"Your avatar can look any way you want it to […]. If you've just gotten out of bed, your avatar can still be wearing beautiful clothes and professionally applied makeup. You can look like a gorilla or a dragon…" While this may sound like an advert for the latest virtual online game, it is taken from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash published in 1992. As most readers will know, the sci-fi novel coined the term "Metaverse" and described in some detail what people could do virtually on "the Street". Interestingly, the above-mentioned quote already introduces two concepts that are likely to become of increased importance in the coming years: avatar customization and virtual fashion.
As mentioned in our introductory article (which can be accessed here), the Metaverse is expected to become the successor of today's internet as we know it, resulting in a convergence of our physical reality and the digital space. The Metaverse will consist of countless interoperable 3D worlds that will integrate into our everyday lives. Consumers will be able to do almost anything they can think of in these virtual worlds – work, travel, study, play games, meditate, meet their family or make new friends. Most of these activities will be experienced by consumers through their avatars. These items can be understood as virtual representations of a person. Much like the main characters in a video game, they will serve as a digital action figure that consumers steer through the different virtual worlds. At first, this might still be done via mouse and keyboard. However, it is expected that the role of AR/VR or some other type of technology will increase with time, allowing consumers a more immersive experience. As consumers will spend more time in the virtual space, they are likely to care about how they are being represented virtually and, at some point, may start to identify with their avatar(s). Mark van Rijmenam predicts in "Step into the Metaverse" that consumers are likely to have several avatars suited for different purposes (e.g. work, leisure etc). Some consumers may want to spend their free time online as an anime-themed super hero, while they might prefer something subtler for other occasions. There might also be certain technical or legal restrictions for the types of avatars you can use in specific scenarios. Full story here
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |