR video to go viral (26M views as of Nov, 2018), it introduced the world to VRChat and social VR in general. HeyImBee saw social VR as a new genre of live streaming, and as a way to create new characters, new content, new audiences and new revenue streams. She started streaming her VRChat adventures - and her followers soared to over 1.6 million subscriptions. VRChat, the most populated social VR platform,is known for its edgy, outrageous, bordering on offensive behavior. HeyImBee’s videos contain clips of her encounters with the strange and varied characters of VRChat. As a woman, she is often harassed, which she artfully deflects - but even this makes interesting video content. Her most popular YouTube video - “do NOT sleep in VRChat”- has over 14M views. Today, while she occasionally streams from other games, she has a become a pioneer in bringing VR content to 2D platforms; her YouTube channel is primarily focused on VRChat adventures.

MOTIVATIONS AND TRENDS

• MoCap on the cheap • Virtual reality TV Streaming from social VR allows livestreamers to Social VR streamers can easily produce video create and control virtual characters and explore a content in virtual worlds that has many of the wide range of interesting virtual worlds and characters elements of traditional Reality TV, but with new and without building their own sets and costumes. unique elements, aesthetics and abilities: colorful characters and locations, strange situations, and the unpredictability of interacting with strangers.

• Expanding audiences • Social media 2.0 Social VR users want to draw users to their platforms People who make their living by monetizing to make them more fun and financially viable. streams on social media are attracted to social Innovating ways to stream from their platforms helps VR as the next media platform, a way to increase them reach people who see VR only as a novelty. the stickiness of their content via deeper immersion, add more variety to their streams, and expand the opportunities for revenue.

• Payments: Integration of micropayment and tipping systems to make it easier for VR streamers to generate revenue. • 2D/VR integration: More features within social VR platforms that make it easier for VR streamers to stream and for fans to connect via non-VR platforms. • VR hardware: Cheaper, better, easier VR headsets to increase adoption of VR for both producers and viewers. • Talent: People need to explore more creative ways to use social VR, to expand genres and develop new programming.

As people spend more time in virtual worlds they will want more ways to share those experiences outside of VR. Creative social VR users and platform developers will expand ways to connect, stream, link and embed virtual experiences into other media and communications networks.

• Our media will increasingly combine digital 2D and digital • Live streaming platforms like Youtube and Twitch are the testbed 3D elements. for cross-reality media offerings, and for popularizing social VR more broadly. • More 2D content will be consumed in 3D environments and vice versa. • People will participate in social VR worlds with a variety of • Social VR celebrities and influencers will lead the way in devices and entry points, not just from in-headset. They will developing new genres of immersive and cross-reality control virtual avatars from their phones or desktop webcams. media. They are the ones with an incentive to stay ahead of This may eventually change the features and UI of these devices the pack via novel content. as they need to scan and map our faces, micro-expressions, gaze, and so on.

© 2018 Institute for the Future. All rights reserved. SR-2063 | www.iftf.org 124 DESIGN FRAMEWORKS In the early launch days of Social VR platforms, much of the focus has been on setting up technical systems attracting an initial user In the early launch days of Social VR platforms much of the focus for companiesbase. creatingAs the morethe platforms fundamental has been technology on setting up challenges the technical begin to be systemssolved, to support virtual their world virtual creators worlds andcan attracting expand theirtheir initial focus user into refining base.and As theevolving more fundamental user experience. technology challenges begin to be solved, virtual world creators can begin to expand their focus into refiningDesigners and evolving are theirasking user questions experience like: design. How do we want users to feel Designerswhen ask they questions enter our like: world? How do What we want kinds users of tosocial feel when interactions they do we enterwant our world? to support, What kinds encourage, of social interactionsor discourage? do we Whatwant to are the new support, encourage, or discourage? What are the new design decisions we needdesign to consider? decisions What we kind need of models,to consider? archetypes What and kind structures of models, can wearchetypes utilize when and designing structures something can we as complexuse when as designinga shared virtual something world?as complex as a shared virtual world? The following frameworks are a few prominent examples of the deeper thinkingHere that we is sharegoing into three how different to approach approaches the design toof shareddesigning social shared VR platformssocial VR and platforms experiences. and experiences: a Hierarchy of Being, Metaphors of Presence, and three Criteria for Social VR.

The Hierarchy of Being: Embodying Our Virtual Selves - Oculus Connect 5 In this keynote talk from the 2018 Oculus Connect conference, VR experts Isabel Tewes and Yelena Rachitsky explain their framework for creating effective embodied experiences in VR. They describe a “hierarchy of being” in which users must first feel a sense of self, then an orientation to the world and objects around them, and then begin to embody social interactions with others.

Metaphors of Presence: An Experiential Design Framework for VR & AR - Kent Bye Kent Bye, VR researcher and producer of the Voices of VR Podcast, presents his framework for the four types of presence possible in VR: Active, Mental/Social, Embodied, and Emotional presence, and explains the interplay between them.

WITH VENUES, OCULUS AND FACEBOOK PUSH SOCIAL VR INTO NEW TERRITORY - Wired - Peter Rubin Wired’s Peter Rubin reports on Facebook’s approach to social VR:

“If you want to think about social VR like Facebook and Oculus do, then imagine a set of three criteria.

There’s synchronicity, whether or not people are experiencing something virtual at the same time.

There’s symmetry, whether or not people in a space are in VR. (Facebook Spaces' ability to place a video Messenger call between VR and IRL, so that one caller is human and the other is an avatar, is an example of asymmetric social VR.)

And then there’s familiarity, whether or not the people in VR know each other.”

Institute for the Future January 2019