Are You Ready To MetaVerb?, By Syeda Ayesha Ikram
Hello there. Of all the amazing technical discussions, data analysis and opinions, let’s talk about some basic stuff today. Will it be fun if I ask you to imagine being in a boardroom? Oh no, trust me it won’t bore you at all! Instead, it’ll spark a few questions in your brilliant minds to answer, as there’s a conversation happening between a presenter and John. Now hurry up and start imagining!
“Hey John, welcome to the Metaverse; the one-stop solution to all your problems. Whether it’s about selling your product, growing your business, meeting family and friends, playing games or mingling in a community — we have it all, right here. You don’t have to be physically present anywhere from now; your avatar would be everywhere, making you unstoppable and limitless. Your digital wallet will assist you to buy fashion accessories, branded products, travel destinations, materials for digital communication, gaming avatars, your very own NFTs, land in the Metaverse and even porn,” the presenter says, looking directly into John’s eyes.
“Hmmm… interesting… Ahem… look, I am a simple guy. I am still trying to understand the possibilities, but I am a bit confused. I have a VR at home but I cannot use it for more than half an hour. It gives me headaches and makes me nauseous. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Discord, Snapchat, even PlayStation and X-Box have provided a lot of cool stuff that involves AR, VR, and many other technologies. I believe everyone is putting in a lot of effort behind Metaverse but it still makes me ponder when my employer hosts a townhall meeting involving avatars to unlock the Metaverse possibilities for all the employees, but still wants me to be physically present in the office. He plainly demands that now the pandemic is over and our clients want to interact with us in person, in meetings. I’m just wondering that if we’re not ready to MetaVerb, how can we be in Metaverse then?” John replied.
“But John, Metaverse is not about attending meetings. It’s a whole new world of interaction and exploring a new dimension of communication and existence,” the presenter added.
“Correct, but then why are we using the same rules and dynamics of interaction in understanding the Meta philosophy? For me to shift into anything new starts by embracing a mindset. It helps to determine my choices and to drive action.
In other words, I have to add and adapt some new verbs in my dictionary. Also taking into account the intervention of AI, latent space, and stable diffusion VR to enhance the MetaVerb experience.” – John
“Agreed, John. We do need to notch up the experience from a mere game-lookalike to one blended in reality. But if we don’t keep trying and experimenting, we will never be able to refine it” – Presenter
Now, let’s look beyond that boardroom into some data and facts. Well, I am not an ardent advocate of them, but they surely help in gaining a fresh perspective.
Me, you and all of us are, in one way or the other, being touched by the Metaverse and we are getting ready for it as well. We are trying to enhance our knowledge on digital currencies, wallets, NFTs, etc. Social media and gaming platforms are surely helping a lot, but still, things are not as simple as they seem. We’re continuously trying to create a world within a world, and it has a lot of mental, emotional and physical limitations.
Now take the example of Decentraland and Sandbox. *Data from DappRadar suggests both of these metaverse platforms, each have fewer than 1,000 “daily active” users, despite $1 billion valuations. However, the platforms say these numbers don’t tell the full story.
On the other hand, companies like Disney are actively looking into bridging the gap between the MetaVerb and the Metaverse by **blending the real with the virtual. They are actively investing in next-gen storytelling, blockchains, NFTs and most importantly interactive theme parks and virtual worlds. This hints that the company is interested in building AR environments that don’t require users to wear headsets. This might involve a technology known as SLAM – Simultaneous Localization and Mapping.
Similarly, in the advertising world, we need to find meaningful interactions to drive positive actions towards and within the Metaverse. Meaningless trends, filters and challenges are not helping. They are rather convoluting the human intellect into a reflection of the 2006 cult-classic movie “Idiocracy”. With the disasters of overbranded content and meaningless engagements, the joke’s on us.
Just as our actions pave the route to success or failure in everything we innovate, the same is with Metaverse. If we really want to embrace it, then we need to have the right perspective towards it. Who knows, in some near future, we might end up in our very own cocoons, living in the metaverse while another species can benefit off of our departure from reality.
Syeda Ayesha Ikram
An advertising veteran with 19+ years in the industry, Ayesha is a strategy-driven creative. She observes patterns in human behavior to help connect people better with the world around them.
