Sublime

Philip Rosedale supposedly had the vision of Second Life while at the Burning Man festival and one of the first events they had in the game was a Burning Man recreation in 2003, and that helped set the pace and tone of what the community would be like. There was a heavy emphasis on serendipity and free-form engagement in the world. That might sound... See more

Decentraland's world is scaling rapidly. Over the past year, Decentraland has grown its users by 3,300% and increased its token price even more. They have Mark Zuckerberg to thank, at least in part.

if you give a user community powerful enough creator tools, what they create in these worlds will be far more interesting than anything a major company can officially create.

Virtual property can make real money. Projects like Decentral Games prove that money can be made in the "metaverse." The startup runs popular casinos within Decentraland. That's attracted serious developers, putting millions to work.

Au: Two big things. First, if you give a user community powerful enough creator tools, what they create in these worlds will be far more interesting than anything a major company can officially create. In terms of the culture of a metaverse environment and the community’s experiences in a place like Second Life, that’s remained true since 2003.

Our fastest-growing age cohort is 17 to 24. That segment is growing the fastest. Roblox doesn’t really do traditional marketing. We grew entirely through organic network effects. One network effect is the UGC network effect. The more creators we have producing content, the more audience that attracts.

GamesBeat: What are some big numbers when it comes to Roblox, milestones you’ve hit? Donato: Our creator community earned about half a billion dollars last year. We have about 50 million people a day on the platform. The average time people spend is two to two and a half hours a day. It’s about 100 million hours a day across everyone on the platfor... See more

By contrast, consumer software tools that enhance human agency, that serve us when we are most creative and intentional, are often built by hobbyists and used by a handful of nerds. If such a tool ever gets too successful one of the Marl-serving companies, flush with cash from advertising or growth-hungry venture capital, will acquire it and kill i... See more