Building Utopia in VR
Mindful Realities Makeathon: Team Unicorn
This proposal is part of the We Make Realities Makeathon in Seattle, Washington on April 1 (no joking). The goal of this Makeathon was to craft a social VR experience, which ideally addresses abuse and negativity in social VR.
PART 1: Who are you?
Greg Bilsland is a graduate of the University of Washington’s digital media. He currently streams VR regularly on Twitch at twitch.tv/dvylootz and is on Twitter at @gregbilsland.
David Kenedy is an editorial and fine art photographer from Richmond, Virginia currently working on portraiture in spirituality applications in VR. www.davidkenedy.com Instagram @daybid_kenedy
Emily Wong is an undergraduate student studying Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington. Medium medium.com/@ejwong
Siddharth is a developer at Microsoft working on WebVR. Twitter @siddharthraja.
Unicole Unicron is a Popstar Cult Leader with a strong desire to change the world for the better.
PART 2: What problem do you want to address?
Confidence about the future is low. According to Pew, Americans generally believe their children’s situation will be worse than that of their parents. Virtual reality needs to provide a collaborative, optimistic space for creating a vision of future civilization.
Why is this problem important to your team?
We are a group of Millennials who want to be inspired. We believe social without purpose isn’t an effective or inspirational tool for building community. People should have a reason to participate in social VR ; it should provide more than a chat room. VR has the potential to build empathy and community, but it needs a framework to do so.
PART 3: Summarize the journey.
We are designing an experience for tech-savvy, disenfranchised Millennials who want to work toward building an optimistic future. The experience we’re building is a civics simulation designed to facilitate collaboration and build positive online relationships and communities. The simulation provides activities which, through collective action, advance the city’s overall success and preparedness for the future. For example, by planting trees, the communities contributes to the city’s beautification. Or, by attending a city council meeting, they advance a measure of the city’s justice system.
Why did you choose this person?
We can all relate.
Outline who this person is. What are they comfortable with?
They are comfortable…
- Communicating auditorily online
- Creating an online avatar/persona
- Spending free time on simulated activities
- Volunteering
- Having new experiences
PART 4: Outline empathy and perspective needs across the journey.
This social, VR experience simulates the activity of building a futuristic city in collaboration with others.
Physical Orientation:
When you first enter the experience, you arrive in a house. You have a set of belongings and space you can personalize.
Proximity:
In the middle of the room, so 3-5 feet away from the walls and objects.
Physical and Emotional Reactions:
You normally have the ability to interact in the world through voip and speech to text. In larger social situations, a leader or organizer has the ability to mute or unmute speakers.
Interactions with Users/Characters:
You are able to communicate with neighbors or others in the city. You can also send written messages or leave audio messages.
Directional Cues:
Emojis, normal signifiers like writing and symbols, timeline of game, parameters of your job, when you pause, an in-game character appears and communicates to you.
Visual Field:
You should have a HUD-like interface that can be brought up through either the peripheries of your vision or through a handheld, tracked object like a Vive or Oculus controller. You have 360 degree field of vision. Included in your HUD is a schedule, a map of events, current activities or instructions, your city’s progress, and any current milestones. A person should also be able to log their activities.
Readability:
You should have a history log of recent system and personal messages, as well as a list of current contacts who are online.
Physical Comfort:
Each person should have a set of activities or a role in which they’re involved.
Motion and Gestures:
You do not need a controller to participate in passive activities like attending events. To participate in active work, you need a controller.
PART 5: Craft your experience and learnings.
The experience we designed gives each person a role in contributing to a futuristic city, which they can improve through performing activities related to their role and through general positive interactions. Once a user arrives in the simulation, they are introduced to community moderators who introduce them to the community as well as an in-game character that can help familiarize them with the available activities to advance the city’s progress. To some degree, this is a social experiment in collective collaboration—think Second Life, but instead of contributing to your own home’s advancement, you’re contributing to a broader growth. The success of your and the other participants activities are measured in terms of city metrics like:
- Collection of resources (food, water)
- Energy production
- Government and justice
- Infrastructure
- Education
- Beautification
- Community health and wellness
Participants in the experience will be rewarded based on recruiting other people, and successful cities can spawn other additional cities to improve their own success. Ultimately, the goal is for people to be inspired by their experience in this VR simulation and to take their civics action into the real world. We see additional options included:
- Access by felons/juvenile delinquents. This becomes a safe space for people with a criminal history to gain experience being a valuable contributing member of a community in an environment that’s safe for everyone.
- Crafting and transaction. We want to encourage positive relationships through rewarding others with an in-game currency that could be exchanged toward personalization (avatars, skins, objects) or general community contributions (beautification, etc.)
- Randomized starting conditions. Starting wealth or circumstances might be randomized, providing different perspectives on wealth and social circumstance.
Considerations will also need to be given toward timezone and language to ensure community participation.
