[FRIAM] better simulating actual FriAM

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For me, the 3D audio has a huge impact. Like Slack, Zoom is intended for busyness, hard-core, intention, purpose driven attention. Zoom and Slack are not even a little bit *playful*. They try. But they're just not. Contrast Slack with Discord, where well-multiplexed audio groups were built in from the beginning. The focus was on hanging out with your friends while killing zombies (or each other) in a video game. And you might be able to contrast Zoom with Twitch, where Twitch content is focused on frivolity like video games, cooking, karaoke, etc. (Yes, I know Twitch is mostly parasocial broadcasting ... but not entirely.)

VR with 3D/located audio is much more dynamic. As you move your avatar away from the sound source, the power drops. You can turn your head so that the sound source goes more toward your good ear (my right ear is better than my left because of all that heavy metal blaring out of the speaker on the left door). You can start a conversation with, say, that green lizard avatar, and *very* slowly inch away from the crowd. If the green lizard also inches away from the crowd, you form a little clique where your audio is louder, but you can still hear what's coming from the crowd you moved away from. Etc.

Of course, there's plenty else going on. You can have point-source light or ambient light. Your avatar can carry around a camera, mirror, speaker, microphone, even *instruments*. You can point, put on clothes, dance, etc. Anyone who claims they enjoy the "body language" of a Zoom meeting over something like a phone call or email would enjoy VR with 3D audio more as well. It solves many of the same problems. (Your avatar's mouth can even move when you speak!)

To suggest that Zoom's break out rooms treat the same issues would be bizarre.

On 7/19/20 9:00 PM, thompnickson2 at gmail.com wrote:
> But it doesn’t have the actual flexibility of the True FRIAM Table, where you can sort of listen to two conversations at once or move from one end of the table to the other. 

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