![]() ![]() Recent research from Stanford University provided evidence that the “Zoom fatigue” many of us feel is real. It is trying, like hundreds of other new platforms, sites and apps, to provide us all with a solution to a very 2021 problem: despite being ubiquitous since early 2020, video calls aren’t necessarily helping us work or stay connected effectively. Universities use it to create virtual campuses individuals use it to host games nights groups of friends throw parties on it – and workers are collaborating on it. It might all sound mad, but Gather is 18 months old, has 4 million users, and recently raised $26m in investment. As I move it around with keyboard keys, I can enter and leave conversations – when I do so, a small live video of whoever I’m talking to appears above the main screen. I’m represented by a tiny, blocky avatar: a collection of dots arranged to look a bit like a person. There are pixelated potted palms dotted about my screen, a couple of banks of desks and a sofa area, all rendered in that very specific 2D map style common to early computer games. Gather is a virtual world and you choose an avatar before entering it: imagine a mid-80s Super Mario game in which, instead of jumping over his enemies, Mario has to go to the office. We’ve all dropped into a virtual meeting space on a site called gather.town, which provides free customisable spaces for anyone who wants to organise a get-together without using Zoom. This is not at all how I usually spend my Thursdays. I ’m playing online Pictionary while chatting with five people I’ve never met. ![]()
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