Metaquette #VirtualBrand Q12

 

                                                                         Beer Break

Weekly Tips & Tricks on negotiating The Metaverse with Pooky Amsterdam

"Through the past, smartly" could be the title of this weeks blog as News from Decentraland was caught up in my brain blender with a very fun video that we did a while back, and fits perfectly with the Question of the Week. 

Q: Is it possible to build good brand relations in The Metaverse?

This weeks jaw-dropping events calendar from Decentraland is amazing! Cuervo with a MetaDistellery and Christian LaCroix 35th Anniversary is full on happening but what caught my eye was the new Netflix original, The Grey Man. Netflix is behind an 8 Day quest, where players are helped by knowledge of this movie. The prizes are digital facial, and other hair plus a level of wearables unknown from any movie before. Yes, it is more than possible to build good brand relations in The Metaverse, it can be imperative. Part of the fun and excitement of being in The Metaverse is the fun you can have. Why not with a brand?

The way of The Metaverse is to engage the end user, it is the same goal of engaging a customer with a brand. About 15 years ago JWT CEO Bob Jeffrey was quoted as saying, "Time is the new currency. The better the idea, the more time people spend with it." How much time people spend in one Metaverse is the key to its value. Engagement metrics should become time-based measures rather than impression based, for what percentage of a person's time is spent in a world, and why is vitally important.  I find the Netflix investment in Decentraland fascinating as those who will go to find where the fountain is in the maze thus retrieving the virtual USB stick will be spending time with The Grey Man. I do believe those who do will watch it on Netflix. I'll be curious to see how it all goes down beginning this Friday.

So Beer Break is here to illustrate how in a virtual world, community could be built around a brand, and building out that shared experience. In this video it's about surfers; it was to be a world wide virtual surfing competition for The Beer with the winner getting a trip to the Baja peninsula and of course a year's supply of the beverage. Here there would be targeted reasons to go into a world, using both video, a quest, activity, sponsored competition that allows the community to build up around it. People would have had their avatars in a program, virtual reality TV if you will, that comes with a TOS understanding that by attending your avatar could be part of the series/show/event/program. Advertisers will gain by allowing their customers real opportunities to interact with their brand, not just throwing a lot of stuff up to see what will stick.

With live events taking place on a regular basis, and at specific times, people know to tune in or to go to these events in what becomes "Appointment Internet". This will build consumer loyalty to the event which will translate into customer loyalty in the product. The Metaverse is rapidly becoming a professional marketing environment, like living within the world of these virtual goods and services. There should be ongoing compelling reasons to return, that attract more and more potential customers with engagement, and rewards for that engagement. Though not every company may want to hand out fake moustaches, or the ubiquitous NFT.

How about this example? Let's say you were a Heineken drinker all your life, but there was a great game in Somnium Space called Bowling for Budweisers which was fun to play virtually, in a retro bowling alley where you could win a cool customized digital bowling shirt. Upon going, you meet people there, you bring people there and you begin to play and have fun, appearing on the leaderboard for everyone to see, taking pictures of that and your virtual buddies for your social media pages too. You are having fun with the product!! I don't care if you have been a Heineken drinker all your life, at some point you will eventually pick up a Budweiser because it has become part of your life through your chosen playtime, and you associate it with having fun.

And let's say there was a web series also filmed around this in the Metaverse and the "regulars' at the bowling alley are played by known actors. Even though they are relatively safe at home, they are mingling with people from all over the world, and you or I could have a conversation with them, maybe they would even pick us for their bowling team. A scripted series filmed for a fraction of real world costs around an activity creating a live audience spending time, actively participating in the promotion of the brand is what The Metaverse is made for. No one has to travel to Universal Studios to see the show, they just have to log in and be part of the brand game. It is insanely cost effective and also encourages people to create their own user generated content around the brand if they can utilize the sets and activities for their own social media promotion.

Here is a way to engage ones customers of a brand literally and figuratively where they live and play. So indeed The Metaverse can offer an outstanding platform upon which to build brand alliance, community and engagement. And this can be piggybacked upon existing advertising, all a company has to do is include the URL of where this game or event is going to take place. In The Metaverse this means cost effective, valuable, virtual community which meets the very important requirement of time spent with the brand.

If you have a question, please email info@pookymedia.com with Metaquette in the subject line.

Metaquette #VirtualGoods #DigitalAssets Q11

 Tips & Tricks for negotiating The Metaverse

Weekly Q & A with the Doyenne of The Metaverse.....Pooky Amsterdam

Yes! The greatness that is shopping! It can be so enjoyable. Remember when "Let's go to the mall" was a weekend thing? Being able to buy stuff is more than consumerism; it's a destination,  an economic driver, can be a social activity, an opportunity for alone time and plus it makes us feel special! We shop everywhere, anytime and increasingly online so it makes sense that we would want to shop in The Metaverse.

Q: Will shopping in the Metaverse be as much fun as it is in the physical world?

Shopping in the Metaverse can be an incredible amount of fun. It is location-time-opportunity sensitive and as you create a life for your avatar, you will want to buy it stuff, just like in the physical world. And everything plus might be available. It is certainly a big pull for companies who want to use the Metaverse to reinforce brand awareness and even make sales. 

Shopping can be along a main strip where you can visit store after store, turning your thumbs up or down on the large variety of items, these nexus can offer a hub for socializing so you spend time with their product as well as wear it. There are some worlds which offer a Demo version so you can try that hairdo on before you buy it, or that tuxedo or you can teleport to the sales destination and try out  a version of what you want to buy. See demo versions of places and builds that could be part of your home. Sometimes there can be an incredible catalogue from which to decide on your purchases. Plus in the Metaverse with digital goods there are so many opportunities for WOMMA  and avatars often ask each other "Where did you get THAT?" Quality products become known and traffic to those places which deliver quality good is high.

As certain assets for an upscaled virtual existence often cost much less than their real life counterparts, another bonus can be where one's "local" wealth is leveraged. We can buy more for less, in many categories. Although for example, The Sandbox might have some assets that are 5 and even 6 figures, it is possible to get some cool stuff for $70 an item, that would kit out your little piece of land soooo well, you think, "Heck'n why not? I want to meet the folks next door." And you have a flying drone bar with endless drinks, for under a hundro.

Digital consumption also offers aspirational purchases which allow us to "own" virtual items we would not otherwise be able to, or even imagine. Top brands have leapt into places with Nikeland in Roblox, Dolce & Gabbana in Decentraland, Gucci in TheSandbox, Balenciaga in Fortnite, Ralph Lauren in Zepetto. If these are clothing styles you think are cool, you can suit up, there for a relatively small fee, and sometimes pick up promotional goods. If you don't have room in your closet, they take up even less space in your Metaverse Inventory and no dry cleaning!

Art is something you can buy in The Metaverse, and often you can hang it in your virtual home. As well as stunning NFT creations, in places where you can import textures,  you might even be able to find a duplicate of Beeple and import it for your walls. In my own home away from home, I have an incredible collection of art, which would cost $700 million in auction at Sotheby's. In my Metaverse inventory, I also own 100+ pairs of shoes, many are 5 inch heels which I can no longer wear all day in the physical world, but my avatar can and does. The Metaverse offers that better way of life, and a way to make your desires a reality. Shopping for things you might not be able to own in your reality, like that just right virtual Airplane, is thrilling. 

Buying stuff is like going on an adventure, you don't quite know what you are going to find, but you know when you have found something you want. In the Metaverse, the search, or the surf within your own world can lead to all kinds of discoveries, and of things you didn't even know you needed. Whether it is the excitement of seeing all the listed items, or wandering down a street you can't recall discovering, it can have value. With a plethora of companies joining in, I do envision an ad for let's say Wayfair, who joined the Metaverse Standards Forum to be shot entirely within a Metaverse,  a spokesavatar touting the beauty and functionality of its design. Shopping in and advertising with the Metaverse go hand in hand, or hand in mouse. Whether they are things created by other people like you, or the Gods of the game or International companies it doesn't matter. If you enjoy it, that's what counts, and yes shopping can be incredibly fun in The Metaverse!

Metaquette #VirtualLove Q10

 Tips & Tricks for negotiating the Metaverse

Weekly Q & A with the Doyenne of the Metaverse....Pooky Amsterdam

Life can be a singular enterprise, and while we want to be able to be alone with ourselves, or at least find our own company suitable, we seek social groups, other people and like to engage with those whom we feel good about. Some of us are shy, some of us are outgoing but it isn't always easy no matter where you are to find that special someone to share the big and small things of life. A lot of dating happens online where people answer questionnaires to get matched, or look at pictures usually taken from an old relationship, compare hobbies, email, text, F2F and maybe a real life relationship, Y/N?

Q: Is it possible to find true love in the Metaverse?

Finding love online has its challenges, which anyone who has been to an online dating site like Match.com or eHarmony knows. There should be an agony column just for Tinder, Grindr, Plenty of Fish, match.com and others. Least of all the problems I would suspect are with people not looking like their pictures. We are visual people, how one looks to you matters. Walk into a bar and see someone really attractive and spend time talking to them hoping the person will be just as attractive on the inside. What if there's only their inside because you have no idea what they really look like? And everyone is attractive or has a somewhat similar look?

When you meet someone in a virtual world or Metaverse, you don't know who they are. Yes, Voice Over Internet Protocol is widely available, but you still don't know what the other person looks like behind their avatar, whether it be male, female, humanoid or furry. And while we project onto "another" in many ways developing a relationship with someone where you are mainly hearing and paying attention to what they have to say, brings you both much closer. The same goes for you, if you are somewhat shy, there is very little social risk in a virtual world, here is a tip: People are just too concerned with what they are doing to be paying attention to your flubs and fluffs. Relax.

And what if you do find yourself in communication with someone in your vicinity that seems okay? There are no distractions like at the bar, no waiters and waitresses, no Ex about to walk in. You are both in the moment each of you in your comfort zone at home, logged into a really neat place, colorful, funny remarks flow, "Hey did you see that guy stuck upside down?" "Yes, it was me!" There are a million things to comment on and you take chances because you can. If you dont want to engage any further, all you have to do is turn around say, "BuhBye," teleport or log out/in a different region. And if you do hit it off with someone, you can talk as long as you like, travel the grid together and even meet up laters. 

It's very low-pressure and the way to gain trust is to keep it like that, developing a friendship with your maybe new bestie, you log on when you want to see them. If they are not there, maybe they missed your call, but you can always send a message because you searched for their name! Friendships are encouraged, finding the fun folks you met and want to find later is the secret sauce of these environments. A nice polite message, will get a reply. It's easier to be polite in a virtual world because there is no physical contact or judgments beyond your avatars outfit. I'd like to say there are fewer triggers for defensiveness or anger, but you can't see what anyone is doing behind the screen, yourself included. You aren't worried about how you look, smell or come across where you physically sit, everything is cool. Sometimes you talk like old friends, or you feel strange tinglings of your heart thumping and you know this is someone special.

You find what you both like, in your conversation  you can't help but talk about the world you live in with your real feet on the ground. It's very freeing talking to strangers, who become friends, who then open up a world of possibilities because they've spoken.  You think what are the chances in this entire Universe that we would be brought together? And there is Fate or Kismet or Luck, the people you meet have a destined feel sometimes. 

It moves forward if you both want the same things and a Metaverse romance means you see can see them every night, the only cost is long distance love. Sometimes time zones have to be managed, times you will both be "on" arranged, yet it often progresses to real life video calls if it's meaningful. You can find someone who understands you and knows what you are like through the time you spend together with a real closeness. Bernhard Drax did a series about it that is fascinating, here's a great example of Love Made In Second Life from a few years ago. 

Serious long term relationships also come into focus with VR as it means greater immersion and sense of being there with your partner. To see what that looks like tune in soon to a film on HBO,  We Met In Virtual Reality. You can find your sweetheart in a Virtual World as chances are you share a lot of in terms of culture and technology, but also a language that lets you cross virtual boundaries.

What about marriage? People have been getting married in Virtual Worlds for decades though for entertainment purposes only, here's a wedding package video from IMVU.  And Animal Crossing has an actual wedding season! Virtual worlds which have been around for a while have seen many marriages already, the new ones will have them too. They might include a different kind of meeting the prospective families in the MetaVenue of your choice. Can't hot air balloon together "irl?" You can do that as an avatar and even push your brother - law out of the balloon with little consequences. There are all sorts of stories about weddings, like  a couple married in a virtual environment created for their wedding in the NYT last year.

Can VR help married couples? Here I want to relate a story of a wife and husband team who were running a nightclub in Second Life. They had just had a little boy and the business was doing well, until the husband had an affair with an avatar who was working as a model. The wife had him sleeping on the couch the next day, and the marriage was over she said. Weeks passed, he remained sorry, deleted the interloper from his friends & Skype list and eventually his wife took him back. That episode gave him a lifetime perspective. He had the scare of his life to lose his family, an opportunity to work out his rebellion on a much smaller scale, he didn't get a disease, or get anyone pregnant, there was no lingering relationship and they are still married today!

An older married couple who live in a part of Ohio that is landlocked, were getting a little bored with one another, started fighting but discovered a virtual world. They decided to build an outpost in SL but pursued different things - He became a virtual sailor and she began running steampunk airship competitions while a new phase of their union blossomed.

Not only can you find love in the metaverse, it can save your marriage too.

For those who are curious, yes to virtual pregnancies and children, which will be explored at another time.

If you have a question, please email info@pookymedia.com with the subject Metaquette, and it will be answered.

Metaquette #Metaverses Q9

 

Tips & Tricks for Negotiating The Metaverse

Weekly Q & A with the Doyenne of The Metaverse......Pooky Amsterdam

The Metaverse has arrived! And is arriving, and is on the way, and is being built, yet has some places which have existed for over 2 decades....but this is an entirely new phenomenon worthy of increases in share prices. The New Metaverse Days are here and you will be expected at any of 67 locations plus new ones which will add up to 138 live and in development all waiting for you! The charts in the photo are from the wonderful company headed up by the awesome Nic Mitham & Kelly Loter who run Metaversed Consulting  They have been in this space for a very long time. So has Dubit, the sponsor of these photos, as you can see on the lower right hand side. Dubit has been around since 1999.

Q: There are so many Metaverses coming out, do you think they will all survive?

Right now there is so much activity in bringing metaverses to the market, you could be forgiven for thinking that this is the first time Massive Multi-Player Online Worlds have been explored. Indeed it is not, but perhaps the recent pandemic and the way we were all driven home by the Covid Effect has realized a greater ability to work collaboratively and from home.  Zoom took the brunt of our time and faces, the Metaverse offers other ways to meet and enjoy shared virtual destinations using them both for business and pleasure.

There is such intense competition for users in this area right now though that Metaverses will have to offer increasing incentives for people to become real residents, or offer niche interests that no other Metaverse can. It is hoped that these Metaverses monetize their user base with monthly dues, currency exchange and the creation of virtual goods. It will not be easy to differentiate however as most of theses metaverse offer exactly the same things.

The question then becomes, how much bandwidth do people actually have for an investment of time and energy towards building a new digital home, new virtual relationships and spending time in new places? And learning a new user interface each time as well? Even if it is from the best location we have: The internet connection right in front of us. 

Let's look at Facebook way back when they started. It has grown to include just about everyone in the world, but stock price growth is dependant on numbers growth and everyone who can be on Facebook is already on Facebook. After you max out your user base, where do you go? To Meta Horizons of course, but they enter this market not just against four places to knock out like MySpace, Google+, Orkut and Friendster, but many many more. 

Mckinsey recently released a report on the Metaverse. As of 2022 investments into infrastructure supporting the Metaverse exceeded $120B in the first few months of 2022 alone. 95% of the polled executives believe that their industry will benefit from the Metaverse, while only 15% believe that the Metaverse will represent significant portions of their margin growth in the next five years. There are tremendous dollar investments which must be recouped. how will that be done?

Mckinsey categorizes the Metaverse into five different activities: Gaming, fitness, commerce, socializing and remote learning. And according to their data, 60% of surveyed consumers preferred to perform one of these activities virtually, e-commerce being the most lucrative. (I have always wanted to go the bank dressed as a furry, or elven princess). I guess I am not alone here, because Mckinsey predicts that the value of e-commerce in the Metaverse will settle between $2T and $2.6T by 2030.  The only question is which Metaverses will take the lead? The ones with the most security i would think both in terms of data breaching and mining.

All in a Metaverse day, my friends, will this be the future? You wake up and go to Roblox, then Decentraland, then Fortnite. You will have lunch at your desk, but that isn't different from usual, maybe you will have lunch while you visit The Sandbox? Then onto Somnium Space, VRChat and Odyssey. After a quick dinner because you dont have much time, you can have fun in Epic Games New Metaverse in the making or Axie infinity or Cyrptovoxels or Spatials. Maybe you have an awesome computer rig and you can be several avatars in multiple metaverses at once! You can be in two or three or four places at once then. Something you really can not do on the Earthly plane!

That would take a lot of mental, as well as internet bandwidth, perhaps more than most people have. There will be some shakeout therefore of where users go, and that will depend on what value, both quantitative and qualitative people find for their time. Time being the new currency, and where you spend it. For younger age groups right now Roblox has 230M active users, Minecraft 165M (educators do use these places as virtual platforms for teaching and Unilever has an education effort going with Minecraft). Fortnite has 85M, Avakin Life 12.5. For older users there are Zepeto with 20M, IMVU at 7M, RecRoom with 5.5M and Second Life at 1M holding steady. Underneath those are at least 11 other virtual worlds with under a million or so active users. The first Metaverse to hit one billion members will be crowned King of The Virtual Playground, but it is too early to tell who will survive in these early days. 

As more and more people become familiar with the term Metaverse, and want to take part in these exciting new places, what will determine stickiness becomes increasingly important. Will there be Pay 2 Stay? Does a Metaverse gift the new user with a virtual pet of their choice that needs tending to like a neopet of old that had to be fed and walked with alarming regularity? Is it the wardrobe of unbelievable fabulous clothing that you either make or wear, or make and wear that calls you back? Will it be a concert or lecture series you can sign up for that takes place at intervals you must be signed in to receive?  Is it an opportunity to talk to an industry leader that you couldn't come within an arm's length of in real life, who is willing to take your private message within a virtual world? Or will it be one of a kind NFTs, with unlockable content that allows you to know something no one else does? Most often it is where you find friends and people you want to talk to again, minting those is always the greatest gift one can give oneself as the saying goes and also the most elusive thing to find.

If you have a question please email it to info@pookymedia.com with the subject line of Metaquette, and it will be answered.

Mettaquette #VirtualTherapy #BetterWorld Q8

Weekly Q & A with the Doyenne of The metaverse.....Pooky Amsterdam 

With the explosion of the Metaverse, which does represent life on a 3D platform other than Earth,we bring our human selves to these shiny new shores.  Do we want these virtual worlds in front of us to be better than the one we have behind us? Is this even possible? Won't we be bringing all of our same traumas, fears, insecurities, greed, competitive and destructive patterns with us? Or are there ways the Metaverse can help us surpass our human limitations? 

Q7: Can the Metaverse make the world a better place?

There are imho two general ways to make the world a better place. For many people to rise up at once and realize they need to do more for their fellow humans, their children, the environment, even their country. That takes a big movement and most people are just trying to live their lives as best they can. In the checklist for avatar character traits, will you check sincere or snarky? It would be wonderful if we had a kinder and gentler Metaverse, but with so much emphasis at the moment on commercial enterprise, being a kinder and gentler avatar doesn't seem to be at the same premium level. I'm waiting for the Just Be A Good Person Metaverse, but I'm not holding my breath for that.

The other way to make the world a better place is for individuals to improve their perspective, heal their wounds so that they dont want to hurt themselves or others and find a better place within themselves. If he Metaverse can help heal or improve people's lives, and clearly it can,  the answer is yes. I have witnessed and participated in this on a first person, or first avatar basis, and yes the Metaverse has real strengths here, which I hope will be ported to the new ones. I am answering today's question from personal experience.

For example, thousands of people have passed through a sim in Second Life called Fearless Nation,  which is an avatar outpost for those surviving PTSD and other forms of abuse.  Watch the video in the link, all of the dialogue is taken from people's actual feedback on their virtual experiences there. Dr. Colleen Crary  has run it for 13 years helping thousands of people cope by providing mental health support on a beautiful pacific island with places for bonfires, gatherings and education. It is a safe space on abuse victims terms, they control it and so can rebuild their trust. 

Dr. Crary's presented her findings for her PHD thesis and found that people who had avatars and spent time in Fearless Nation gained feelings of safety and self-connectedness. Through the Proteus effect, this self awareness allowed for greater control over stressors and triggers, being an avatar in the safety of one's home environment allowed for creative experimentation. Also self-reflective processing and positive behaviors learned in the virtual worlds led to that actualization for real life behaviors. People gained interpersonal connectedness, relational engagement, and learned to socialize again!

The Metaverse offers community which does make us feel better plus community around shared loss or tragedy even, comforting us in a psychological way. Another example of this is the enormous community of cancer survivors and their families that populate the American Cancer Society's Annual Relay For Life, the ACS does improve lives. There is a virtual world outpost for this, a Relay for Life in Second Life which began in 2005 and since has raised over $3 million through micro-donations from all over the world. Because the Metaverse is a global platform, people log in from anywhere, anytime of the day or night and find those who understand what they are going through. I remember a conversation with someone who had cancer and couldn't bring herself to discuss her fears with her own family, not wanting to burden them. In Second Life she not only found people to talk to about her deepest problems, but also who helped her overcome her very real fear of needles! The Metaverse can help heal in remarkable ways, not the least because of the presence we feel in our avatars.

With the growth of VR, there is also its growth in treating PTSD and other damaging disorders and it has been one of the first areas VR has been used for. Here is a good article on VR therapy, which is immersive on another level than logging into a Metaverse or virtual world, but the tenants of being present and the identification remain very much within the same principles.

There was a great conversation with Linden Lab's Founder Philip Rosedale and it's new CEO, Oberwolf Linden that I caught yesterday. And yes Philip Rosedale did want to make the world a better place when he began that awesome platform, and still does. What he loves the most about this world he put into motion is that here people do collaborate, get along and build things together, work on things together enabling a greater experience for all. And the great ideas and camaraderie that begin in Second Life, or in the Metaverse can be exported in every one of us who has been there. Understanding ourselves, helping to heal with one another and grow in our abilities will make the world we live in a better place. 

If you have a question, please send an email to info@pookymedia.com with the subject line of Metaquette, it will be answered!

Metaquette #VirtualMoney #Cyrpto Q7

 

Weekly QA with the Doyenne of the Metaverse.....Pooky Amsterdam

While there may be debate over which blockchain coin is the best, especially as recent news has seen the crypto market crash and seen TERRA fall without its LUNA, for those who want coin in their new realm without paying for it in harder currency, there is caution and opportunity to be had. This is about getting paid for the one non renewable resource you have, your time. Another question on the "creator economy" within the metaverse will follow in weeks to come.

Q: I logged into a new place and one of the avatars was offering FREE COINS, other avatars nearby were talking about what a great deal that was. I would like to try some of the purchasable offerings of this new world, but don't want to give my credit card deets yet, what do you think about FREE COINS?

While this sounds very tempting, would you ever approach anyone with a table at the mall who was shouting free money? Of course not. When you get those emails in your inbox saying, My Dear I would like to give you $3,000,000 do you hit delete? Of course you do. You do it because you know it's a scam, like someone saying, "If you type your password out it looks like ******."  It is easy enough to lose money buying cryptocurrency on a bad day, you don't need to compound this by giving any details which will lead you to being keylogged, or get a virus by clicking the link to get Free Coins. 

However some worlds do offer a way to gain coins through a variety of activities: watching ads, or being advertisers. You could get a "job" roaming throughout your particular metaverse and tout out loud, the name of some location which is a must visit, according to the branding you are encouraged to wear for this.  Or you could do some mind-numbing in-game activity.  In Second Life there still is a way to earn coins or product by sitting at a location, some pay around 4 cents a minute because the owner of said chair wanted their location to look as if it was busy. The owners of these places pay avatars to plonk their virtual butts down, so traffic numbers for these locations increase and look busy. Avatars generally want to go where others are, and this helped avoid the wasteland effect. These kind of activities are for real, just be prepared for your income accumulation to be slow, but you might meet a couple of new friends who will commiserate with you over the tedium.

Being a concierge or helping people onto the new platform will also become a way to earn money as you play the game, spending enough time in one place to sell your services as a live "how to" manual for new people, especially for an event. When there are large scale events in a metaverse and new users, it is critical to make them feel "at home" by being able to navigate in the very least. Decentraland is hiring virtual hosts for its casinos and events.

Another way of making coin will be in staffing, virtual stores may have AI to save money but if the sales force is human based, the ability to engage a customer and make a sale could grow exponentially with an avatar backed by a human being. Once upon a time businesses in the metaverse put up stores and fabulous builds, but not having anyone there to help the potential customers. That is like putting up a store in China and not having anyone on staff who speaks Chinese. Business must know the language of the platform, and who better than a dedicated user to explain, showcase or sell the virtual product. When I was hosting my weekly game show events in Second Life, I always had hosts with specific roles and they made a huge impact on retaining and growing my audience. 

On the other hand maybe you do want to Play To Earn. which Metaverse you choose then could depend on whether you want to earn coins or NFTs. You can even Learn To Earn - for example learning protocols for indexing and querying blockchain data to earn tokens is possible. Here are 9 games in active spaces with investment and more for you.

You can find your bliss in a virtual world, or metaverse, feeling an actual lift in your mood through the activities you do. Being able to make coin while you are being paid for your time, is a true bonus round, as we play to our strengths even more easily than we work towards them. As I write this Dean Takahashi of Venturebeat has just released this article on the virtual world according to Mckinsey & Co.

Your avatar is wanted, needed and valuable!

If you have a question about the Metaverse you would like answered, please send an email to info@Pookymedia.com with Metaquette in the subject line!

Metaquette #VirtualTheatre #VirtualTheater Q6

Weekly QA with the doyenne of the Metaverse.......Pooky Amsterdam

Antonin Artaud was the first person to write "Realite Virtuelle" in his book The Theatre and its Double. While there were no digital multi-user dimensions in 1938 this connection between the stage, the self and suspension of disbelief is a good one.The Metaverse provides a backdrop for one's journey as it is encountered, and in text, voice or commands you write your story every day. Beyond being an engine for filmmaking, the virtual world is an engine for personal experience. People in them are inspired by what they have done, who they have met, where they've been and what they've bought. The virtual world is as much of a stage as the earthly one. Perhaps more because sets and stages for performance can be assembled with the help of a build setting. The content you're creating is also how you feel while logged in, it is being there on a completely personal scale, you and the double, your avatar.

Q: Is the Virtual World just another form of Theater?

In a word, yes...but it's one that you are authoring every day, one where you are starring in your own cartoon movie every night. Crafting your story as you live it in real-time with words, text, music and sometimes emoticons. It is the story of your virtual life. If you record or capture it of course it is theater, it is film.

And the story of my own virtual life, in existence since 2002 has given me an incredible amount of material for a great piece of work, a life's work to be honest. Utilizing my two decades of experience I am presenting in this weeks blog the trailer for Mambo Motel ~ The Metaverse Musical. It is a show which takes place in a virtual world. It is the theater of the Metaverse, here it is the story of a Prince who wishes to escape the glare of the media and find a place where he can just...be himself. He finds anonymity and much more by logging into a virtual world, winning and losing at love and riches, but ultimately finding himself by losing himself within his virtual identity. 

A story based on a multitude of personal experiences that features an iconic cast of characters: The Prince who wishes to be understood for who he is and not the trappings of his birth; his valet who'd like a friendship but can't due to class differences; a woman who wishes to stay forever young; a 15 year old boy who wants to be a man; a young widow who finds she can keep her dead husband alive through becoming his avatar and a clothing store manager who feels he is really female, but without healthcare to pay for a gender reassignment, plays against race, age and gender in Mambo Motel. When center stage lights up, we enter the metaverse. Only the audience knows who is behind the fun, hip, colorful Mambos onstage.

Mambo Motel brings the virtual and the physical together. Human actors are in the virtual world and game engine characters play who is behind them. The avatars existence within the world becomes the human reality.  Another theme of the story is that while you have a human skin of chance, you express who you really are in your avatar skin of choice, here is the theatre of the double.  Participating in this bright new world, unencumbered by the reality, or even the physics of the earthly plane. There are 16 amazing original songs which reflect what it is like to be an avatar, what it is like to be online and find our true selves and one another in the Metaverse. Jane Goodall said we humans are "meaning seeking creatures," in text and one another we find that meaning. 

With the ability to create sets, stages, characters, to perform in voice and song, the ability to use Metaverses as theatre is very rich because in finding meaning we find not only our stories, we share the stories of other people and want to tell them. Virtual Worlds and Metaverse have a long history of filmmaking too, game engine cinema is often called "machinima", or cinema made on machine. We can thank Hugh Hancock for that term, unfortunately he is now logged permanently in afterlife.com, he was a great visionary and pioneer in this field. I believe the first machinima film was in 1996 called  "Diary of A Camper"  with dialogue displayed as text messages. There is enormous output from those in multi-user dimensions who use screen capture such as fraps and a variety of other recording programs. For a really good look and comprehensive review of some of the most exciting game engine content out there, which includes movies done within metaverses, I recommend the monthly podcast Completely Machinima.  

Mambo Motel ~ The Metaverse Musical is a testimony to the beauty, splendor and wonder of the virtual worlds. The strategic plan is to film it on a smaller stage, then stream it and also have a multi metaverse world premiere. After which we'd like to move it to off-Broadway then Broadway. We are looking for sponsors and there are opportunities for branding, product placement and XR code happenings within the play. 

Mambo Motel is the musical for our times, both celebration and cautionary tale with memorable songs and a fabulous storyline, not unlike The Wizard of Oz. It has a provenance which gives it an authenticity and reflects what the Metaverse is yesterday, today and tomorrow, for behind each of our avatars beats a human heart.

If you have a question, please send it to info@Pookymedia.com with Metaquette in the subject.