Gamers join together to create a shared virtual world, where the audience and creators contribute to the narratives that exist within it, creating an immersive experience for both participants and audiences alike.

Imagine an open-ended video game world—created in real time—where there are overlapping characters, extensive chapters, plots and subplots. Now imagine the multitude of stories and storylines that come from this fictional universe with a bajillion possibilities. That’s the Dream SMP (survival multiplayer) world: an experience kick-started by the YouTube creator, Dream, whose virtual universe inspires fans to contribute and build their own volumes of commentary, lore, fan fiction, and art.

In this video, YouTube’s Culture & Trends team explores the Dream SMP universe—a group of creators, a shared gaming experience, and an exercise in world-building with no single author. This new collective experiment has evolved the very nature of collaboration and created a new form of participatory fandom, blurring the line between creator and fan.

You can watch it below.

The Dream SMP and collaborative storytelling

Gamers join together to create a shared virtual world, where the audience and creators contribute to the narratives that exist within it, creating an immersive experience for both participants and audiences alike.

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