Enter The Game Grid

As a child of the 80’s, the word “virtual” and the concept of existing virtually seemed inseparable from the world portrayed in the classic movie Tron, in which a brilliant gaming engineer hacks his former employer’s mainframe and is unwittingly beamed inside an astonishing digital world, becoming part of the very game he is designing.

Tron, 1982

In the Covid-19 era, we are increasingly seeing more company events replaced with remote offerings and many of my clients are asking how to take their conferences virtual. Much of the current digital events landscape is organized around traditional A/V and webstreaming services, but there is a lot left to be desired from these experiences.

Are computer games perhaps the way forward in our virtual reality? From Second Life to Minecraft, and Sims to Animal Crossing, many games offer immersive and highly socialized experiences where users can build their own spaces, talk, chat, solve puzzles, or fight enemies together, (not to mention the huge communities via streaming channels like Twitch and Youtube that surround them). It’s a wonder we aren’t leveraging these places more for work events and team-building. There are some offices already opening up to the idea though, like this editorial team that is using a popular gaming engine to host their team meetings.

When it comes to virtual, the corporate events industry seems to be primarily focused on 2D hotspots and video conferencing right now, and they are certainly viable tools for networking and conducting business, but are they enough? Online gaming seems to offer some of the richest virtual experiences going right now. It may be time for businesses to look at them for the immersive and powerful social spaces they are.

Fireside chat in action-adventure game, Red Dead Redemption 2