Still Logged In: What AR and VR Can Learn from MMOs

GDC Festival of Gaming
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2018–2025
YouTube
10K views · 9 years ago · talk · intermediate · evergreen

Raph Koster, lead designer of Ultima Online, gives a GDC talk on what AR and VR can learn from the history of online worlds. He covers the ethical problems, such as harassment, privacy and surveillance, and argues that every feature has to be considered as a possible weapon.

HN people recommend it as the key talk on the ethics of AR and VR, and quote its warning that every feature must be looked at as a weapon.

“Every feature must be looked at as a weapon.”
Spatial, VR & AR interfacesDesign ethics & dark patterns
#raphkoster#vr#ar#mmos#ethics

6 comments from Hacker News

p
@pdkl952021 · in “The Fantasy of Opting Out”
I strongly recommend everyone watch Raph Koster's talk "Still Logged In: What AR and VR Can Learn from MMOs"[1] about the ethical issues involved in VR/AR... and how VR/AR can be used as a weapon. [1] ▶ this video
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p
@pdkl952020 · in “Augmented Reality and the Surveillance Society”
▶ this video "Still Logged In: What AR and VR Can Learn from MMOs" Raph Koster (lead designer of Ultima Online) gave a very good talk about this problem and the broader topic of VR/AR being used as a weapon.
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d
@diegoperini2018 · in “I was Zuckerberg’s speechwriter”
This reminds me this talk from GDC by Raph Koster. ▶ this video Quite enlightening.
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b
@brudgers2025 · in “Ask HN: What Happened to the Apple Vision Pro?”
I think the issue is that vision is among the least important parts of virtual reality…an idea Ralph Koster describes here ▶ this video And as a result, when X-was-done-using-Vision-Pro, inevitably the headline “x was done with Vision Pro”. The headline will not be about doing a-previously-undoable-x. Vision Pro does not facilitate teamwork and teamwork is how approximately all important things get done. Not solipsistically. I mean visualize a conversation through Vision Pro versus one using Facetime or zoom. You lose most non-verbal communication if you leave the goggles on. Zoom and Facetime and even POTS and faxes are what successful virtual reality looks like, they collapse real space — collapse distances —- between people.
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p
@pdkl952020 · in “Facebook’s Project Aria Is Google Maps – For Your Entire Life”
The people currently trying to track everything you do online would really love a future where they can also track all your offline physical activity and map "inside of buildings and homes and all the objects inside of them". Raph Koster predicted[1] this years ago. I hope anybody implementing this type of tech remembers that all tech is dual use. To understand the full impact of a proposed technology, Raph Koster advised[2], "Every feature must be looked at as a weapon." Promising that "...any faces and license plates captured by Aria glasses wearers will be anonymized." doesn't even begin to address the ways this technology could be used maliciously. [1] link [2] ▶ this video
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p
@pdkl952020 · in “Indoor Mapping Data Format”
Raph Koster (MMO designer and expert at Massively Multiuser stuff) a rough vision for what this type of tech is probably intended for. He discusses it briefly towards the end of his (VERY strongly recommended!) talk "Still Logged In: What AR and VR Can Learn from MMOs"[1]. His essay "How to build the scary future today"[2] goes into more detail. The overly simplistic TL;DR is: the people currently trying to track everything you do online would really love a future where all your offline physical stuff had a unique serial number and regularly updated room/gps/etc location data. An indoor map of logical features would be a useful component in that future. I'm sure there are other, more beneficial uses as well. All technology is dual use. To understand the full impact of a proposed technology, as Raph Koster advised[1], "Every feature must be looked at as a weapon." [1] ▶ this video [2] link
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