Will Amazon transform itself from the killer of the high street to its savior?Īmazon opened its first physical location – a bookstore in Seattle – in 2015. Amazon gets physicalĪmazon is opening its first-ever 4-star mini department store outside of the US in Dartford’s Bluewater shopping center, offering items that have user ratings of four stars or above. And with these virtual worlds becoming more and more important in our lives – especially among the younger generations – I strongly believe we will see more examples like these. And just a few months ago, World of Warcraft players staged a sit-in protest following Blizzard’s allegations of harassment and discrimination against women. Sims modder and streamer EbonixSims organized an in-game Black Lives Matter rally.
Activists from Hong Kong launched a protest in Animal Crossing (leading to the game being banned in China). Politicians have started to notice this trend as well, with Joe Biden’s campaign creating a Fortnite island to engage with younger voters.īut as the proverb says, ‘Actions speak louder than words,’ and over the last 18 months we’ve seen players taking virtual action. Another brilliant example of how these ‘games’ can play an important role in our lives is the Uncensored Library built in Minecraft by Reporters Without Borders, which is a virtual hub housing a collection of otherwise inaccessible journalism from all over the world. One of my favorite examples, as it’s close to my heart, was a Global Pride Crossing event organized in Animal Crossing during the time when most Pride events had been canceled during Covid-19.
Virtual worlds are not only about learning though, but also about expressing our views and politics. Scientists decided to leverage the popularity of Fortnite and created a ClimateFortnite Twitch channel with the audio commentary dealing not just with Fortnite strategies and tips, but also with the consequences of our changing planet.
Minecraft has a whole education section and works with the likes of Nasa. While the pandemic naturally accelerated this trend, even before this teachers and scientists had started to explore how Minecraft, Roblox and Fortnite could be used to engage with younger generations. And we have seen the first signs of what’s to come.
I am covering the ‘March Through Time’ experience because, while there have been some valid critical opinions about the initiative, I think it shows something important about the metaverse, something I feel is missed in all the hype we are experiencing at the moment – that the metaverse is not just fun and games.įor it to become an integral part of our lives, and a new iteration of the internet, it needs to be about so much more than that – a place where we learn, where we express ourselves and our views (beyond new skins) and stand up for what we believe in.
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