Since quarantine hit, many people have suddenly turned into remote workers. That’s still better than not having a job. It does have new stresses, though, like trying to look like you’re awake on camera for hours at a time on hangout platform Zoom. Everyone you work with can see you sitting in your hole of a home, wearing pajamas and sporting insane hair. Sometimes someone walks in naked in the background by accident. Wouldn’t it be so nice if we could all just meet in an alternate universe online instead of seeing any of that?
Well, we definitely can, because the Internet is full of alternate universes for people to meet in. Book designer Viviane Schwarz pointed that out on Twitter, saying their team meets in popular video game Red Dead Redemption, a western saga out in the forest and on the plains.
“Zoom sucks, we started having editorial meetings in Red Dead Redemption instead. It’s nice to sit at the campfire and discuss projects, with the wolves howling out in the night.”
Zoom sucks, we started having editorial meetings in Red Dead Redemption instead. It’s nice to sit at the campfire and discuss projects, with the wolves howling out in the night
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
What an amazing idea. You can be an avatar instead of yourself, which sells it to me immediately. You get to feel like you’re out in nature. You can ride a horse. It’s perfect!
There are certain pleasures built into the game structure that will keep you on your toes, like being surrounded by wolves or getting strangled by a co-worker. But that’s what makes it fun.
The main technical hitches we’ve had is that sometimes the meeting table doesn’t exist for everyone, and sitting on the ground is the same button as attempting to strangle the nearest person. Still beats zoom
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
Schwarz offered some examples of what a regular meeting in the RDR2 universe is like:
“Can you parlay these people, they keep hogtying me”
“Where did you spawn?”
“Am I not on the map?”
“You’re miles away… Let me just kick you out from to the posse and invite you again”— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
But there are some technical difficulties in switching back and forth between the video game universe and actual office business. Plus, everyone who meets in the wild west has to have reached a certain level in the game as a bare minimum to participate.
But there are also perks, like avoiding the awkward goodbye wave that seems inevitable at the end of a Zoom meeting. Just ride off into the sunset, cowboy!:
Since people are asking: you can’t have meetings in Red Dead Redemption two until you’ve done the intro quests in online mode, which takes up to an hour depending on whether the people you get paired up with for staff training decide to sabotage your horse wrangling
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
A perk of this is that when you agree that the meeting is over you can all jump on your horses and do crime or justice, which is a lot less awkward than everyone smiling at the camera while they’re trying to sign off
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
Also the landscape is amazing so you can walk and talk, and if some other posse attacks they only get five minutes to fight you, which is in effect a tea break except you don’t have to pretend to make tea, or agree when it happens.
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
A lot of people had follow-up questions and their own ideas for alternative Zoom rooms. Schwarz did her best to keep up with the crowd for a while, but eventually had to bow out, saying she isn’t a “cowboy consultant,” but hopes everyone goes and has an online adventure:
It’s definitely been much much more productive and less stressful to hang out in games than video conferencing. They really vary in ridiculousness though, RDR is probably the least sensible choice… but so far my favourite.
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
Can confirm both that it works, and that it’s really hard to concentrate on camp because Cripps keeps playing the mouth harp and you can’t shoot him.
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
Minecraft is definitely more viable for running on more platforms and not requiring multiplayer to be unlocked first…
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
Have you finished the introduction? You got to steal some horses with a posse of strangers first.
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
Might float the idea of getting a freelancer in to deal with sudden enemy raids when Cripps packs up the camp mid meeting
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
It’s good to have variety. There’s always Minecraft if you want to have a productive meeting in some sense.
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
Making the hot drinks is a low key team building challenge in all meetings, I feel.
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
Oh, we are, but, cowboys
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 17, 2020
I agree, it has a skippable tutorial too, which helps. Maximum of four, though!
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 16, 2020
Sort of, yes. You do have to play for about half an hour to clear the tutorial, then you can just walk around with friends and chat. You can spend hours in the wilderness in peace, in theory, in practice other players do sometimes turn up and fight you.
— Viviane Schwarz (@vivschwarz) May 17, 2020
Look, work isn’t fun. But it can be!
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