{"id":2437,"date":"2025-09-25T09:30:40","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T09:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laurenhwhite.com\/?p=2437"},"modified":"2025-10-06T10:56:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T10:56:21","slug":"the-idea-of-designing-for-virtual-worlds-is-just-getting-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laurenhwhite.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/25\/the-idea-of-designing-for-virtual-worlds-is-just-getting-started\/","title":{"rendered":"“The idea of designing for virtual worlds is just getting started”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Monument<\/div>\n

Rumours of the metaverse<\/a>‘s demise are greatly exaggerated \u2013 particularly when it comes to designing virtual<\/a> buildings, writes Sarah Housley<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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An article about the metaverse?<\/strong> Is it 2020? No futures vision has burned more brightly or been abandoned more quickly this decade than the metaverse.<\/p>\n

But like all “failed” futures, the metaverse has not gone. It’s still being developed, away from the spotlight, and the idea of designing for virtual worlds is just getting started.<\/p>\n

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The metaverse is widely considered to have entered a winter<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On the Gartner Hype Cycle<\/a>, a model that the tech industry widely references to measure the buzz, development and adoption of emerging technologies, it would be fair to place the metaverse firmly on the down slope, in the “trough of disillusionment”. The hype has moved on, and the metaverse is widely considered to have entered a winter: a period of time where investment reduces and technological advances slow down.<\/p>\n

And yet, social virtual worlds are still being used every day. Roblox now has 111 million daily active users<\/a> and 380 million monthly users<\/a>, and hit an all-time high concurrent user count<\/a> on 12 July, with 32 million players on the platform. Other online worlds have much smaller numbers of regular users but enjoy tight-knit communities, where the focus is often less on gaming and more on worldbuilding.<\/p>\n

Fast-growing social virtual reality (VR) platform VRChat hit almost 67,000 concurrent users<\/a> in January this year. Second Life has 500,000 monthly active users<\/a>; Meta’s social VR platform Horizon Worlds has roughly 200,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n