LO1 - Be able to research the development of digital media technologies to support the planning of a new product

VR social city - VR social media network

LO1.1

Since the early 2010s virtual reality has grown more popular though the introduction of companies such as Oculus and HTC bringing out the Oculus Quest series and the HTC Vive series of virtual reality headsets, also as of 2020 the introduction of half-dive virtual reality means that there is much more capabilities with movement and immersion, it also negates potential effects such as motion sickness. Moreover we have also seen improvements in virtual environments, for example it has been seen a lot in construction both for testing a structure and also exploring the structure to see its layout. In addition, social media has quickly become implemented into everyday lifestyles, with people spending hours each day using social media to share content, communicate and socialise, and also to advertise and collaborate, it has become very important in terms of how we communicate with people and it brings opportunities for jobs. Bringing these ideas together i have decided to make a social platform in virtual reality to allow people to have a better social experience as people are truly able to talk and properly socialise, moreover it increases the capabilities of what people can do together in order to allow people to engage and have more fun experience, for example they can explore the virtual world and also play minigames with each other. Also it is a huge opportunity for content creators especially V-Tubers and also other content creators as they can both create content and interact with their fans. 

LO1.2

From the developments in technology, people have been able to become prosumers, it has become possible for them to replicate and make the products they see, YouTube is a great example and because of social media people have been able to globalise and collaborate with people from all over the world, in the interactive media industry people of all skillsets are needed, programmers, developers, designers, graphics designers, 3d modellers, software engineers, IT specialists, marketing teams, research teams and specialists, and to source out these skillsets you may need to look on a large scale, this can allow people to get the best matches for what they are searching for and also allows new ideas and work processes to be introduced into a project. Moreover as this is a big project to influence a change in society through wikinomics and globalisation, this can be done through the distribution and advertisement of the product, this can be through advertising it on social media and sites such as YouTube in which the target audience makes up the majority of users. 

LO2.1

Virtual reality is a fairly new technology with a lot of areas for innovation, companies such as Oculus and HTC being the main conglomerates which lead in the market however many 3rd party companies and individuals have been working to develop their own headsets and technology, for example: Diver-X have been working on their own half dive virtual reality gear which allows people more freedom of movement within the virtual world, this is due to haptic sensors and fans which can replicate wind and motion shock to make it seem like you are actually there, this is a huge advancement on the current Oculus Quest 2 as that is still limited by the roomspace unless you have the additional slide plate as it makes the users experience more natural in terms of movement.

Source: HalfDive (diver-x.jp)

Article title:	HalfDive
Website title:	HalfDive
URL:	https://www.diver-x.jp/halfdive/en/

• Authors:               DiverX
• Publisher:             DiverX

LO2.2

 Moreover, in terms of social platforms, we already have VR chat which is a social platform allowing people to play games and have fun, however you are limited to a party which is a max of 16 players despite having over 2000 different hubs available and millions of players. However having a limited number of players per hub means you can't engage with lots of people at once and it may be region locked due to servers, but with the release of the new Battlefield 2047 released late 2021 to PC and Console from this knowledge and knowing that lobbies can contain up to 128 players, since the new generation of consoles are able to handle this number of players shows that large lobbies are possible which brings my idea one stage closer to reality.  This is a huge step up from the typical 4 player lobbies that VR games had when they were first becoming popular as many companies lacked the technology to efficiently have a large number of players in on game session at once, and with the advancements in components such as graphics cards, RAM and processors, it is likely that huge servers will be more frequent in later VR renditions. 

Source: What is VR Chat and How to Make Your Own Virtual Reality World | CitizenSide

Article title:	What is VR Chat and How to Make Your Own Virtual Reality World | CitizenSide
Website title:	CitizenSide
URL:	https://citizenside.com/technology/what-is-vr-chat/

• Authors:               CitizenSide  
• Publisher:            CitizenSide

LO2.3

The job roles required for the production of this product are as follows: there will be programmers focusing on many different aspects of the game, as this game is a merger of social media and also a virtual reality game, we will need to hire specialists in both in the development of games, it is apparent that China holds some of the greatest programmers, so it would be logical to perhaps source out and advertise job placements there, however there would come an issue with communication due to the fact that we are different nationalities and speak different languages, however it is common for people to become fluent in multiple languages. Moreover, there is also the need for social media developers and the games designers may not have the knowledge on the development needs for social media so would not be suitable for the task. Secondly we would need people to design the game, this task would be performed by a whole team of people as there are many that must be designed, so I would therefor comprise a team of artists, illustrators, graphic designers and 3d modellers, these would all work as a group to form concept arts, the digital map, character and item models, the HUD and other screens. 

Finally we would need a marketing and finance team as this is a long term project and large product, so a lot of money will be invested into the production and design so we will need a team to manage how money is spent and also how to advertise the product to potential customers, investors and sponsors, for example companies could produce adverts that would be displayed in the virtual world as a normal advert would, which means companies can easily advertise on virtually a global scale through one company which may be more cost effective and beneficial to them, in addition we could attract some celebrities for example how Ariana Grande performed a virtual concert inside of the game Fortnite in 2021, this attracted a lot of customers to the game and raised a lot of finance, this would be beneficial to both parties as we would have gained a lot more customers and they will gain a lot more popularity and have people looking at their products. Moreover there will need to be a sub-team of advertisers who have skills in advertisement, video production and  graphic design as this will allow them to make a series of adverts for us to release on social media, YouTube, television and in print formats, since this is how we make our product as successful as possible.

Source: VR Social Media: Is it the Future of Social Interaction? - Skywell Software

Article title:	VR Social Media: Is it the Future of Social Interaction? - Skywell Software
Website title:	Skywell Software
URL:	https://skywell.software/blog/vr-social-media-future/

• Authors:               Tracy Watson
• Publisher:             Skywell Software