Community, connection, and vulnerability in the metaverse

Community — central to the success of games, whether they’re online, console, or mobile — is going to be a major factor in how well the metaverse coheres. Megan Fitzgerald, head of experience and product marketing at Facebook Reality Labs, Jessica Freeman, head of marketing at Minecraft, and Lauren Bigelow, chief of product at Together Labs, the parent company for IMVU, came together to talk about what’s needed to foster meaningful connection in the metaverse. Their conversation, “Making Friends in the Metaverse,” moderated by friendship expert Shasta Nelson, was part of the GamesBeat event, Into the Metaverse.

VR is a major step toward the metaverse, taking the relationships we’re forming in digital environments in 2D and bringing them to fully immersive 3D environments and shared experiences, Fitzgerald said. At Facebook Reality Labs, her role is to support the content and experiences that they’re building in-house or bringing onto the Oculus VR platform.