Metaverse technology is making a resurgence at the start of 2023, after the recent revival of the cryptocurrency market and the recent and significant advances in AI technology. With a change of fortunes in the market encouraging further development in the metaverse space, new opportunities are on the horizon.
For the metaverse to truly succeed and reach its full potential, however, it must become multi-functional and future-proof. What is meant by this is that it needs to be a space where people can engage with content, gaming, fashion, other people, income-generating opportunities, creative expression, businesses, arts, competition, and so much more.
Less niche, more inclusive. What this indicates to developers is a need for dynamism, adaptability, and intelligent design that allow for the integration of a diversity of industries, users, and technologies.
Nobody should feel excluded from the Metaverse if it really wants to transform the way people work and play.
Who Benefits Most from a Multi-Functional Metaverse?
Objectively speaking, those who will benefit most from a multi-functional metaverse will be those who grab the bull by the horns and attempt to do the most with it, and perhaps those who move first to get that early-mover advantage. Those who invest the most have the largest risk-reward opportunity, and those who explore numerous metaverses will have the best chance of finding their unique and potentially lucrative space.
Beyond the builders and architects who structurally form the metaverse spaces with their code, it will be the creatives who will bring life and colour, showcasing and monetizing their work in new and unconventional ways.
- Those who embrace the risk-reward opportunity.
- Those who innovate and accelerate.
- Those who create and express.
The artists, musicians, and performers will use the metaverse to reach global audiences without the limitations of physical space or time, as artists like Steve Aoki, Travis Scott, and Ariana Grande have proven. NFT art galleries and virtual venues already exist in small niche metaverses, but as the ambition of their immersive spaces grows, they will be able to engage and interact with new audiences on deeper levels than previously thought possible.
Another aspect of digital experience that will create new opportunities is how we present ourselves in the metaverse. Fashion designers will be keen to leverage the use of avatars to explore their ideas for the fashion industry. Not only can digital fashion and accessories be monetized in metaverse spaces, but they can also be used as trials to see what is popular and grabs attention.
There already exist phygital metaverse spaces where avatars are created to your exact body measurements so that users can pre-wear clothes in digital form before making the physical order. The potential to use colours, patterns, and materials that may not be feasible in the physical world adds another layer to the potential creativity that can be explored.
Beyond music, art, and fashion, a multi-functional metaverse needs games, and this is something many of the larger projects in development are focusing on. Gaming is often considered the segue to success for the metaverse.
If the gamers get on board, others will follow, and that’s why Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft were among the first to create their metaverse projects and make their games social as well as entertaining. Instead of selling consumables in a one-way transaction system, metaverses are holding land sales for advanced customisation and gaming integration.
Metaverses like Heroes of NFT’s ‘Luminoria’ are building out unique reward paths, introducing economic models for real-world gain such as virtual real estate, selling advertising and sponsorship deals to major brands, and even designing competitive PvP gaming with tangible prizes. All the signs point towards a fun and engaging metaverse experience for future participants.
Another aspect of great importance for any successful multi-functional metaverse is communication. This will play a huge role in opportunity creation in the metaverse. Major players like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are already developing their metaverses and experimenting with the technology.
How soon before the timeline disappears and our updates are connected to avatars wandering around in virtual realms, blending art, gaming, social media, and more into one space?
What if, rather than uploading a photo to a stream of other photos, like on Instagram, your avatar is able to hang up the image in their own virtual gallery, living room, or store, for others to visit and admire or interact with? What if #hashtagged content leads you to thematic worlds for deeper engagement, learning, and new revenue opportunities? The potential is yet to be truly discovered.
The Economic Opportunity & Beyond
Beyond creators monetizing the content they create to enhance the metaverse experience, the industry will generate millions of economic opportunities in the form of jobs, advertising opportunities, P2E gaming mechanics, entertainment (imagine Netflix partnering with a metaverse to premiere their shows in advance), and phygital sales (the combination of physical and digital in the retail experience).
The industry will need developers, architects, designers, marketers, publicists, and so much more to bring their skills to the table. At the same time, metaverse-related sectors will emerge, creating untold entrepreneurial opportunities and micro-businesses for users of the metaverses who form ideas for what they can uniquely bring and capitalise on.
A truly rewarding human-centric and multi-functional metaverse takes into account the diverse needs and preferences of its users and caters to those needs. Opportunity is not simply about financial gain. For example, it may offer social spaces for communication to those who are isolated, entertainment spaces for gaming or events to those with physical limitations, educational spaces for learning in countries where education is under threat, and workspaces for collaboration for globally distributed teams.
These functions can be combined and customized to create unique experiences for each user, all around the world. A human-centric multi-functional metaverse prioritizes accessibility, inclusivity, and privacy, ensuring that everyone can participate and feel comfortable in the virtual environment.
The metaverse has the potential to revolutionize the way we work, play, and interact with each other, leading to a new era of economic growth, innovation, and human connection.
What Will Most Functional Metaverses Look Like?
As metaverses and their technology evolve, we will witness progress, disruption, and a digital revolution happen before our eyes. Advances in audio, video, tokenomics, communications, and more will all develop side-by-side as we enter the future of social interactions.
In this future, it will not only be gamers who spend hours engaging with the content, but businesses, advertisers, communities, designers, creatives, and more. All of those who are not yet playing around with existing metaverses will be looking for the project-in-development that really offers the multi-functional requirements needed to serve an enormous audience.
An example of a project that is building a functional metaverse space is Heroes of NFT. This futuristic world, built on the Avalanche blockchain which is low-fee and scalable, gives the affordability and technological foundations for a thriving and limitless metaverse.
Phosphania, the primary space station inside the Luminoria metaverse, will offer incredible social and entertainment spaces, like cinemas, plazas, and malls, to make the experience realistic and futuristic at the same time. Key to the success of this Web3 space will be a functioning economy that finds ways to incentivise long-term gameplay, continuously integrates new ideas, and encourages creators to innovate and contribute.
The creator economy will see HON’s virtual spaces as burgeoning playgrounds for expression, reward, and adventure.
Human-centric metaverse spaces like Luminoria will do something that few developments have done before – effectively collaborate and integrate other worlds and ideas by way of cross-chain development.
Everyone loves when their favourite TV shows cross over, but what if your favourite videogames, social media channels, celebrities, artists, and brands could all merge into the same space? That’s the kind of truly functional, opportunity-laden metaverse we can expect to see one day.
Final Thoughts: Metaverse Opportunities Need Human Drivers
Ultimately, human-centric functional metaverses will bring with them spaces that enable people to achieve their goals, connect with others, and explore new possibilities in a safe and engaging way.
By prioritizing the human experience, the metaverse can create new opportunities and unlock the full potential of digital technology for the benefit of society, as well as for personal financial gain and creative expression.
This is, by all means, the best-case scenario for the development of these virtual words.
