VRChat Groups Launches in Open Beta; IBM/SL Vet Andrew Sempere Helping With System Design!

This is actually more of a milestone for VRChat than the Sony body trackers I mentioned earlier this week, and that was also huge — VRChat just launched a group function in open beta:

Groups is a huge system that we think is going to change VRChat forever. Most of the features we’ve mentioned today will be released in the first, groundwork stage of Groups. Others will be released – along with polishing dictated by your feedback – in the weeks following the launch of Groups. We want to push these updates out relatively quickly, as we’d like to get Groups up and running as fast as possible.

While this group feature has long been in development by the startup, it”s notable that a Second Life veteran is helping with its progress: Andrew Sempere, recently hired as VRChat’s Senior Systems Designer, who was a key member of IBM’s Second Life team back in the day.

While VRC and SL’s group systems are very different (watch the video above), they share some commonalities with the thought of Nobel-winning economist Elinor Ostrom and her theory of collective action:

1. Define clear boundaries of the common resource: For example, groups that are allowed access to the common resource should be clearly defined.
2. Rules governing the use of common resources should fit local needs and conditions: Rules should be determined by local interested parties.
3. As many users of the resource as possible should participate in making decisions regarding usage: People are more likely to follow rules that they have helped create.
4. Usage of common resources must be monitored: Users of the resource must be made accountable for not following defined rules and boundaries.
5. Sanctions for violators of the defined rules should be graduated: Rather than an immediate ban on access to the resource, violators are first subjected to a system of warnings, fines, and informal reputational consequences.
6. Conflicts should be resolved easily and informally: Low-cost dispute resolution regarding the resource encouraging compliance.
7. Higher-level authorities recognize the established rules and self-governance of resource users: Governments or other territorial authorities should ideally recognize and back up, or at least not undermine, collective action agreements, institutions, and conflict resolution.
8. Common resource management should consider regional resource management: Responsibility for governing the regional resources should start from the smallest local level and include the entire interconnected system, such as in the case of managing a regional waterway.

In other words, groups reflect the idea that moderation should be done within communities, with escalating consequences for behavior within them, so that people can self-organize and self-govern. That way, the virtual community as a whole can scale while sub-communities in them can thrive.

Anyway, much more on the VRC blog.

Recommended laptop for SL/metaverse activity: