CHAPTER 5Battle Royale for the Fortnite Metaverse
Years after the avatar known as AM Radio had moved and inspired the user community of Second Life, the avatar's real-life owner, Jeff Berg, received an intriguing invitation to see a new art installation in another virtual world.
By then, nearly all of AM Radio's works had gone away from Second Life, largely dematerialized due to the high cost of virtual land.
In the interim, Berg had lost another essential, more tangible part of himself: his marriage. And as he and his wife grew apart, they also moved across the country. Their teen son Cary went to live with his mother on the East Coast, while Berg himself remained in the Midwest.
So when Cary reached out to his father, it was through an Xbox that Berg had bought for them to play together online.
One night, Cary casually IMed him: “Hey check this out.”
And so Berg did.
Cary had re-created some of AM Radio's most beloved Second Life works in Fortnite Creative.
There they were on a Fortnite island on an expansive desert lined by soaring mountains, beneath a gold and purple sky. A radar array pointed out into nothingness; an ancient farm house stood alone in the wasteland, where rocking chairs were tossed ...
Get Making a Metaverse That Matters now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
