Makers of The Metaverse: Richard Cheah Of Streamline Media Group On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t lose sight of what you are in the industry for. We are making experiences, tools, and technologies not just for entertainment but also for the enrichment of people’s lives. So, whenever you are stuck on a problem or feel that you are hitting a low, use that as a guiding principle.

The Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Industries are so exciting. What is coming around the corner? How will these improve our lives? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? Aside from entertainment, how can VR or AR help work or other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewing Richard Cheah of Streamline Studios.

Richard Cheah is the Managing Director for Streamline Studios Malaysia, a veteran video game and Metaverse development studio. In the past decade, Richard has worked on some of today’s most recognizable games including Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, and Oddworld. He is passionate about training leaders and building agile teams who can approach projects creatively. Currently, Richard oversees more than 200 developers in the company’s Southeast Asia headquarters based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?

My father was a diplomat, so growing up we would move countries every 3–4 years. I’ve lived in Taiwan, Romania, and Zimbabwe. This helped shaped who I am today as I was immersed in different cultures and met many different people.

After completing high school in Zimbabwe I came back to Malaysia to pursue a degree in Medical Bioscience at Monash University Malaysia. After my internship and spending a year on a research project, I decided that academia was not for me and looked to pursue a different career. It was at this point that I was referred to Streamline Studios by a friend and joined as a Junior Project Manager in 2013.

Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

The Dune saga by Frank Herbert was a series of books that had a significant impact on me. I read the first book in the series during middle school, then came back to finish the series as an adult. The series goes in depth into the meaning of what it means to be human as well as the roles leaders play in society.

Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.

There is not any one story or event that drove me to pursue a career in the games and tech industry. It was a combination of my experiences that drew me here. For example, using simple 3D glasses for the first time totally transformed my interaction with books and movies. Or seeing how video games imagined advanced AR technology in the future made me think “wouldn’t it be cool for us to have this in real life?” I’m lucky that I get to figure that out with my team every day.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?

Working at Streamline gave me my first opportunity to work with Japanese companies and teams. I had Japanese friends and classmates while growing up so I did not think much about it. However, I soon learned that there was specific etiquette to observe, especially when doing business.

For example, the exchange of business cards has a certain procedure and method. You don’t simply hand your business card to the other person. Instead, when handing your card over you do so while holding it in both hands and with a slight bow. The same when receiving a card.

Another interesting point of etiquette I learned was that when having in-person meetings the team hosting the meeting would always be seated with their backs to the door.

Lastly, the most memorable thing I learned from the experience was the importance of the order of names on email recipients. Oftentimes, when sending or replying to emails, you would not think much and just hit reply all and or put everyone you want into the “To” field. However, as I quickly learned this is not the best way to go about it, especially with clients from Japan. After my first few emails to our clients, a member of our Japanese translation team approached me and told me to be more careful when sending out emails. I was initially confused as the emails had been checked and translated by the team, so I did not know what I was doing wrong. My colleague then elaborated that I was being too careless whereby I was including everyone in the “to” field, even members of my team that I wanted to keep in the loop. He said that in professional communications it is best that you keep the “To” field strictly to members of the other team and even then only those that you directly address in the email. Everyone else would fall into the “CC” field. On top of that, if you had multiple members of the other team in the “To” or “CC” field, it was important to ensure that you arranged them by descending rank of seniority.

Understanding and being respectful of other cultures is something that I’m fortunate enough to experience regularly at Streamline. Sometimes I get it wrong, but thankfully I’ve had empathic team members and partners who are happy to help along the way.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I was coordinating a meeting between people in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. It took me multiple tries of sending out the invite and getting rejections before one of the participants told me I had the date/time wrong. It seems small, but I learned through this experience that different countries move on or off daylight savings times at different points in the year (this doesn’t happen in Malaysia). From then on, I stopped manually try to calculate dates/times anymore. I always use a timezone converter, just to make sure I’m not calling someone at 3:00am!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

This is a tough question. I agree that I certainly would not be where I am today without a lot of help from many people in my life who either pushed or pulled me along the way. If I really had to pick, then I am grateful to my parents who gave me the chance to pursue this career.

Video games are not a well-established industry in Malaysia and generally, most parents do not view it as a viable or financially stable career path. To some people, it actually holds a negative connotation as they associate video games with gambling games. However, when I told my parents that I was no longer going to pursue academia and that I wanted to try out a job at Streamline they did not oppose it. From my early days at Streamline, they knew how much time I was putting into the job and they could see that I enjoyed what I was doing.

When I was going through some of the more stressful times of my career — whether it was because of tough deadlines or handling challenging clients — my mother would share her own experiences of when she used to work at a creative agency, and it would always help me feel that things weren’t so bad.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We are always working on exciting new projects at Streamline. That’s one of the great things about working here. Not only are we working with our partners on their projects, but we also produce original games and products.

Without going into too many specifics what I can say is that we are working on Metaverse projects that will break the usual game mold and will bring these experiences to a wider audience and demographic.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?

What most excites me, is the ability for people to work and collaborate in a more immersive environment. For example, being able to view and modify a scene for a virtual production in VR, much like you would walk around and reposition things on a physical set. However, VR and real-time game engines, like Unreal, allow this type of collaboration between teams that are physically apart, so changes can be made faster and cheaper.

The portability of headsets, like the Microsoft Hololens 2 and Oculus Quest 2, will also mean that we are reaching that point where the barrier to entry is getting lower for everyday people to use these tools. There is still a way to go, but certainly, VR/AR is not just for the “techie” anymore. You are starting to see more of them being used in professional settings.

What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?

Cost and e-waste are the top concern I have for the industry. As of right now, the cost of the hardware is quite steep so that limits the number of individuals and companies that can afford to use it. However, on the flip side, there is concern that as the hardware becomes more and more affordable, we could get a situation similar to smartphones where consumers are buying a newer version of the hardware every year or two. This ends up generating significant e-waste that will have environmental impacts further down the line. To address this, we need to rethink how the hardware and software can be made to not only make the physical devices more affordable but also last longer in the sense that hardware requirements of software don’t rapidly outpace the devices themselves.

Privacy and security is another concern that comes to mind. As with any new technology like personal computers and smart phones, people need to understand what kind of information is being recorded or shared. Most modern headsets have cameras that record your surroundings — or in the case of the Oculus/Meta products require you to link it to a Facebook account. This could open individuals and organizations to people that spy or steal sensitive information. To combat this, regulations need to be put in place by governments to regulate what kind of information can be requested of users, and software and hardware makers need to keep end-user security and privacy in mind when making their products.

Lastly, would be the physical safety of end users. We’ve all seen examples of where people react so strongly to what they see in VR that they harm themselves either by falling over or walking into objects in the real world. This will continue to be an issue until more people are used to the technology. Similarly, in AR or MR situations in the real-world people can get too distracted with information that it may impair their reflexes while driving, being on a construction site, etc. Again, this will really be down to the hardware and software companies to continue to research and design their products in a way that minimizes these risks.

I think the entertainment aspects of VR, AR and MR are apparent. Can you share with our readers how these industries can help us at work?

XR technologies offer a lot of benefits in the realm of industrial training. For example, a factory could use VR to train new members of their team on how to use and maintain the bespoke pieces of equipment that could be on their production line. This would save the company time and money as they would not need to have a physical replica to train their staff with or be forced to halt production to train new staff. For trainees, it also offers them a safe environment to learn and make mistakes. Especially, in more hazardous industries.

Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?

This goes back to my story of what inspired me to get into the field. There are games that are set in the near/far future where, as the player, you can look at a vehicle and see where it is damaged, how much fuel is left, and other diagnostic data.

We are reaching the point now with VR, AR, and MR technologies where when combined with other technologies like 5G and the internet of things what used to only be possible in the realm of video game fiction can become a reality.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?

When I tell people I work in video games one of the myths that I come up against is that all we do is play games and mess around in VR all day or that it isn’t a job that requires any skill.

However, this is a challenging industry as it requires a unique mix of skills in order to ship a successful product. The teams working on games feature a high level of technical skill in terms of programming and engineering, an understanding of hardware and software, the creative mindset and skills to create visually appealing experiences, and also an understanding of human psychology to make engaging and enjoyable experiences. Very few other industries need that type of mix of people, which is what makes this a career I love.

What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

Understand that this industry is going to be a challenging one and that projects will push you as a team player. Very rarely will any one individual have all the skills required to ship a product. So, you need to be open to ideas and be able to communicate in a firm but fair manner to the people you work with.

This industry is a marathon, not a sprint. Technologies continually improve and we find new ways to engage with users. So, you need to keep looking at what other people are doing and staying up to date with the latest developments and your own skills.

Don’t lose sight of what you are in the industry for. We are making experiences, tools, and technologies not just for entertainment but also for the enrichment of people’s lives. So, whenever you are stuck on a problem or feel that you are hitting a low, use that as a guiding principle.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Food security and food wastage have long been a personal interest. I was inspired to join the science field originally because I wanted to help contribute to technologies that ensure better food security for at-risk communities.

I want people to start thinking about how much they are consuming, where the products they consume come from, and how those products can affect the food security of everyone. This isn’t just limited to food products; for example, the manufacture of things like our computers and phones does put a strain on resources like fresh water. If each person is a bit more cognizant about things like this, it will go a long way toward better resource management on a global scale.

We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

Someone I would have liked to have a conversation with over breakfast or lunch would be Frank Herbert. It would have been a great experience to speak with him on the topics of conservation and what it means to be human.

Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!