The concept of the Metaverse has been around since the 1980s, but it has only been in recent years that we’ve seen hundreds of projects popping up on the scene. What we are currently experiencing are gamified worlds with limited integration and engagement abilities. Right now, the Metaverse is still a blank canvas for early adopters to test and entertain the concept. When looking at the future of engagement in the Metaverse and bridging the gaps between the physical and digital worlds, however, we need to push the boundaries and go beyond what is currently seen as a metaverse. Let us begin looking at leaders who have begun building the next internet, which promises to be powerful for commerce, engagement and entertainment.
For the Metaverse to succeed and become a regular tool used in people’s daily lives, it must enable users to engage with it. As a sci-fi concept or within the gaming world, metaverses sound fantastic. But, for them to thrive as a social and business tool, we must ensure that there is a layer of utility or incentives that keep users invested. Web3-powered technology has a significant role to play in helping push forward with the concept and idea of the Metaverse thanks to blockchain technology, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), extended reality (XR), artificial-intelligence (AI) capabilities and plenty more. Metaverses that feature bespoke functionalities, speak to their customers and industry of choice and build new avenues of virtual engagement will find the most value in a metaverse-as-a-service (MaaS) offering. It will enable its users to customize their own cities from A-Z and will be the foundation of the next internet.
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So, what is MaaS? It is a service model where brands can define their spaces to be whatever they want them to be. A MaaS platform enables others to create digital locations that fit each of its users’ unique needs, whatever that may look like. For the Metaverse to succeed as a practical concept, MaaS solutions will be key. Here’s why.
Each metaverse has different requirements
Everyone has a perspective or vision about what the metaverse could be or become, whether that is a gamified world or an access point to Web3. Users want the opportunity to define the space and shape it into a platform that mirrors even the most vivid of imaginations. A world where users can connect with their favorite musical or visual artists will vary vastly from a world built to engage with sports fans. While Web3 acts as the common thread across the many metaverses, the idea is to use decentralization to ensure each one is unique and serves different purposes. One-size-fits-all is not what the Metaverse is or should be about. With MaaS, customization will be critical and in the hands of the creators. An e-sports metaverse dome will rely more heavily on team branding and gamified tokenization, whereas an entertainer may want to create an event space to host virtual concerts.
Each metaverse has different requirements based on the industry and the layer of engagement they are looking at activating with the end-user. A metaverse is a place for brands to expand their fan bases and build communities as an added layer of engagement. So, not only will the elements be different, but the branding throughout the Metaverse will have to look different as well. As more brands choose to expand their community engagement efforts into the Metaverse, the more customizable it needs to be.
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Not everyone will have the skill to set up this type of metaverse — just like not everyone could learn to code to set up a website, but then platforms like WordPress and Shopify came along. Those platforms offered the opportunity of a core base built by technology experts and experts in the field while allowing customization by the end-user as per branding and strategy. This is the benefit of…
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