Second Life, Ultima Online, VRchat, countless others. In UO people used to just hang out near the banks and talk to each other for hours as people came and went to deposit items or retrieve things. It was a very social experience, people would chill with their friends, roleplay, talk about life. All they really needed was cool clothes, ridable llamas, a neat environment, and an excuse.
Halo 2 and especially Halo 3 multiplayer saw thousands of game styles spawned outside what the devs at Bungie initially thought (griffball anyone?), give the tools and a good gameplay loop to gamers and a community will likely spawn around it very easily. Compare that to the hollow shitfest of the “metaverse” trying to commodify everything (cuss tech capital is running out of monetization pathways) and it’s really clear you can’t just artificially astroturf a community that wouldn’t naturally form.
Second Life, Ultima Online, VRchat, countless others. In UO people used to just hang out near the banks and talk to each other for hours as people came and went to deposit items or retrieve things. It was a very social experience, people would chill with their friends, roleplay, talk about life. All they really needed was cool clothes, ridable llamas, a neat environment, and an excuse.
Halo 2 and especially Halo 3 multiplayer saw thousands of game styles spawned outside what the devs at Bungie initially thought (griffball anyone?), give the tools and a good gameplay loop to gamers and a community will likely spawn around it very easily. Compare that to the hollow shitfest of the “metaverse” trying to commodify everything (cuss tech capital is running out of monetization pathways) and it’s really clear you can’t just artificially astroturf a community that wouldn’t naturally form.
runescape used to be similar