A “YouTube for virtual reality”, in some ways, could become The Matrix.  Like video, several key VR technologies need to be developed before this becomes truly possible.  Most essential of these are authoring tools.

The problem with existing VR authoring tools is that they work with the virtual world on a non-native level.  Imagine if you tried to build YouTube in the film era, or even in the early days of non-linear editing?  Only after video capture and editing tools were molded to fit the YouTube creator did this creator emerge, and not the other way around.

So, the easy way to design these tools for virtual reality is to start by creating them for the Matrix Author, but who is this?  Unfortunately we don’t know just yet, and finding out is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem.

It’s easy to assume that the Matrix Author is today’s video game designer, but that would be similar to comparing a YouTuber to a 1990’s digital filmmaker. There is overlap, but the DV Filmmaker sees themselves as  the progeny of classic celluloid filmmakers and while YouTube is a vehicle for this filmmaker, it is not their native “culture”.

It’s also tempting to see the web developer as a potential Matrix Author, but this I would compare in video terms to the wedding videographer or industrial video producer.  Again, this web developer will use The Matrix as a distribution channel, but they are not a “native”.

Unfortunately, if  The Matrix is anything like YouTube we’ll have to go through a few iterations before its author emerges.  I think the critical event will be when a gap forms between needing to know how the tools work to use the tools and when simply knowing how to use the tools will be enough.  This event could occur either through a native, natural learning process or by the development of tools that are usable intuitively by emerging authors.

So what can we do until then?  Ironically immersion is the key.  We need to spend more time in virtual environments doing more self-directed things.  By behaving “naturally” in virtual environments, we gain an awareness of what works and what doesn’t in those worlds.  To this end, VR systems that present an open-ended experience that encourages exploration are superior to traditional plot or competition-driven “gaming” experiences in evolving the Matrix Author.

Second, we can start building VR authoring tools that can be used from within virtual environments themselves.  These will undoubtedly inherit baggage from our legacy tools and are unlikely to resemble the end-state tools that Matrix Authors will use, but that shouldn’t be a deterrent for starting now.  By doing so, we as developers will be actively engaging in step one, and are more likely to become attuned to a VR sense of Quality.  This will lead to developing more natural authoring tools through gained experience and natural software evolution.

The third step we can take now is accessibility.  VR technology has existed for several decades, but it is only recently that it has become accessible to the consumer.  That said, today’s VR tools are still too expensive and too specialized to be within reach of the majority of potential users.  More than any other factor, broad accessibility of authoring tools has been the means of discovering authors and generating audiences in any medium.  This means looking at VR hardware reaching smartphone-level penetration, or to use an older point of reference, the availability of personal computers in the early 1980’s.

If we do not choose the path a technology will take, it will be chosen for us.  Virtual reality, like global communications, desktop fabrication and telepresense, is too important to improving life to allow it to become another consumption-oriented medium whose content is generated by commercial interests and privileged individuals.  By cultivating the Matrix Author, and by providing them with the tools they need to create and distribute their worlds, we can prevent this from happening

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BY JASON J. GULLICKSON