Technology/Science - Metaverse
How Fortnite Can Help Prepare Your Business for the Metaverse By Jerod Venema
LAST MONTH, J.P. Morgan set up its own space in a mall in Decentraland, a virtual world. In January, Walmart signaled its metaverse intentions when it filed for a trademark related to "digital currency" for use in "an online community." In December, Nike bought a company that makes sneakers for the metaverse. The metaverse isn't coming, it's already here. So, how should your company prepare? Gaming has long been a prototype for this new concept called the metaverse. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like World of Warcraft and EverQuest created persistent online worlds more than a decade ago with digital goods and clothing worth real money, vibrant communities and virtual online interactions. Today's online games expand this financial 101
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power with real world brands designing and selling virtual items and experiences: Louis Vuitton designed skins and weapons for League of Legends, and Ferrari let players test-drive its 296 GTB in Fortnite. Hundreds of millions of gamers play online games for fun and socializing every day. Epic Games alone hopes to scale Fortnite, one of the more advanced virtual spaces, from 60 million monthly users to a billion. Here is what today's virtual worlds of gaming tell us about how to build a thriving metaverse. What Brands Can Learn About the Metaverse from Gaming Worlds Lesson 1: People will join your digital space for a specific purpose. Online gamers play games to have fun with other people. It doesn't matter how great a game looks, how detailed the virtual world is, or the size of the company's marketing budget--if the game isn't fun to play (and in the case of online games, play together), it won't succeed. For games, enjoyment is the special purpose. see page 102
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