Yes, you identified some key problems with large gatherings in VR. If they are used improperly then they may have a net negative return. Improper use would certainly include recreating an open office floor plan where everyone was expected to spend their entire workday but at the same time feel free to wander over and interrupt their colleagues. Importantly, this is also a poor implementation of an office in physical space. A good implementation that involved 100+ people would be a conference or trade show whose purpose is just as much networking and chance encounters with other people in the same industry as it is consumption of broadcast talks or demos. Large VR events should be... events! Done properly you would focus on spatialized audio so that participants could easily speak with those near them, could move to quiet "breakout rooms" to continue conversations in depth, could share documents or contact information and also provision the conference speakers with the ability to run effective Q&A sessions and record the talks and replay them for those who couldn't attend the live presentation.
Most of the time, meeting in VR is best done in smaller groups where participation in the conversation can flow naturally. This is where the ability to easily transition from offline work to full VR immersion comes in. This is far from a solved problem and as the recent Quest Pro release has shown it is being actively worked on by Meta. Their vision appears to be a headset that you can wear all day with the benefit of having virtual monitors to work on and an instant transition to meeting with others in VR. I have yet to see text rendered through a Quest Pro but from the specs my guess is that they aren't there yet, it may be passable but it probably isn't very comfortable for text heavy uses. They're pushing hard in this direction though. Other VR hardware companies should take note!
Using Unreal Engine (Fortnight is built using it) is a great idea. There are a few social VR apps out there using it and it is far superior to the Unity based apps in my experience. It is a more mature engine overall.
Most of the time, meeting in VR is best done in smaller groups where participation in the conversation can flow naturally. This is where the ability to easily transition from offline work to full VR immersion comes in. This is far from a solved problem and as the recent Quest Pro release has shown it is being actively worked on by Meta. Their vision appears to be a headset that you can wear all day with the benefit of having virtual monitors to work on and an instant transition to meeting with others in VR. I have yet to see text rendered through a Quest Pro but from the specs my guess is that they aren't there yet, it may be passable but it probably isn't very comfortable for text heavy uses. They're pushing hard in this direction though. Other VR hardware companies should take note!
Using Unreal Engine (Fortnight is built using it) is a great idea. There are a few social VR apps out there using it and it is far superior to the Unity based apps in my experience. It is a more mature engine overall.