In this virtual briefing, WIRED Editor Greg Williams and Herman Narula, the CEO and co-founder of gaming company Improbable explore the dynamics of social connection forged through virtual worlds – and how Covid-19 has impacted these relationships.
“The thing that advances friendships and relationships are shared experiences,” says Narula in the 25-minute video. “It's great catching up with your friend on the phone talking about the past, over and over again, but you can't have new experiences, unless you're together. So I think the more that virtual worlds can create an engine for us to have those memorable events together, the more they'll become part of people's relationships.”
With the enforced lockdown of Covid-19 and millions of people shifted to remote working, online home-schooling and digital socialising, the "in real life" world can learn a lot from its virtual counterpart – namely in creating community through these shared experiences.
“I think there’s the potential for games to bring people closer together by giving them shared experiences, much in the way that sport has done for many years,” he continues. “When you press matchmaker today on a game like Fortnite you'll be matched with people of different races, different genders, different stories and backgrounds. You might never normally meet them and that might very well lead to a friendship or lead to an interesting connection.”
For more of Narula’s perspective on developing deeper relationships in future virtual worlds, watch the video above or on YouTube here.
In this video, Narula explains how his company Improbable is using gaming to create its virtual worlds.
Herman Narula is the co-founder and CEO of Improbable, a gaming startup which enables developers to make extraordinary multiplayer games. Improbable was founded in 2012 by Narula and Rob Whitehead, both Cambridge University computer science graduate students, who shared a love of games and an ambition to make bigger, better multiplayer worlds. Improbable is headquartered in London and has offices around the world. It has received over $600m in funding from some of the most reputable investors in the world, including the SoftBank Vision Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Horizons Ventures and NetEase.
Designed as an extension of WIRED’s long-running live conference portfolio, WIRED virtual briefings are punchy, deliberate and engaging sessions that reflect the same high calibre of speakers and programming featured at a WIRED event. Part of the WIRED Foresight series, curated by WIRED Editor, Greg Williams.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
