{"id":1101188,"date":"2021-09-28T13:07:46","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T17:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medium.com\/p\/37f68d6e493"},"modified":"2021-09-28T13:07:46","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T17:07:46","slug":"how-do-consumers-feel-about-the-metaverse","status":"publish","type":"station","link":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/plato-data\/how-do-consumers-feel-about-the-metaverse\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do Consumers Feel About the Metaverse?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The term metaverse continues to be a runaway train in the AR and VR sectors and beyond. Though it has legitimate principles and promise \u2014 most notably presented in Matthew Ball\u2019s Metaverse Primer<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s been obscured through overuse and marketing speak.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Ball\u2019s Metaverse Primer, he writes in its introductory segment that it\u2019s challenging to even define the term because it will be a moving target. But broadly speaking, and in our own words, it denotes virtual domains that host placeshifted participants for syncronous interaction.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t fully capture it, due to other Ball-defined variables such as identity, economy and interoperability. Mark Zuckerberg likes the term \u201cembodied internet,\u201d while Tim Sweeney calls it a \u201creal-time 3D social medium where people can create and engage in shared experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

But beyond tech visionaries, how do real consumers feel? Whether they know it or not, many already engage in metaverse-like experiences such as Roblox or Fortnite. A new report<\/a> from NewZoo polls users on such sentiments, which we\u2019re spotlighting for this week\u2019s Data Dive.<\/p>\n

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1. How VR could bring transhumanism to the masses<\/a><\/p>\n

2. How Augmented Reality (AR) is Reshaping the Food Service Industry<\/a><\/p>\n

3. ExpiCulture \u2014 Developing an Original World-Traveling VR Experience<\/a><\/p>\n

4. Enterprise AR: 7 real-world use cases for 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So what did NewZoo\u2019s research uncover? After surveying 5,500 people across the U.S., Europe and Asia, it found a mixed bag of metaverse sentiments. And because the Metaverse is still so nebulous and ill-defined, survey questions had to rely on familiar references such as MMOs.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the highlight reel:<\/p>\n

– 38 percent<\/strong> of consumers who play MMOs like Roblox and Fortnite often or occasionally enter these worlds to socialize, rather than play the game itself.<\/p>\n

– Geographically speaking, the above behavior is more common in China ( 53 percent<\/strong>) and the U.S. ( 34 percent<\/strong>) versus the U.K. ( 27 percent<\/strong>) and Japan ( 23 percent<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

– When segmenting by age, those under 18 are 2x<\/strong> more likely than those over 35 to engage in this social-only MMO behavior.<\/p>\n

– As for aspirational sentiments, among those interested in non-game activity within MMOs (socializing, attending virtual concerts) 56 percent<\/strong> are male and 42 percent<\/strong> are female.<\/p>\n

– Among these metaverse-interested respondents, the biggest age group is 25\u201334 ( 29 percent<\/strong>), followed by 35\u201344 ( 27 percent<\/strong>), 18\u201324 ( 18 percent<\/strong>) and under 18 ( 15 percent<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

– Synthesizing the above results, younger consumers over-index for current engagement in metaverse-like experiences, while older consumers are more aspirational in their interests.<\/p>\n

– 70 percent<\/strong> of MMO players believe that social\/interactive elements of a given experience will increase the amount of time they spend in those virtual worlds.<\/p>\n

– As for non-gamers, 70 percent<\/strong> believe they will adopt gaming in the future (baseline average) while this figure jumps to 86 percent<\/strong> when there\u2019s interest in in-game social interaction.<\/p>\n

– Among those who express interest in social\/interactive elements of MMOs, the top desired activity is getting together with family ( 75 percent<\/strong>), getting together with friends ( 74 percent<\/strong>) co-viewing TV & movies ( 72 percent<\/strong>) and attending virtual concerts ( 67 percent<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

– As for features offered in virtual worlds, the most desired (mean score out of a total of 7) are avatar customization ( 5.32<\/strong>), ad-supported free content & media ( 5.26<\/strong>) ability to create content for other players ( 5.23<\/strong>) cross-game currency & interoperability ( 5.22<\/strong>) and ability to buy virtual goods to customize one\u2019s virtual space ( 5.18<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

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As you can see in these survey results, some sentiments are aspirational (what do you want to see in a metaverse?) and some involve \u201cmetaverse-like\u201d activity (MMOs). Again, these proxies and existing reference points are needed because a fully-formed metaverse doesn\u2019t exist yet.<\/p>\n

That gets to a question of timing. When will the metaverse arrive?. An \u201cOasis\u201d style metaverse is likely decades away, if ever. But there will also be meaningful milestones along the way. Or as Endeavor VR\u2019s Amy Peck puts it<\/a>, \u201cthe metaverse is as much the journey as the destination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, MetaVRse founder and CEO Alan Smithson quipped on a recent panel discussion<\/a> that we moderated: \u201cWe already have the metaverse: it\u2019s called the internet.\u201d Partly meant in jest, this is a key insight that goes back to the variance in definitions for what the metaverse is and isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s also to say that when examining the what<\/em> and when<\/em> of the metaverse, much of it will depend on how it\u2019s defined. For example, Matthew Ball asserts that if the metaverse is confined to VR and AR devices, it will be a much different animal \u2014 and one that doesn\u2019t scale as well.<\/p>\n

If however, the metaverse involves all consumer access devices \u2014 as Mark Zuckerberg thinks<\/a> it should \u2014 then we\u2019re talking larger numbers. Back to Ball\u2019s assertion above, much still needs to materialize so most analysis today is speculative. But it\u2019s still worth tracking the journey.<\/p>\n

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Source: https:\/\/arvrjourney.com\/how-do-consumers-feel-about-the-metaverse-37f68d6e493?source=rss—-d01820283d6d—4<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1101189,"template":"","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","type":"","auto_type":false,"post":"","stream":"","stream_url":"","waveform_data":[],"duration":0,"start":0,"end":0,"bpm":0,"downloadable":false,"download_url":"","purchase_title":"","purchase_url":"","post-count-all":0,"like_count":0,"download_count":0,"editor_note":"","copyright":"","captions":[],"sources":[]},"genre":[10309],"station_tag":[43567,5062,3629,3880,44052,3761,3787,4045,4811,4988,4812,26070,5738,6267,3684,3635,4145,3764,4421,4442,41448,4690,7067,6978,3791,3832,3724,3642,5069,3834,4611,4166,4064,44547,4471,4852,4472,8066,4379,44230,4473,4382,4175,4069,4252,43736,6131,4534,4742,3950,3902,4615,3951,3847,5136,3694,44049,4475,3650,4495,3907,3733,5238,4253,3652,4191,4193,4496,3653,5299,3805,3657,24364,4451,4353,4477,8954,5028,7070,4748,3663,3966,43670,4546,3710,4433,13470,4117,4700,4221,3779,4357,3977,5126,5336,3716,4675,3930,43573,44870,17041,3671,3750,4895,4038,5653,3981,5084,3755,4237,3933,4551,3941,3816,4757,3784],"artist":[10451],"mood":[],"activity":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/station\/1101188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/station"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/station"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1101188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/genre?post=1101188"},{"taxonomy":"station_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/station_tag?post=1101188"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=1101188"},{"taxonomy":"mood","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mood?post=1101188"},{"taxonomy":"activity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platodata.io\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/activity?post=1101188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}