Continuous Storytelling in the Metaverse

Originally published on LinkedIn.

The Metaverse concept is considered as the metaphor of extension of the Internet as a computing platform using the synergy between different technological, economic, social and storytelling components (see e.g. definitions here or several good articles here). It is mainly associated with the exploration of the opportunities which provide such new tech as VR, AR, etc. (will refer to them as XR here) due to the high level of immersion compared to existing platforms.

Still Metaverse is not just or more than just XR tech. For example, many people think that the development of new economic and social interaction models called sometimes as "Web3" are important for Metaverse concept. Web3 is all about accent on distributed architectures and governance principles, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, creative and play-to-earn economies, etc. (one of the overviews of that can be found e.g. here). All of that is relevant to good "old" Internet platforms, but obviously can be made a part of XR worlds.

As the concept of Metaverse is not yet mature enough, corresponding implementations are in most cases very fragmented based on technologies, platforms type, ecosystems and type of the content. For example, one can find many new VR-only specialised social collaboration platforms (meetings, shows, games), which many probably mistakenly consider as prototypes of ultimate Metaverse platforms. Or a number of mobile Play-to-earn games, which showed up just recently (some examples see e.g. here).

Arguably the only platform which tries to cover at least all the spectrum of the HW platforms (mobile, desktop computers and VR) and diversity of the content is Roblox. But content providers, which want to build their worlds on top of the Roblox, have to use built-in internal currency concept, which limits the ways to run the virtual world economy. And basically your world is the same, different is only the interface to it depending on your HW end-user device.

Therefore interesting idea to explore would be one of "continuous" or "seamless" storytelling within both the Metaverse and Web3 concepts that allow the development of the worlds which narrative and logic allows to use all possible HW platforms and corresponding multi-modal user interfaces. But the idea is that it should not be naive copy-past of, say, desktop computer game concept into VR (we see plenty of such application which just do not fit into VR both from HW resources and user experience viewpoints). Instead we want seamless storytelling which accents all positive features which provides corresponding HW platform and technology (mobile - casual "on the go" use and VR - deep immersion but in special safe and quiet environment) and hides all those which are not relevant. I.e. it's difficult to imagine that people will wear VR headsets for a long period of time, but we could imagine a virtual world where the user interaction can seamlessly and logically (from a storytelling perspective) continue on other HW platform along the storytelling.

One example to explain the idea. Imagine we build the Metaverse world for Esports title and community. Our main attraction is an active game in VR (e.g. free motion, individual games, multiplayer tournaments, etc.) with full immersion. But we want to build more - the whole world around it with corresponding economy and social interactions for players, content creators, passive users who just want the shows, partners (like sponsors) etc. That could be sponsor shops of real and virtual goods, content created by community participants to purchase which plays the role in game scenarios and economy, virtual cafes where players can chat before and after games and schedule the participation in future games, tools for partners to build teams and define corresponding achievements and rewards and much more - just as an environment where main attraction is only a part of the story.

At the current phase of the XR tech development (and HW platforms usage patterns) it is obvious that these features can be properly supported in mobile application / platform and not in VR (because VR headsets are clunky, one can not wear them for a long time, user interfaces in VR are complicated for communication patters which are natural for mobile, etc.). Still we want to have one single user environment where interaction starts in the mobile world and continues seamlessly in VR for main attraction, scheduled games with friends and special events (Esports tournaments).

Benefits of such concept and reach storytelling opportunities could be:

Much bigger user base, as it can touch many use cases and target audiences (even for those who do not participate actively in main attractions)Much longer user sessions across different HW platforms (e.g. mobile + VR)Diverse game economy models (including all Web3 models etc.)Attractive for many types of partners (not just in-game ads)Could be natural and more effective way to integrate social user interaction components rather than just fully transfer them into VR (at least extend it behind pure VR usage)Storytelling is more natural and close to real-world storytelling patterns which still can be amplified for each individual HW platformSeems that the evolution of VR/AR headsets anyway goes in the direction of lightweight headset for visualisation and tracking augmented with wirelessly connected mobile device powerful enough to run high quality graphics. This device can be naturally used as platform to continue user experience with the virtual world after he/she took off the headset.

I would be interested to talk to people who might think about the same or similar ideas. There seems to be a lot of opportunities in terms of ideas, tech, projects and investments. Is there anybody? I would appreciate hints to that kind of project that might be already running or being built around.

Let's get in touch!