"The Conversation Around Content" is a new blog post from Linden Lab veteran Jim "Babbage" Purbrick, who recently left a leadership role at Oculus to spend more time supporting XR, along with many other personal pursuits. Lucky for us, he's also publishing a series of blog posts that crystalize what he's learned over the last 14 or so years, developing virtual worlds. (Including a stint consulting with CCP, the developers of Eve Online.)
This new post, he tells me, is "inspired by conversations at Facebook about how to bring virtual worlds in to social networks and by conversations at CCP and Linden Lab about how to bring social networks in to virtual worlds. The same conversation, but starting at opposite ends."
For instance, here's Babbage on the importance of player-to-player conversation in MMOs, a feature that's often overshadowed by graphics, gameplay features, and so on:
Games companies typically spend years creating content which is voraciously consumed within a few months. It is typically impossible to build content as fast as it is consumed, so it is crucial that the content promotes communication between players so that relationships form and the world becomes a forum for conversation. The model is similar to a virtual theme park: it is impossible for people to continuously ride on new roller coasters all day and so the park around the rides becomes important. Disneyland is the conversation in the queue as much as the ride itself. Games companies hope that by the time people have completed all the quests, they have made friends and that the virtual world is the natural place to continue to hang out with those friends.
#blog post "The Conversation Around Content" https://t.co/7Koqo3Avy0 #vr #socialvr #virtualworlds #mmorpg #games #socialmedia
— Jim Purbrick (@JimPurbrick) September 9, 2020
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
As for what Babbage is doing in virtual worlds now that he's left Oculus: "I don't have anything specific to announce, but I'm still interested in helping people make better virtual worlds. If people would like to ask me to help them, they're very welcome." Following him on Twitter is a start.
Disclosure: Babbage is a very occasional pub pal.
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 
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