Collaborative and Competitive Futures for Virtual Reality Music and Sound

The histories of virtual reality systems draw heavily from foundational work in telepresence and robotics, cinema and gaming. Across each of these disciplines the roles of “player” and “audience” member vary significantly, as do the rules, affordances and experiential goals put forth by the systems themselves. As such, designers and developers of interactive virtual (here defined as including mixed and augmented) reality systems are faced with a fundamental choice: to create experiences that are inherently collaborative or competitive. While on the surface such a choice might seem a simple articulation of the core design principles for any one given project, the directions in which virtual reality systems are guided and the impacts these choices will have on societal acceptance of VR as a principal component of our technological futures should not be ignored. This paper discusses models of collaboration and competition as put forth within a series of interactive virtual experiences and proposes an ideal future for virtual reality in which interactivity and telepresence leverage collaboration as a core mechanic.