How Minecraft will fuel the VR content explosion.

Do you remember using the 'Paintbrush' program on your Apple Macintosh in the early days of using a computer? It was clunky, the images were bit-mapped and messy and vector - but they were digital artworks that we created ourselves and could print out on 'computer paper'. Those artworks only really achieved mass audiences and drove companies like Adobe to build products like Creative Suite when we could share the artworks online, through the worldwide web.

Jump forward 20 years and I can't help but note that many of the most watched channels on YouTube are kids playing interactive games. People like PewdiePie, running their avatars through 3D games, moving wherever they choose, and commentating on those choices.

That choice is key (which I'll come back to).

Modern computer games are essentially 3D worlds, experienced in 2D. But the kids (and a fair few adults!) who play those games are creating complex spatial awareness of those game worlds. A lot of the most popular games these days involve vast worlds and not 'games on rails' like the Mario Brothers levels of days gone past. The new 3D worlds go up, down and around - but players are forced to view them through narrow portals, like blinkered horses: TV screens.

Cue: virtual reality. 

I could go on about all the devices and insanely big things that will happen around VR in 2016, but a simple Google Search will reveal all. The fact is that our visual and spatial awareness within those 3D worlds will be unlocked in 2016 - for anyone who wants it. And from all the first time VR experiences I've watched, a hell of a lot of people are going to want it.

The problem is that even with the freedom and autonomy of 360 views, omnidirectional harnesses and gestural hand controllers that appear as avatar arms and weapons (etc), we are still being curated through those worlds, uncovering stories that may be pretty awesome but are ultimately not ours and often have a resolute ending. 

Cue: Minecraft

Minecraft is the 'Paintbrush' program of the virtual world. Users can create 3D environments, stages of war, of entertainment, of social interaction and kids are doing it on an enormous scale. They are learning how to create 3D worlds right now, as I type this. Put a VR HUD on them and they'll be able to see just how big that Minecraft block is that they just pushed into place. And it won't end.

Blocks are just the start. They are the stepped, bitmapped images my generation (X) traced out with a cursor. Here comes the generation that will build worlds, machines, cities and the complex logic that will drive it all - and they'll build it together. They'll make choices and will prototype in real time. Tens of thousands of them will collaborate, working side by side, virtually staring each other in the eye, while they are all standing in their VR-rooms or omni-directional-platforms in their homes (the sparsely furnished room where the TV used to be). 

And when they've collaborated and created, well - they'll just press print

If you want to communicate with them, the consumers, 'blinkered/framed/photoshopped curation' is no longer an option. Customer journey's will be closer to 1:1 physical hand-holding than anything we've ever seen....