Index

•  
• 3D, nausea, 84
• 3D camera location, 255–256
• 3D engine, 319
• 100 Thieves, 135–136

• A
• Abbott, Devin, 154–155
• accessibility, future and, 297
• AI (artificial intelligence), 271–274
  • chatbots, 274
  • ChatGPT, 274
  • Craiyon, 271–272
  • DALL·E, 272
  • Deep Fakes, 285
  • Midjourney, 272
• Alliance Studios, 134–135
  • Doritos map, 135
• Altberg, Ebbe, 56–60
• AM Radio (Jeff Berg). See Berg, Jeff
• Animal Crossing: New Horizon, 255
• App Store, Roblox, 122
• AR (augmented reality), 189–190, 319
• avatar radicals, 323–324
• avatars, 319
  • culture and, 301–303
  • customizable, 13–14
  • female, harassment, 208, 213
  • Fortnite, 131–132
  • graphics, 192–193
  • human-looking, 207
    • racism, 208
    • social problems and, 207–208
  • photo altering and, 283–285
  • Roblox, 106, 111–113
  • Second Life, on Facebook, 90–94
  • Sky, 222–224
  • Snow Crash, 3
  • unrealistic, 192–193
  • user manipulation and, 283–286
  • VRChat
    • anime-style, 179
    • Syrmor and, 169–170
    • Trust System, 166–168
    • Ugandan Knuckles, 165
  • Zuckerberg, 92

• B
• The Baroque Cycle (Stephenson), 157
• Bartle, Richard, Designing Virtual Worlds, 5–6
• Bar-Zeev, Avi, 7–11, 286
• Basel, Art, 36
• Baszucki, David, 106
• Beat Saber, 173
• Bell, Simon, 134–135
• Berg, Jeff (AM Radio), 37–39, 128–130
  • Craiyon, 271–272
• Bezos, Jeff, 24
• Biden, Joe, 133–134
• Bitcoin, in-world ATMs, 149
• Black female developers, 113–118
• Blind community app, 89
• blockchain, 319
  • Lamina1, 153–156
  • NFTs, 191
• Blueberry, 39–41
• Boomers, 270–271
• Bosworth, Andrew, 78
• brands, Fortnite Creative, 137–138
• Breakroom, 239–242
• BTS in Roblox, 236
• Burning Man, 27–28

• C
• Carey, Drew, 25
• Caribbean people, Roblox, 113–114
• Carmack, John, 5
  • Oculus and, 82
• Case, Amber, 96–97
  • on Minecraft, 108
• Cassel, Erik, 106
• ChatGPT, 274
• Chen, Jenova, 222
  • AURORA concert, 238–239
  • Metaverse theme park, 268–270
• children, 214–215
  • in Metaverse, trouble with, 118–123
  • moderation issues, 216–217
  • Roblox monetization, 119–120
  • Roblox safety, 125–126
• Chipotle campaign launch in Roblox, 243–244
• CLANG!, 143
• climate change, 227
• Club Penguin, 108
• collaboration, in-world creation and, 298–300
• Commonwealth Club of California 2006, Zuckerberg, Mark, 23
• communities
  • company growth and, 303–305
  • social architecture of virtual worlds, 302
  • values, creating, 296–297
  • VRChat, 169–172
• concurrency, 319
  • local concurrency, 320
• concurrent users, 19–20
• consciousness uploads, 290
• core (hardcore) gamers, 319
• COVID-19, 227
• Craiyon, 271–272
• cryptocurrency, 319
  • ATMs in-world, 149
  • blockchain, 319
    • global payment, 155
    • Lamina1, 153–156
  • Ethereum, 150
  • Lamina1, 153–156
  • Nakamoto, Satoshi, 149
  • NFTs, 152–153
  • Second Life and, 148–153
• Cryptonomicon (Stephenson), 157
• cryptoverse, 148–153
• CSI: New York, 24
• culture, avatars and, 301–303
• cybersex, 209–210

• D
• DALL·E, 272
• Decentraland, 150
• Deep Fakes, 285
• demographics, Roblox, 119
• designing physical spaces, 272
  • Skyrim, 273
• Designing Virtual Worlds (Bartle), 5–6
• developers, Black female developers, 113–118
• The Diamond Age (Stephenson), 157
• Dibbell, Julian, My Tiny Life, 89–90
• Digital Immersives, 200
• Discord, 300–301, 320
  • Discordia, 268
• Doom, 13
• Double Bandit Studios, 115
• dystopia, 281

• E
• EAC (Easy Anti Cheat), VRChat, 175–177
• enforcing rules, 219–220
• Epic Games, 129–130
  • Fab, 133
• Epic Games Store, 320
• Ethereum, 150
• EU government regulatory options, 282–283
• experience machine, 290–293

• F
• Facebook
  • authentic identity, 90–94
  • identity model, 94
  • mobile, 80–81
  • Oculus acquisition, 81–82
  • Second Life avatar accounts, 90–94
• Fall (Stephenson), 157
• Fei, Cao, 36
• firewalls, 229–230
• FiveM, Grand Theft Auto Online, 267
• for-profit use cases, limitations, 230–231
• Fortnite
  • AM Radio (Jeff Berg), 128–130
  • avatars, 131–132
  • female gamers, 131
  • QR code in, 136
  • Unreal and, 133
  • user base, snapshot, early 2023, 127
• Fortnite Battle Royale, 131
• Fortnite Creative, 132
  • Biden, Joe, 133–134
  • brands, advice for, 137–138
  • creators, advice for, 138–139
  • limitations, 135–137
  • maps, 134–135
• FPS (frames per second), 320
• framerate, 320
• Free Fire (Garena), 266–267
• Freshman, Brenda, 172
• furries, 178–179, 320
• future
  • accessibility and, 297
  • lessons for, 295–30
  • AI (artificial intelligence), 271–274
  • Boomers, 270–271
  • corporations, user creativity and, 288–290
  • Discordia, 268
  • dystopia, 281
  • experience machine and, 290–293
  • Free Fire (Garena), 266–267
  • Generation X and, 270–271
  • generational connections, 270–271
  • Grand Theft Auto Online, 267
  • lean-forward experiences, 276–277
  • metaverse regulation, 281–290
  • streaming, 274–276
  • user data manipulation, 286–288
  • user manipulation, avatars and, 283–286
  • World of Valve-Craft, 268

• G
• Gamergate, 213
• gaming
  • as priority, 298
  • Second Life and, 31–32
• Garena Free Fire, 266–267
• Garry's Mod, 268
• Gaylor, Graham, 163–164
• Generation X, future and, 270–271
• Generation Z, Metaverse generation, 107–111
• Gibson, William, 5
• Glass-Steagall Act, 287
• Google Glass, 190
• Google Play, Roblox, 122
• Grand Theft Auto Online, 267
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, 251
• Grant, Tom, 55
• graphics
  • avatars, 192–193
  • Minecraft, 192
  • photorealism, 191–193
  • Roblox, 192
• Graywolf Midnight, 91
• Gumroad, 180

• H
• Habbo, 108
• Habitat, 156
• Half-Life, 268
• harassment of avatars, 208, 212–214
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, 190
• Harvard, 24
• HMDs (head-mounted displays)
  • public wear, 190
  • VRChat, 166
• HoloLens, 85
• Horizon Venues, 95
• Horizon Worlds
  • launch, 89
  • users, 95
• Hornyak, Chris “Strasz,” 161–162
• Huang, Michelle, 274
• Humble, Rod, 54

• I
• IBM corporate campus, 24, 26
• identity
  • Facebook, 90–94
  • trans people, 97–98
• immersion, 320
• Immersion Funnel, 251–256
• Internet Relay Chat, 201
• interoperability, 193–200, 320
  • abuse and, 220–221
• Intrance, 115
  • LAGurlz, Starving Artists experience, 116
• IP (intellectual property), 245–247, 288

• J
• Jackson, Mackenzie, 134–135
  • MackJack avatar, 135
• Jacobson, Bob, 8–9
• Joudrey, Jesse, 163–164
• Journey, Metaverse Age Gap and, 257–259

• K
• Kamenetz, Anya, 216–217
• Kingdon, Mark, 54
• KPOP, 156
• Kurzweil, Ray, 25

• L
• LAGurlz, 113–118
• Lamina1
  • The Baroque Cycle, 157
  • blockchain and, 153–156
  • Cryptonomicon, 157
  • The Diamond Age, 157
  • Fall, 157
  • literary arc, 156–160
  • Metaverse-as-a-Service, 144–145
  • Ready Play One, 158
  • REAMDE, 157
  • Stephenson, Neal, 141–143
  • Termination Shock, 158
• last fighter standing mode, 131
• lean-forward experiences, 276–277
• Lil Nas X event in Roblox, 235–237
• Linden Dollars, 149–150, 324
• Linden Lab, 324–325
  • company growth, 50–51
  • purchase, 59
• Linden World, 30
• local concurrency, 320
• Love Machine, 47–49
• Luckey, Palmer, 279–280

• M
• machinima, 320
• MackJack avatar, 135
• Majors, Charity, 44
• marketing/brand extension, 243–245
• Maslow's hierarchy, Minecraft and, 108–109
• MAU (monthly active users), 321
• McDuff, Brandon, 39
• McDunnough, Grace, 237
• media ecosystem, engaging, 326
• medical use cases, 230–231
• meetings/conferences, Breakroom, 239–242
• Mellich, Ari, 150
• mesh, 321
• Meta, avatars, 90–94
• metaverse
  • gaming as priority, 298
  • platform inside a platform, 145–148
  • platform/startup/company, 320
  • regulation, 281–286
• Metaverse, 320
  • accessibility, 12
  • children in, trouble with, 118–123
  • definition, 11–21
  • initial talks, 6
  • moral imperative to develop, 280
  • number of, 201–202
  • platform rule updates, 118
  • politics ban, 118–119
  • Show Crash and, 7–11
  • theme park, Chen and, 268–270
  • time shifting, 109–110
  • trademarking, 9–10
  • users, myths, 200–201
• Metaverse Age Cliff, 250
  • aging out, 251–253
  • bridging the cliff, 256
  • Journey ( Jenova Chen), 257–259
  • mindshare, 259–261
  • reasons for, 251
  • Sky: Children of Light, 258–259
  • State of Play conference, 260–261
• Metaverse generation, 107–111
• Metaverse-adjacent applications, 229–230
• Metaverse-as-a-Service, Lamina1 as, 144–145
• Metaverse-as-such applications, 229–230
• Microsoft, Second Life and, 26
• Midjourney, 272
• mindshare, 259–261
• Minecraft, 28
  • graphics, 108, 192
  • growth, 108–109
  • Maslow's hierarchy and, 108–109
  • Metaverse feature growth, 109–110
  • streaming video, 110
  • VR and, 192
• Minecraft Parents, 216–217
• minors, 214–215
  • moderation issues, 216–217
• mirrored flourishing, 39
• Mishi, Gizem, 39
  • Second Life failure and, 63–64
• mixed reality, 321
• MMO (massively multiplayer/multiuser), 44, 321
• moderating
  • children and, 216–217
  • enforcing rules, 219–220
  • self-policing standards, 217
  • sexual content in VRChat, 218
• motion sickness, 188
  • Asian players, 253–254
• Murder 4 game, 173
• music, Second Life, 75
• music/entertainment
  • AURORA concert in Sky: Children of Light, 238–239
  • best practices, 235–239
  • Brown, Rafael, 235–236
  • BTS in Roblox, 236
  • Lil Nas X event in Roblox, 235–237
  • McDunnough, Grace, 237
  • potential issues with events, 233–234
  • Scott, Travis, 231–232
  • small venues, 235
  • streaming recordings, 234
• My Tiny Life (Dibbell), 89–90

• N
• Nakamoto, Satoshi, 149
• Nelson, Richard, 104–105
• NetHack, 4
• NFT art, Roblox, 116
• NFTs, 152–153
  • blockchain, 191
  • royalties, 155
• Niantic, 189–190
• No Man's Sky, 277

• O
• Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandra, 282
• Oculus, 6
  • Carmack, John and, 82
  • Facebook acquisition, 81–82
  • Second Life and, 87
• Oculus Rift
  • Facebook purchase, 57
  • motion sickness, 188
• Ondrejka, Cory, 28–29
  • avatars, 94–95
  • Facebook Engineering Director, 80
  • leaving company, 51–52

• P
• Peanut Labs, 40
• Pearlman, Kavya, 208–209, 217
• Person, Markus “Notch,” 108
• photo altering, avatars and, 283–285
• photorealistic graphics, 191–193
• Pokémon GO, 190
• policies, activism, 326–327
• Portal, 113, 268
• positivity, designing for, 221–224
• prim, 321
• Proteus effect, 285, 321
• PUBG: Battlegrounds, 130–131
• Puppetry Project, 72
• Purbrick, Jim, 87, 290
• Pynchon, Thomas, 25

• Q
• QR code in Fortnite, 136
• Quest, headsets, user tracking, 283
• Quest 2, 86
  • Rec Room, 88
  • VRChat and, 162–163

• R
• racism, 208
• Raspberry Pi, 321
• Ready Play One (Stephenson), 158
• real estate deals in Decentraland, 150–152
• real-world use cases, 225–226
  • checklist
    • air travel, 227–228
    • applications in isolation, 227–228
    • for-profit use cases, limitations, 230–231
    • Metaverse-adjacent applications, 229–230
    • Metaverse-as-such applications, 229–230
    • self-refuting evangelism, 228–229
    • unscalable anecdotes, 226–227
  • marketing/brand extension, 243–245
  • meetings/conferences, Breakroom, 239–242
  • music/entertainment
    • AURORA concert in Sky: Children of Light, 238–239
    • best practices, 235–239
    • BTS in Roblox, 236
    • Lil Nas X event in Roblox, 235–237
    • McDunnough, 237
    • McDunnough, Grace, 237
    • potential issues, 233–234
    • Scott, Travis, 231–232
    • streaming recordings, 234
• REAMDE (Stephenson), 157
• Rec Room (Quest 2), 88, 299
• reformers, 323–324
• regulatory measures, 281–290
  • children and, 216–217
• reporting, advice, 329–330
• retention problems, Second Life, 41–45
• Roblox
  • age gap, 252
  • App Store, 122
  • avatars, 111–113
  • Baszucki, David, 106
  • BTS, 236
  • campus, 104–105
  • Cassel, Erik, 106
  • children, 125–126
  • Chipotle campaign launch, 243–244
  • concurrent users, number of, 115
  • creators, 123–124
  • demographics, 119
  • developers, 124–125
  • Devex, 114
  • diversity, 113–118
  • earnings, 120–121
    • cash out minimums, 121–122
  • experiences, 110–111
  • Google Play, 122
  • graphics, 192
  • growth, pandemic, 110
  • interaction, 110
  • Intrance, 115
  • LAGurlz, 113–118
  • Lil Nas X event, 235–237
  • monetization, children and, 119–120
  • NFT art, 116
  • social network and, 110
  • Squid Game and, 107
  • Starving Artists, 116
    • art auction, 117
    • Builderman Award of Excellence, 117
  • Trump, Barron, 120
  • user base, 103–104
  • VR and, 192
• Rosedale, Philip
  • Burning Man and, 27–28
  • firing Cory, 51–52
  • leaving company, 52–53

• S
• Sansar, 56–59, 83
• Schubert, Damion, 194–195
• Scott, Travis, 36
• scripting language, 321
• Sea Limited, 266
• Second Life
  • avatars
    • with Facebook accounts, 90–94
    • human-looking, 207
    • teleporting to OpenSim, 195–196
  • Bezos, Jeff, 24
  • as business opportunity, 32
  • as co-creation, 29
  • creation tools, 29–30
  • creativity, 36–41
  • crypto and, 148–153
  • CSI: New York, 24
  • current state, 27
  • demographics, 73
  • downloading, 42–44
  • failure, 24
    • factors in, 60–72
  • freemium, 43
  • gaming and, 31–32
    • failure and, 62
  • generational mixing in the future, 271
  • graphics, mesh, 192
  • Harvard and, 24
  • home building, 206–207
  • IBM corporate campus, 24
  • interoperability, 195–196
  • Linden Dollars, 149–150, 324
  • Love Machine, 47–49
  • Microsoft and, 26
  • music scene, 75
  • naming problems, 64–66
  • The Office, 24, 34–35
  • OpenSim and, 53
  • real-world economy integration, 33–36
  • retention problems, 41–45
  • rise and fall, 27–60
  • social problems, 207
  • Tao of Linden, 49–50
  • tax revolt, 324–328
  • user base growth lack, 26
  • user numbers, 43
  • user transformations, 37–39
  • veterans meeting, 74
  • Viewer 2, 45–46
  • Warner, Mark, 25, 106
• self-policing standards, 217
• self-refuting evangelism, 228–229
• sexual content, 209–210
  • restrictions, 211–212
  • VRChat, 218
• The Sims Online, 31
• single shard, 321
• Sky: Children of Light (Jenova Chen)
  • AURORA concert, 238–239
  • Metaverse Age Cliff, 258–259
  • Metaverse theme park, 268–270
• Sky model (Jenova Chen), 222–224
• Skyrim pebble design, 273
• Smith, Catherine, 48–49, 209
• Snow Crash (Stephenson), 3–5
  • building Metaverse and, 7–11
  • as reference point for Second Life, 30–31
• social architecture of virtual worlds, 302
• social interoperability, 199–200
• social media, need for, 300–301
• social problems, 207
  • abuse moving to real world, 214
  • harassment, 212–214
  • prejudices, 208–209
  • racism, 208
  • sexual assault, 210, 213
  • sexual content, 209–210
  • trolling, 212–214
• spatial 3D mapping, 254
• Spouse Test, 201
• Squid Game, Roblox and, 107
• Starr, Fanny, 37
• Starving Artists, 116
  • art auction, 117
  • Builderman Award of Excellence, 117
• State of Play conference, 260–261
• Steam, 321
• Stephenson, Neal, 13–14
  • chief futurist, 143
  • CLANG!, 143
  • The Diamond Age, 157
  • Lamina1, 141–143
  • Snow Crash, 3–5
  • THEEE METAVERSE, 142
• streaming, 322
  • Minecraft news, 110
• Sweeney, Tim, 129–130
• Syrmor (VRChat), 169

• T
• Team Fortress, 268
• technologies, new, 201
• Termination Shock (Stephenson), 158
• The Iron Law of Oligarchy, 55
• The Office, 24, 34–35
• The Proteus Paradox: How Online Games and Virtual Worlds Change Us-And How They Don't (Yee), 208
• The Source to All This, 3
• THEEE METAVERSE, 142
• time shifting, 109–110, 300–301
• trans people, 97–98
• Trilio, Aura, 273
• trolling, 212–214
• Trump, Barron, 120
• Trust System, VRChat, 166–168
• Try Me virus, 43
• TTP (Time To Penis), 211–212
• Turkish coup, 40–41

• U
• Ugandan Knuckles, VRChat avatars, 165
• UGC (User-generated content), 322
• Unity, 322
  • 3D editor, VRChat and, 173
  • VRChat and, 183
• Unreal, 133, 322
• U.S. Congress users, 282
• user interface, interoperability and, 197

• V
• value chains, 145
• values, communities and, 296–297
• Valve
  • Half-Life, 268
  • Portal, 268
  • Team Fortress, 268
  • World of Valve-Craft, 268
• Vega, Suzanne, 37
• Vessenes, Peter, 141–142
• veterans, meeting in Second Life, 74
• virtual sex. See sexual content
• virtual world, 322
• VR (virtual reality)
  • cars, online racing, 195
  • gender and, 83–85
  • IPD (interpupillary distance) in women, 188–189
  • landmark navigation, 254
  • Minecraft, 192
  • motion sickness, 188, 253–254
  • nausea, 83–85
  • Quest 2, 86
    • Rec Room, 88
  • Rec Room, 189
  • Roblox, 192
  • sexism, 83–85
  • spatial 3D mapping, 254
  • VRChat, 189
• VR headsets
  • cost, 280–281
  • mainstream coverage, 188
  • Metaverse reporting, 330
• VRChat, 161–162
  • avatars
    • anime-style, 179
    • reporter and, 169–170
    • Ugandan Knuckles, 165
  • communities
    • developers, 173
    • pets, 172
    • Raspberry Pi and, 173
    • sleeping, 172
    • Syrmor, 169
  • EAC (Easy Anti Cheat), 175–177
  • expansion, 182
  • Freshman, Brenda, 172
  • furries, 178–179
  • future of, 180–183
  • Gaylor, Graham, 163–164
  • Graywolf Midnight, 177–178
  • HMDs, 166
  • Jar, 173–174
  • Joudrey, Jesse, 163–164
  • Merlin, 174
  • Quest 2 headsets and, 162–163
  • rise of, 164–165
  • sexual content, 218
  • Trust System, 166–168
  • Udon Tycoon, 174
  • UdonSharp, 174
  • Unity 3D editor, 173, 183
• VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), 10

• W
• Walk, Hunter, 61
• Warner, Mark, 25, 106
• web3, 190–191
• women
  • Black developers, 113–118
  • creators, Fortnite Creators, 138–139
  • female avatar harassment, 208, 213
  • VR and motion sickness, 188–189
• World of Warcraft, 15, 251
• Worldesign, 8

• X–Y–Z
• XRSI (XR Safety Initiative), 217
•  
• Yee, Nick, 208
•  
• Zuckerberg, Mark
  • avatar, 92
  • Commonwealth Club of California 2006, 24
  • on Joe Rogan, 78