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Breaking the codes around the Metaverse, vol 5: Gaming

Dinsdag 25 April 2023

Breaking the codes around the Metaverse, vol 5: Gaming

Metaverse. A word with which we could associate an infinity of definitions, an incalculable number of notions and various functionalities. However, we can try to explain what it was, what it is now and what we could envision for its future. When we talk about the Metaverse, we hear video games, NFT, cryptocurrency, virtual reality,... We especially hear the word “complexity”, mostly because we don’t understand it. Sometimes we even fear it because it constitutes a significant change, a kind of fuzzy digital revolution that seems to once again upset everything we thought we knew. Yet it is only a revolution if it is sudden and violent. The metaverse, on the other hand, has developed quite slowly, and a bit secretly. 

The idea has been lingering in the minds of avant-gardist minds for decades. An interlacing of virtual universes ? A copy of our world where we could create our own universe with infinite possibilities ? An escape from our so rational surroundings?

This subject therefore raises many questions, which we asked ourselves as we gradually discovered what this concept is on its own. It was then necessary to understand how our communication and advertising will adapt to a progressive switch in our link to the virtual. How are brands and agencies going to adapt, how are they going to innovate and use these tools and this access to bring new creative opportunities.

Many questions arose during our research process and we’ve gathered them and their answers in a folder named Breaking the codes of Metaverse. The following articles have been written by Ana Alexandrescu, Lena Baranzini, Erin De Rouck and Zoé Guyon. These four Master’s students in Advertising and Commercial Communication (IHECS) will guide you through their discovery journey surrounding the metaverse.

Avatars created with Ready Player Me.
What if we told you that the gaming industry could be described as a pioneer for the world of the metaverse ? We might forget it but like we have seen at the beginning of this file, the metaverse is not a recent idea and video games have participated a big deal in its development.

As a perfect introduction for Virtual Reality, the new metaverse-like gaming developers such, as Epic Games, bring a blended social and gaming network towards their community. The goal is to build a widely social and autonomy offering platform in a 3D world with increasing opportunities and width of the virtual world within the game, all this evolving through the Web3. It is a whole new economy built in a blockchain that permits gamers to navigate through games. According to Appinventiv (Applications of Metaverse in Virtual Gaming), a mobile app development agency, the key characteristics of Metaverse virtual gaming are social gaming, play-to-earn, flexible gaming experience, portable game assets and mixed reality experience.
Roblox, The Sandbox, Decentraland, ReadyPlayerMe and Fortnite can be quoted as a few of the gaming platforms that are part of the metaverse. Each of them has very different features and purposes. It is nevertheless hard to know where this will all go, although we can already expect in-game NFTs, purchases with cryptocurrencies and others, it is still changing pretty fast.

Check out the ReadyPlayerMe website.
In ReadyPlayerMe, the user can create an avatar that will then follow him through the platforms or apps that support ReadyPlayerMe, whereas he can also download it as a 3D picture. It is possible to post a selfie and have an avatar created based on it, or to create it from scratch. The platform also sells NFT and wearables and also allows developers to use ReadyPlayerMe’s avatars for their apps and games.
Brands like L’Oréal (with Maybelling New York and L’Oréal Professionnel) or Tommy Hilfiger have collaborated with the platform to create makeup, hairstyles and clothing for the avatars to wear.

Here are some of the hairstyles and makeup looks from the collaboration, and the campaign's explanations.
The platform Roblox is different as it is ‘’a global platform that brings people together through play’’. It does also request the creation of an avatar, but it is a different concept than ReadyPlayerMe, as Roblox is a gaming platform that hosts multiple games, among which some are made by users. Indeed, that permits a large creative possibility with a complex and intuitive “Create” studio for the ones that aim to develop their own game.

Here's the ‘’Create’’ section in Roblox
Brands and advertising in Roblox could go through all their website and games and articulate with real-life experiences (similar billboards in similar places in-game and in life for example).
Check out this example of the Gucci Gardens in Roblox.

A few examples of advertising through Roblox would be the Gucci Gardens, a virtual  reproduction of a real life installation in Florence. This online installation allowed visitors to navigate through different rooms and was followed by a sale of items from Gucci designed for Roblox.
Dove also launched their self-esteem project in Roblox, a game named Super U Story. It is a reaction to their belief that women are not represented enough in the games. They state this lack of representation has an impact on the self-esteem of young girls that start gaming early.
On the other hand, Decentraland is a virtual social platform that is built using the Ethereum blockchain and that allows users to buy wearables for their avatars and virtual land among other items all sold as NFTs. Users can create clothes then sell them to other users. When entering Decentraland, the user finds himself in a social online game-like world where one navigates with its avatar. It is possible to talk with others through chat or microphone and to switch worlds or start games. Like in a usual RPG, the character can move and jump with the WASD and Spacebar keycaps.
Regarding brands, they also made their way through it, like Coca-Cola that launched an auction for NFT’s that could be worn by avatars in Decentraland. Indeed, for National Friendship Day, Coca-Cola imagined a vending machine-like NFT called ‘’Coca-Cola Friendship Loot Box’’  that included wearable items as well as other surprises.
As these platforms seem to allow the user to choose his looks, as well as a pseudonym with not much other information asked, when registering, the question is how brands will work in order to target those users. The answer is that it is not that complicated, nor does it really have an impact on the question. As a matter of fact, even if the information or the looks are not representative of the person behind it, following its search history and behaviors through the metaverse will help acquire and build a profile on the user. Eye tracking devices through VR sets will also help on the matter and will provide more detailed informations on the user.

What those platforms will bring is a way to more immersive advertising, like brands collaborating to offer clothing or makeup for avatars, or billboards in-game. We could even imagine having in the near future a MacDonald's restaurant in a game like GTA that would allow the player to order it in-game and receive it in real life. To say it clearly, there is a whole new world ahead of brands and agencies that can be exploited in the most unique ways.

Now we can also see games, like Fortnite as an example, that has its own metaverse and has built up a community. A creation of Epic Games, Fortnite is described as “a massive 100-player face-off that combines looting, crafting, shootouts and chaos. The result is a completely unpredictable competitive online experience”. It is a very popular and social gaming platform that can be considered as a metaverse in itself. It is a game that offers three game modes : Battle Royal, Sandbox and Save the World. Two are multiplayer online modes and Sandbox allows the player to build and share their own version of the map.
Fortnite has collaborated with brands but also personalities, like artists such as Marshmello in online concerts or Ariana Grande in experiences with the Rift Tour.
Balenciaga also collaborated with them to make clothes for the in-game avatars like the Shady Doggo outfit. There was also a possibility to unlock in-game clothes by buying some in real life. Clothing brands are not the only ones that can benefit from the popularity of these brands.

Wendy’s, an American fast-food chain, had launched the "Saving Fortnite from frozen beef" by starting a live Twitch and asking to destroy all the in-game freezers. This was to promote that the chain doesn’t freeze their beef. The campaign was a success with thousands of viewers watching the live.
With the increasing awareness of the Metaverse, there is also a noticeable tendency to create game-like social platforms, or even advertising campaigns. This phenomenon is called Gamification. According to Oxford Languages, Gamification is “the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service”.
Meta’s Horizon World  is a good example of Gamification. Indeed, it consists of a social network where the user evolves in an online 3D world with a self-created avatar, where he can interact with other peers and their avatars. It also allows users, like Roblox, to create and develop their own games that will later run on it. It is mainly accessible through Meta Quest’s VR sets. Meta’s World is yet to be available in Belgium and is still in its early stages of release.
It is also relevant to mention Louis Vuitton’s Louis the Game, which is a game issued to celebrate the brand’s 200’s birthday and released in 2021. In this game, the player navigates with Vivienne, the game’s character, through different worlds to gather 200 candles while advancing in the brands’ history. There also were 30 NFTs to find and collect around the game.
These games that managed to create their own metaverse are also opening new marketing doors. In fact, they are an opportunity for brands to increase brand awareness and target a specific and wide target audience. Targeting the younger generations in the games they play with immersive advertisements can ensure an increase in their visibility.

With the metaverse developing, there are also platforms like Roblox and ReadyPlayerMe which will as well help the rise of a new kind of advertising. Not to mention the concept of Gamification, already exploited by brands and companies that will, surely, continue its way to the public. Native advertising seems to be the way to go, as well as a much more interactive and creative way of reaching the public. From Game developing with Dove and Louis Vuitton to exhibitions with the Gucci Gardens, these new worlds allow brands to reach a whole other level with their marketing campaigns and brings us to a form of advertising that we are just starting to notice. The future will surely tell us more about what the metaverse and the brands can create but there are already some projects and examples that show us how much can be done.
Written by Lena Baranzini,
Master's student in Advertising and Commercial Communication (IHECS)

To listen to the podcast it's here.

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