元宇宙公司也强行通勤上班了？

作者 编辑｜孙浩南

Author, editor, Sun Ho Nam.

近日，Roblox 首席执行官 David Baszucki 对远程办公的员工提出要求：在明年 1 月 16 日之前，员工需要决定是否从每周二到周四开始回公司上班，若无法完成，需在 2024 年 4 月 15 日之后离开公司。究竟是什么原因令这个被称为“元宇宙第一股”的Roblox公司选择执行这一强制要求呢?

Recently, Roblox CEO David Baszucki made a request to teleworking employees: before January 16, next year, employees will have to decide whether to go back to work in the company from Tuesdays to Thursdays, or if they cannot do so, to leave the company after April 15th, 2024. What is the reason why Roblox, known as the first share of the meta-cosmos, chose to implement this mandatory requirement?

虚拟办公不如回公司上班?

Why don't you go back to work?

Roblox 首席执行官 David Baszucki 在呼吁员工返回办公室的信件中表示，虚拟工作空间不如物理工作空间“有吸引力、协作性和生产力”。该公司对未来的工作方式进行了多次深入讨论，并最终决定重新开始面对面的工作。

In a letter calling on staff to return to the office, Roblox Chief Executive Officer David Baszucki stated that the virtual workspace was less attractive, collaborative and productive than the physical workspace. The company held many in-depth discussions on the way forward and finally decided to restart face-to-face work.

虽然Baszucki希望能够实现一种现实与虚拟世界高度混合的远程工作方式，但在公司第一次举办隔离后面对面的集体会议期间，他经历了一个“关键时刻”。他说：“在45分钟内，我从三次独立的对话中得到了一些自发的任务和想法，这在过去几年的视频会议中从未发生过。”

While Baszucki wanted to be able to achieve a remote mode of work that was highly mixed with the virtual world, he went through a “critical moment” during the company's first face-to-face group meeting after the isolation of the company. He said: “In 45 minutes, I had some spontaneous tasks and ideas from three separate dialogues, which had never happened at videoconferences in the past few years”.

Roblox 只是近几个月来让员工重返办公室的众多公司之一。Zoom 告诉在办公室 50 英里范围内工作的员工每周回来两次。亚马逊告诉员工，他们必须每周回到办公室三天，首席执行官安迪·贾西(Andy Jassy)告诉不满的员工，如果他们不能“不同意并承诺......你可能不会在亚马逊工作” ”。截至 9 月份， Meta 员工每周返回办公室三天。埃隆·马斯克 (Elon Musk)在去年年底接管X(前身为 Twitter)公司后不久就结束了该公司的远程工作。

Roblox is just one of many companies that have brought their employees back to the office in recent months. Zoom tells employees working within 50 miles of the office that they come back twice a week. Amazon tells employees that they have to return to the office three days a week, and CEO Andy Jassy tells disgruntled employees that if they cannot “not agree and promise... you may not work in the Amazon.” As of September, Meta employees returned to the office three days a week. Elon Musk ended his long-distance work shortly after taking over X (formerly Twitter) at the end of last year.

众多科技公司在疫情彻底平稳后都不约而同的选择让员工尽可能的回到公司进行工作，而不是继续远程办公。这一决定背后的原因或许也和Baszucki所强调的一样，他表示：Roblox是一家“创新型公司”，需要回到面对面工作状态，并为刚刚加入的员工提供来自资深员工的现场指导。

Many technology companies have chosen the same options to get their employees back to work as far as possible after the epidemic has stabilized. Perhaps the reason behind this decision is as stressed by Baszucki, who says that Roblox is an “inventive company” that needs to go back to face-to-face work and provide on-site guidance from senior employees to newcomers.

但实际上Roblox 作为一家建立了非常受欢迎的虚拟体验平台的公司，最近推出了自己的视频聊天，甚至还创建了一个Roblox内部职业中心，种种的做法都表明该公司正在向虚拟世界远程工作甚至是元宇宙社交平台的目标过渡。

But the fact that Roblox, a company that has established a very popular virtual experience platform, recently launched its own video chat and even created an internal Roblox occupational centre, shows that the company is making a transition to the goals of virtual world teleworking and even meta-cosm social networking platforms.

Roblox的新愿景

Roblox's new vision

Bazooki将Roblox重新定位成一个沉浸式3D平台，超越产品本身，成为用户可以用来开发游戏和体验的地方。为了给这个沉浸式3D平台带来更多用户，Roblox 正在添加迎合老年用户的功能，例如年龄验证、逼真的头像和视频聊天。这些功能可以帮助用户找到与他们有共同兴趣和偏好的人并与之建立联系，并有可能从虚拟交互转向物理交互。

Bazoki repositions Roblox into a immersed 3D platform that goes beyond the product itself and becomes a place where users can develop games and experiences. To bring more users to this immersion 3D platform, Roblox is adding user-friendly functions such as age verification, hard-to-real heading and video chatting. These functions help users to find and connect people with whom they share interests and preferences, and have the potential to move from virtual to physical interaction.

该公司在今年9月的开发者大会上宣布将推出自己的视频聊天产品 Roblox Connect。这款产品使用户可以通过Roblox头像与其他人进行实时聊天，并且头像将能够模仿用户现实生活中的面部动作。用户还可以在聊天时探索不同的虚拟环境，例如舒适的露营地或风景优美的码头。

The company announced that it would launch its own video chat product, Roblox Connect, at the Developer’s Congress in September this year. This product allows users to chat with others in real time through Roblox and will be able to imitate their face moves in real life. Users can also explore different virtual environments in chatting, such as comfortable camping or beautiful docks.

Roblox 首席产品官和首席技术官在博客文章中表示，计划开源 Roblox Connect 并仅使用公共平台 API 构建它。通过直接向数百万创作者提供 Roblox Connect，我们会看到其他开发者在 Roblox Connect 上加入自己的想法。

Roblox’s Chief Product Officer and Chief Technology Officer, in a blog post, said that the plan was to open up Roblox Connect and build it using only the public platform API. By directing Roblox Connect to millions of creators, we would see other developers add their ideas to the Roblox Connect.

2023年8月，Roblox内部创建了一个虚拟职业中心，人们可以在这里了解有关沉浸式虚拟平台的更多信息，为公司面试做准备，并参加 Roblox 本身主办的活动。Roblox 表示，未来，一些初步采访甚至会直接在体验中进行。

In August 2023, Roblox created a virtual career centre where people can learn more about the immersion virtual platform, prepare for company interviews, and participate in an event sponsored by Roblox itself. Roblox states that in the future, some preliminary interviews will even take place directly in the experience.

此前Roblox还与Gucci合作推出了一个永久虚拟空间 Gucci Town，这是 Roblox 中的一款游戏。Gucci Town 空间有一个中央花园，将各个区域连接在一起，例如咖啡馆、迷你游戏空间，以及一个虚拟商店，玩家可以在商店中为他们的 Roblox 虚拟化身购买虚拟的 Gucci 商品。

Roblox also worked with Gucci to launch a permanent virtual space, Gucci Town, a game in Roblox. Gucci Town has a central garden that connects regions, such as cafés, mini game spaces, and a virtual store where players can buy virtual Gucci commodities for their Roblox virtual incarnation.

Bazooki表示，这种互动为品牌带来了前所未有的关注和参与：“我刚刚体验了Gucci的一场虚拟时装秀，在这样的体验中，人们开始购买虚拟商品、Gucci 钱包等等，在这里与朋友一起购物会是一种非常有趣的社交体验。”

Bazoki said that this interaction brought unprecedented attention and involvement to brands: “I've just experienced Gucci's virtual fashion show, where people start buying virtual goods, Gucci wallets, etc., where shopping with friends is a very interesting social experience.”

Roblox跨界与其它公司的合作可不止Gucci一家，早在这之前Roblox就曾与著名创意机构 VCCP合作在平台上重建了 VCCP 总部 Greencoat House。

Roblox works with other companies across the border with more than the Gucci family, and long before that, Roblox worked with the well-known creative institution VCCP to rebuild VCCP headquarters Greencoat House on the platform.

该建筑有五个不同的楼层，包括迷你游戏、以 VCCP 为主题的收藏品以及向该机构的各种客户致敬的物品，例如多米诺的一套多米诺牌骨、比较猫鼬的猫鼬以及蜂窝网络O2 的机器人吉祥物 Bubl 。

The building has five different floors, including mini-games, VCCP-based collections and items that pay tribute to various clients of the institution, such as Domino's domino skeletal skeletal set, the catweed compared to the cat and the robotic mascot of the cellular network O2 Bubl.

尽管VCCP合伙人创始人Michael Sugden表示，主题虚拟世界中“不存在万有引力动量”，但老板们仍然如此——VCCP创始人Charles Vallance和Adrian Coleman已被智力为NPC。

Although Michael Sugden, the founder of the VCCP partnership, said that there was “no gravitational momentum” in the virtual world of the theme, the bosses still did so — Charles Vallence and Adrian Coleman, the founder of VCCP, had become the NPC.

Sugden表示，Roblox 的办公场所未来可能会获得更多的用途。他说：“我们为我们的全球员工网络创建了一个真正易于访问的学习环境，让他们能够参与其中，了解这个令人惊叹的平台，并且了解它对我们的客户来说是多么强大。在 Roblox 设置的办公室意味着我们可以在令人兴奋的环境中见面、社交和工作，甚至进行棒球。”

Sugden said that Roblox’s office space might be more useful in the future. He said, "We have created a truly accessible learning environment for our global staff network, enabling them to participate, understand this amazing platform, and understand how powerful it is for our clients. The office set up at Roblox means that we can meet, socialize and work, and even play baseball, in an exciting environment."

尽管 Roblox 是一个在线游戏平台，但近年来它已发展成为品牌娱乐甚至企业使用的平台，如 BBC、Netflix 和 Nike 等。但也正因为其作为游戏平台的属性导致其自身在虚拟世界办公场景上的发展有些许“偏航”。

Although Roblox is an online game platform, in recent years it has evolved into a platform for brand entertainment and even for businesses, such as BBC, Netflix, and Nike. It is also because of its properties as a game platform that it has developed somewhat in the virtual world.

“办公派”的元宇宙社交

Office socialization of the meta-cosmos

2004年Roblox初建时给自己的定位是“平台”，前身作为游戏平台在如今想要转型成为一个沉浸式3D平台并非是一蹴而就的。就目前来看Roblox在转型时仍存在一些“游戏派”的思想，不论是虚拟职业中心还是与其它品牌合作的虚拟空间，仍然更像是一个有趣的“游戏”。

When Roblox was first built in 2004, he was positioned as a “platform,” and it is not for a moment that Roblox, as a game platform, wants to transform into a immersed 3D platform. For the moment, Roblox still has some “player” ideas, whether it is a virtual career centre or a virtual space to work with other brands, which is still more like an interesting game.

Meta(原Facebook)和微软将破局的重点放在了办公场景。Meta早在2021年八月份就正式推出了Horizon Workrooms ，Oculus Quest 2用户可以直接下载，进入VR环境举行或参与会议。

Meta (formerly Facebook) and Microsoft have focused the breakup on the office scene. Meta officially launched Horizon Workrooms as early as August 2021, with Oculus Quest 2 users able to download directly into the VR environment to hold or participate in meetings.

在办公环境中，每个人都可以获得个人虚拟办公室，他们可以使用 Meta Quest 远程桌面应用程序在 VR 环境中访问实际的现实计算机。并通过邀请其他用户组成群组来主持和加入虚拟会议，在会议中，用户可以彼此共享他们的计算机屏幕，例如共享PPT或他们正在处理的任何项目，还有办公场景定制、日历提醒、会议记录等功能。

In the office environment, each person has access to a personal virtual office that uses the Meta Quest remote desktop application to access actual real computers in the VR environment. Virtual meetings are conducted and joined by inviting other users to form groups in which users can share their computer screens, such as sharing PPTs or any items they are dealing with, as well as office venue customization, calendar alerts, meeting records, etc.

扎克伯格在采访中表示：“虽然今天的虚拟人物形象还不够逼真，但从很多方面讲，已经感觉比Zoom视频电话更真实了，因为有一种共同的空间感。”

In an interview, Zuckerberg said: “Although today's virtual figure image is not real enough, in many ways it already feels more real than Zoom's video phone, because there is a common sense of space”.

微软也在今年10月份，发布了元宇宙“Microsoft Mesh”预览版，可在“Teams”中使用。Teams 是微软的团队协作和生产力工具，通过 Mesh 的 MR 技术的加持，Teams 的用户可以在不同地点，通过 MR 设备实现协作、处理共享文档、在虚拟共享白板上画图等全息体验。

Microsoft also released in October this year a preview version of the meta-cosmos Microsoft Mesh, which can be used in Teams. Teams is a Microsoft team collaboration and productivity tool that allows users of Teams to collaborate, process shared documents, draw pictures on virtual shared whiteboards, etc., in different locations.

未来已来?元宇宙社交离我们越来越近

The future is coming? We're getting closer and closer.

“游戏派”的Roblox在虚拟办公场景的构建上显然是不如“办公派”的Meta和微软更加具有针对性。微软更注重企业级服务和生产力解决方案，更侧重于平台型的产品，当然受限于VR和AR设备目前在C端占有量很小，因此用户在“微软元宇宙”的感知中可能并不明显。而Meta则借助Quest 系列的优势，让Workdrooms深入整合硬件级功能，带来更沉浸式的虚拟协作体验。

Roblox, a gamer, is clearly more relevant than Meta and Microsoft, in the construction of the virtual office landscape. Microsoft focuses more on enterprise-level service and productivity solutions, and on platform-based products, although limited by the low level of VR and AR equipment at the end of C. Users may not be visible in the perception of the Microsoft cosmos.

然而，不论是“游戏派”的Roblox还是“办公派”的Meta和微软在目前似乎都无法让虚拟办公场景完善到超越线下面对面工作的高效和舒适，目前多家元宇宙公司都在通过自己的优势去加速构建元宇宙办公及社交平台，尽管Roblox 和其它多家公司选择回归面对面工作的传统方式，但并不代表今后的元宇宙社交平台完善后依旧如此。

However, neither Roblox of the “player” nor Meta and Microsoft of the “officer” seem to be able to perfect the virtual office landscape to the efficiency and comfort of working face-to-face under the line, and many Yuan Cosmos are now working through their own strengths to accelerate the construction of meta-cosmos offices and social platforms, even though Roblox and many others have chosen to return to face-to-face work in the traditional way, which does not represent the future of the meta-cosm social platform when it is perfected.

Baszucki表示“在疫情期间Roblox已经通过虚拟平台完成了这么多工作，这令人印象深刻。”Dropbox公司CEO德鲁·休斯顿当前仍坚持远程办公为主的文化，他也同样认为，“让员工居家办公是未来的工作方式。”

According to Baszucki, “It was impressive that Roblox had done so much work through virtual platforms during the epidemic.” The CEO of Dropbox, Cedru Houston, who still maintains a culture of teleworking, shares the view that “putting employees home is the way to work in the future.”

这些前沿公司在元宇宙领域的探索和创新无疑为其未来的发展奠定了坚实的基础，我们正迈向一个的崭新时代。无论是企业协作还是个人创意，未来开放的元宇宙社交平台将为远程工作、职业机会的增加、社交方式带来更加丰富多样的体验和可能性。

The exploration and innovation of these front-line companies in the sphere of the meta-cosm undoubtedly provide a solid foundation for their future development, and we are moving toward a new era. Whether it is business collaboration or personal creativity, a future open meta-cosm social platform will bring with it more diverse experiences and possibilities for teleworking, increased career opportunities, and socialization.