Worldbuilding is an Emotional Task

Yes, it's certainly technical and we'll get to that part, but first and foremost in this project was research and immersion. Before we could deliver the go-to-market, monetization and growth strategies, we had to fully immerse ourselves in the vision of the company founders and in the minds and hearts of the players.

Any self funded project of this scale is a project of passion and one where stepping off the path of authenticity even slightly could yield a disastrous breach of trust and exodus from the platform. Having been brought into this project due to significant Web3 experience, we had very little experience in gaming either professionally or practically, there was significant immersion for our team to do, so we began where all of our projects begin with people. We conducted extensive interviews with founding team members, original artists and 3D designers (all who originally worked for free), and founding players.

In our primary research a quote that stuck out to us came from the book and was the basis of our initial concern about what we were getting into with this project.

"I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real."

Holding a fundamental belief that technology, particularly immersive technology, should bridge distance, enhance communication and underscore the human experience, the dystopian undertones of ReadyPlayerOne concerned our team and we decided that if our first person research revealed a significant escapism that we would not engage past Discovery. We were pleasantly surprised by what we found.

What We Found

What we found was that fundamental to the engagement was the ability to create. While we initially approached this project from the lens of game design, what fundamentally was bringing and keeping users in WilderWorld was the ability to shape their own reality. Elements of individual identity creation and suspended reality were certainly present in the interviews, but what was more prevalent was the desire to see their minds eye come to life in the environment and witness other users interact with that creation.

Story, creation, and community were at the heart core of the Wilder Universe.

Much to our pleasant surprise we found that users were not trying to escape reality; the were using Wilder World as a medium to tell their own stories (and yes of course there is the game element that we will get to later) and to create new relationships. The title Ready Player One harkens back to arcade days when old school machines would use that language to start a game, the feeling of community found in those spaces, translated into the virtual.

What We Proposed

What we can tell you, you can read below. You'll have to play (or sign an NDA to learn more)