A guy who grew up isolated in rural areas found community and made money running Minecraft servers as a teenager. He thinks VR will be the next step for that kind of immersive connection and entrepreneurship.
I grew up in the middle of nowhere. I made my friends online, and much of who I am, both in the virtual world and the real one, those things were defined by very intense, meaningful experiences in virtual worlds that I wouldn't have been able to have otherwise. Some of the people I've met in those virtual worlds, some of the design work I've done, making money in virtual worlds, that was crazy. You know, I was a teenager and we were trying to monetize our Minecraft servers. And learning that, oh wow, I have the power to make money and trying to organize that and then trying to recruit other teenagers to help me write more modes and create more Minecraft servers. This sort of experience of life, of working with other people, that's just one example, but it's an experience I would never have had otherwise. Like I would never have had that experience without those virtual worlds. And the reason VR clicked for me is that it just seemed like the most intense way to offer those very, very meaningful experiences to people.
