All things Metaverse at SXSW
This week we’ll talk about another hot topic at SXSW: The Metaverse - hype or the real deal? That was the question that Heiding Chung and Andrew Wallenstein (Media Analysts at Variety Intelligence Platform) launched in their session about the ‘Business of Content’. 79% of the people in that room believed that the metaverse is overhyped. Chung and Wallenstein agree with the crowd and believe that Roblox and Epic (Fortnite) are the place to focus instead of Meta. Sofie Hvitved (Futurist and Head of Media at the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies) even tells us that articles in media and experts are denouncing the metaverse… What?
In the 2023 Delphi Study, it is believed that the metaverse is already here. “At least to some degree”. Some of the things that are already possible today could be the groundwork of what will eventually become the metaverse. But Hvitved warns us that if we keep focusing on what we have now (things like walled gardens that can’t really be called a metaverse), we lose the ability to look at other long-term possibilities. And that's exactly what media experts are doing: they are simply recalibrating their focus to not be too fascinated by the hypes and catchy headlines, while continuing to work in the direction of the future metaverse.
She also tells us that the future of the metaverse lies in the physical world. Remember Amy Webb? She agrees with her fellow futurist and states in the 2023 Emerging Tech Trend Report that “interfaces will become more immersive as both virtual spaces and the physical world are interlaced with rich digital media experiences”. The metaverse is thus a space that we should keep an eye on while waiting for the technical developments required. And these requirements will be attributed to AI according to Ian Beacraft (CEO of Signal And Cipher) and Kevin Kelly (Senior Maverick at Wired). Kelly even states that “the real superpower of AI is to generate 3D universes” and it will soon be able to create metaverses.
Defining the metaverse
With all this talk of the metaverse, do we even know what it really means? Sandy Carter (SVP and COO at Unstoppable Domains) defines the metaverse of today broadly as “a digital world where we will all live, work, play, interact and where we’ll have our social presence, anytime and anywhere”. The metaverse should be a place where we, as a user, get the feeling of being socially present and having some sort of consciousness. Whether this means having an avatar or not in a space in Web3, AR or VR is something that we’ll leave up to others to decide. But one important thing is that wherever these worlds are, users should be able to travel easily, freely and with their belongings between them.
With the big 3 (Epic, Roblox and Meta) working on this future metaverse, the question of ownership arises. “Who owns the platform and consumer data?” Carter believes that the one who gives away his/her data (that is in definition data about that person) should also be the one who is in control, since a person’s digital identity is a human right. A digital identity can be defined as “an identity that travels with you through the metaverse. It is the way that you transact, share information about yourself and represent yourself”. Carter compares it to having a company user ID that you use daily to log in to your email or to enter your company’s building. In Web3, your digital identity and personal data is stored with you and you decide who gets the data, when and how much they get and what type of data they obtain. In other words, you as a user are in full control of your own data in this ownership economy. Carter then showed her own digital identity to the crowd and compared it to a LinkedIn page where you can also show your rewards and certificates. “But now it is verified”, she says, “you actually have something that lives on the blockchain that is verified by another party that proves you did it”.
The question of control was also addressed in the Future Media Hubs session ‘Shaping The Future of Media Together: A Transatlantic Dialogue on Innovation’. During the second discussion, which was under the guidance of Anssi Komulainen (Project Director at Sitra), speakers talked about the differences between Europe and the US when it comes to controlling your data. They agreed with Sandy Carter about the fact that the user should be in control of their own data. Osmar Olivo (VP of Product Management at Inrupt) and Eleni Sharp (Head of Product at BBC R&D) talked about the Solid technology that is being used in European Data Pods. Brittany Kaiser (Co-Founder of Own Your Data Foundation) gave her view on the necessary legislation when it comes to user data and Ethan Zuckerman (Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst) talked about data on social platforms. You can find all insights of this discussion in the full article about ‘Shaping the Future of Media Together’ in next week’s article.
Enter the metaverse
Next to the problem of data and ownership, we should talk about safety and responsibility when entering the metaverse. Just as there will be a new digital divide based on AI, we can continue this line of thinking to the metaverse. The user is quite vulnerable and educating them in the right way is essential. Sofie Hvitved gave a keynote during the Future Media Hubs session about metaliteracy and responsibility for media companies. Media companies should be able to make a safe space in the metaverse, but we are also in need of a common vocabulary to fully comprehend it. Read the full article about Hvitved’s keynote and the two other discussions of ‘Shaping the Future of Media Together’ in next week's article.
Now, how can we as media organisations enter the metaverse? Carter advises the public to form a rabbit team that can learn at a slow pace and see in which direction your company can and wants to go. This rabbit team can take three different forms: a steering committee (team has no real dedicated time but does it as an extra), a centre of enablement (some dedicated team members) or a Design Studio (small but completely dedicated team). The latter is the best form according to her since the team can form an execution strategy and educate both your company and the consumers. Regardless of the form, the team should definitely consist of an educator, gamer, product manager, strategist, marketeer and technologist. Furthermore, AI tools such as ChatGPT, Poised or Midjourney are indispensable.
The game industry
We can’t talk about the metaverse without also talking about games. During the session ‘The Future of Play: New Platforms, Games and Tech’, Paul Bettner (Co-Founder of Wildcard Alliance), Nate Mitchell (CEO of Mountaintop Games), Amy Wu (Investor) and Eden Chen (CEO of Pragma Platform) talk about gaming and its future. For Bettner, the most exciting thing in the future will be the emergence of Games as a spectator sport. People actually like watching someone else play games just as much as playing the game themselves. This is also very accessible and a trend that should be addressed more. We already see an evolution in ‘hardcore games’ being more broadly played by mainstream audiences. But how can we make sure that our games are inclusive and accessible to all? It’s a question that the industry should definitely focus on more.
“The community is the project and the project is the community”
Sandy Carter, SVP and COO at Unstoppable Domains
A second thing that is crucial in the gaming industry according to the panel members is the ‘social presence’ feeling. Children play games together with their friends and make new friends in places like Roblox and Minecraft. Bettner even states that “video games are the new schoolyards” and this really changes the social dynamics of the gaming industry. When we look at the numbers, we see that 52% of Gen Z feels more like themselves in the digital environment than in the physical world. Kids nowadays would rather want Robux (the digital currency in Roblox) as a birthday gift than a physical object or even a puppy. Furthermore, 60% of Roblox users today are girls. The stereotypical image that we have of a gamer (the nerdy guy playing games 24/7 in a dark bedroom) is no longer reality and we should stop making the distinction between gamer vs non-gamer. Just like so many things in life, gaming is a spectrum and the definition is changing.
The game industry has a lot of revenue and it is even said that it is bigger than both movies, TV and music combined. Sounds to us as an industry that we should definitely not ignore. For example when it comes to storytelling, media companies and the game industry can collaborate, since this is a major part in games and will only be more important in the future. Children are growing up with Marvel and Star Wars and these stories will remain popular, just like Pokemon still is with our generation. But we have to make stories specific for each platform, because things that work on TV (passive entertainment) don’t necessarily work when playing a video game (active entertainment). We should first decide which story we want to bring, before we can start thinking about the technique or platform we’re going to use. Web3 could help us here, since it is the tech to enable games according to Paul Bettner. “Web3 gives us a way to build a network that connects people (builders, streamers, players, fans, …) in a new way”. From a game development standpoint, the possibilities of Web3 are huge and will lead to better, more sustainable and even more successful cases than previous models.
Article written by Lieke Decosemaker, with the input of Romar Bucur and Kati Bremme.
