Take a Metaverse Break This Holiday Season
While the term “metaverse” became a talking point in the past few months, it already feels like it is everywhere.
Fueled by the Facebook Company’s rebranding and investment, you don’t have to look far to see a metaverse reference – news headlines, gaming platforms, social media, and of course, memes.
But the metaverse doesn’t stop there.
A few months ago, we explained why the future of virtual events will be the metaverse. Case in point: Traci and Dave Gagnon’s Labor Day weekend in a virtual environment.
Our founder, Sandy Hammer, explained that the metaverse has no limitations. “If you really want to do something different, in the metaverse, you might as well let your creativity go wild.” She added what could be just one possibility: “A bride can transport her guests into the metaverse: ‘I want my morning session to be in Italy, my evening session to be in Paris.’”
But getting your arms around the metaverse and what it represents is a tricky endeavor. As Mashable explains:
“Mark Zuckerburg’s version conjures an image of virtual everything: You attend work meetings as an avatar using the Quest VR headset and use a device on your wrist to secretly text friends. When you go outside, you’ll wear smart glasses that offer augmented reality as well as record what you see and hear. The metaverse will be accessible through phones, computers, wearable tech, and headsets (or a combination of these), and it will be where you work, shop, exercise, socialize, watch movies, and game.”
As busy #eventprofs wind down this holiday season, it’s an excellent time to recharge, look for new inspiration, and take a test drive in the metaverse.
Therefore, We’ve curated a list of metaverse examples for you to try. Whether you have Oculus headsets or not, take a break to learn and explore, and you may also become the star of the holiday dinner table conversation!
1. Horizon Worlds (formerly Facebook Horizon)
As Wikipedia explains, Horizon Worlds is a free virtual reality, an online video game with an integrated game creation system developed and published by Meta Platforms for Microsoft Windows and Oculus Quest. After an invite-only beta phase, it was released in the U.S. and Canada to people 18 years or older on December 9, 2021.
Touted as a “social VR experience,” the game is played with an Oculus Rift or Oculus Quest (2) virtual reality headset. Users can create and explore – everything from action-packed games to tranquil locales for meditation.
Other components of Horizon Worlds include a collaboration experience that lets people come together in the same virtual room in Horizon Workrooms and two upcoming VR concerts featuring Young Thug and David Guetta in Horizon Venues.
2. Supernatural
You can maintain your healthy routine in the Metaverse (or start one). Developed by Within, Supernatural is a VR workout game that takes users through movement-based high-impact cardio exercises. With an expansive library of cardio, boxing, meditation, and recovery workouts featuring picturesque environments like the Galápagos Islands, the ruins of Machu Picchu, and even Mars, Supernatural has been making VR-based fitness fun.
And it’s one of the investments Meta is making. In October, it was announced that the company would be acquiring Within as part of its plans to broaden the metaverse offerings (though in recent days, the Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into the purchase.)
Supernatural lets you try out the program for free, but it’ll cost $19 per month ($180 per year) when the trial ends.
3. Roblox
Over half of U.S. kids under age 16 played Roblox in 2020 and more than 43.2 million daily active users worldwide. But many adults don’t really know what it is about.
At the simplest, Roblox is an online platform and storefront where users go to play games. However, what makes it different than anything else in the gaming industry is that users make all the games. In other words, the fun doesn’t just come from playing games; it also comes from making games.
Although free to play, users buy and spend proprietary Robux virtual currency within the platform to purchase in-game upgrades or accessories for their avatars.
4. EXVO HOME
Of course, we couldn’t talk about ways to experience the metaverse without mentioning the platform we created for #eventprofs!
EXVO is a virtual platform that allows you to create immersive, fully branded experiences to keep audiences completely engaged. With fully customizable branding capabilities, attendees can be transported anywhere around the world – and even beyond! EXVO Home is a community space we created for the event industry to gather, network, and learn.
Want to see a demo of the Global Eventex Award winner for both ‘Best New Event Technology Product’ and ‘Best Virtual Event Platform (under 1,000 attendees)’? Contact us for a demo!
AltSpace is a social VR platform owned by Microsoft. It is not a gaming platform like Horizon or Roblox, but more an always-on virtual space where individuals can gather, chat, collaborate, and be co-present in groups. You can access AltSpace via your VR headsets like Oculus Quest and Windows Mixed Reality. No VR headsets? No problem. You can still enter AltSpace from the desktop mode in 2D mode.
People use AltSpace for a variety of reasons including education, entertainment, and participating in topic-specific events. For example, Doug Hohulin recently hosted an amazing talk on the future of The Metaverse and the platform is regularly home for LGBTQ meetups.
Decentraland is a 3D virtual reality world powered by the Ethereum blockchain. It opened to the public in February 2020.
It allows users to create virtual buildings such as homes, casinos, art galleries, concert halls, and theme parks and charge other players to visit them. In addition, you can interact and play games with others, building entire villages together.
Users build these structures on a non-fungible digital asset known as LAND, plots of which are purchased with the MANA cryptocurrency. Once you own a plot of LAND, you’re free to do with it as you choose. For example, you can create games, applications, or even dynamic 3D scenes. LAND-based services can also be built around education, professional development, or even tourism too.
With the addition of NFTs to the metaverse, some wonder if this might be the future of online communities.
Just recently launched, this platform is positioned as the “first metaverse island – a collection of 7777 unique islands categorized by level or rarity and generated with hundreds of elements.”
Like Decentraland, meta islands are stored as ERC-721 tokens on the Etereum blockchain. Watch for more developments in this up-and-coming platform!
Which of these did you try? What other examples of the metaverse have you checked out? Share your experiences with us!
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