There are signs that the development of the meta-universe is entering a new stage.
In the past few years, the concept of the meta-universe has been hot, and the giants have invested a lot of money together with a good vision, but the other side of the industry reality is that it has been stagnating in the conceptualization state for years, Facebook's Metaverse has been Mired in layoffs, and Miha You, who has announced that he will build a 2-dimensional virtual community of 1 billion people in 2030, has made a high profile. In the past two years, the frequency of talking about the meta-universe has also decreased significantly.
Just recently, the state issued a special document of the "Meta-cosmic Industry Innovation and Development Three-year Action Plan (2023-2025)", pointing out that to promote breakthroughs in meta-cosmic technology, industry, application and governance; At the industrial level, Internet giants like Intel have also mentioned many times this year that with the approaching tide of Web 3.0 change in 2030, the meta universe will become the next outlet form of the digital economy.
After the initial concept of the meta-universe in the cooling, disenchantment, people realize that the meta-universe is still a long way from creating a "number one player" oasis, which mainly relies on technical breakthroughs; In terms of content, another decisive element of the meta-universe, we can already see some embryonic "oases" emerge in the form of the game meta-universe, and they can really land.
NetEase "Egg Party" let 100 million people realize the meta-universe style of life
According to the definition, the meta universe is a highly immersive "digital virtual social form" in the Web3.0 era, and the headset, the first perspective, and the virtual interaction enhancement are the main directions of the current efforts of each meta universe, but when we disassemble the core of the meta universe according to the "virtual society", perhaps the core value of its content level will eventually fall back to the "social" level.
From this point of view, the "meta-universe" of video games may be more valuable than what the tech giants are trying to do.
For example, NetEase's "Cold Against the Water" mobile game uses the current trend of AI technology to set up a large number of NPCS that can communicate intelligences and depths with players, so that players can form a seamless world of real interaction with interest, emotion and economic consumption with other players and NPCS on their mobile phones.
In other words, the meta-universe is committed to building a digital "social form", which needs rich enough content to carry the interests and demands of users, and let them generate social and emotional connections with each other in the experience, and then form large and small "social clusters".
This diversified "digital life" has a more concrete presentation in the game "Egg Party" launched by NetEase last year. Through a massive consumable content and community interaction system, "Egg Party" has created a meta-universe living space with hundreds of millions of active people a month, allowing users to find content that fits their interests in this virtual field, establish emotional connections, and even gain economic benefits from it.
Luo Watermelon is an influential content creator in the online video community. With Eggy Party, she solves the parenting problems that more and more young parents are facing today. She not only accompanied the child in the "Egg Party" through, and even with tables, chairs, sofas, cartons and other home items in the living room quickly set up a simple egg game world, and her son in reality deduce the "Egg Party" game in the jumping, flying, tumbling and other gameplay elements, even if the work pressure is heavy social animals, do not worry about the lack of common language with the child.
From the beginning of its birth, the meta-universe has placed the beautiful vision of human beings for virtual interaction and social interaction, hoping to break through the barrier of physical space, establish a vivid social link, so that people of different ages, different life circumstances, and even people who were once complete strangers can come together, and bring people the same emotional connection with the real society.
"Egg Party" has carried out a series of content-centered "social practices", through the cooperative construction of estates, shop management and other content, so that users can work with their families, close friends, lovers to create exclusive personalized homes and cabins, or through multiple content and exploration, experience real social life in the virtual world. For example, in the "pedestrian street play" during this year's National Day, when a player hires other players as shop assistants, when a player becomes a repeat customer of this store, the correlation and fetter of each other also emerged, and the social emotions of real life and virtual society have been superimposed.
The digital scene built by Egg Party allows users to establish social links in an immersive interactive experience, realize emotional value, realize the public's fantasy of "digital life", and also allow the game to gain data growth. In August this year, Egg Party announced that it had achieved 100 million monthly lives. From the results of "Egg Party", we can see that the content value of the meta-universe, providing a life experience compared to the real world, is far more important than "technology".
Behind the 100 million maps is a shift in player identity
In a healthy society and collective form, each individual is a contributor and participant full of subjective initiative, and a beneficiary of positive satisfaction. Referring to the development logic of the real society, the long-term operation of the products of the Yuan universe is also inseparable from the real identification and participation of every user for this "digital virtual society". In other words, in the meta-universe form of the game, the player is no longer just the experience and consumers, but really through the physical practice, with their own creativity to add more possibilities to the virtual world.
The Egg-Party team is familiar with bringing UGC to life, and according to its producer, several members of the team worked on the Beaver Project. This light game original community, launched in 2019, includes a PC editor, and it is also the beginning of the inspiration for Egg Party.
In order to help players create better works, the editor function of Egg Party is constantly iterated on a weekly basis, and AI technology is introduced to improve the effect. As long as anyone opens the game, they can "edit" the virtual space in "Egg Party", such as restoring the face of Dunhuang for thousands of years, ground various imaginary scenes, and complete the meta-cosmic space interaction from the creation, and it is difficult to have a mobile game that can provide such free and convenient creative space.
This low threshold creation method not only allows the game to accumulate more than 100 million works in a short period of time, but also allows players to achieve a subtle change of identity in enjoying the desire to create, and then achieve a two-way empowerment between the game and the player.
For example, in the intangible heritage planning during the National Day, "Egg Party" cooperated with high-quality creators to go to the north and south of the river, and had an inspiration dialogue with non-genetic heirs, and produced cultural content such as Miao Yin intangible heritage forging technique "Dust blowing shadow, poor work extreme", which inspired users' positive emotions for national art and national tide culture, forming a wide resonance.
In addition to the official linkage, more users promote the "Egg Party" UGC ecology to achieve inclusive "growth" while creating self-realization. Trained as an art major, the maps he makes are always in his signature aesthetic style, and some of the works are inspired by his dreams, and some are the landscapes he yearns for. When other players visit these maps, they gain resonance with his various underlying ideas.
These diverse content creations create a common point of emotional and spiritual values for users in the virtual world, greatly enriching the game content at the same time, but also make players willing to stay and become "permanent residents" of Egg Island.
The meta universe of Eggy Party needs to be linked to real life
The digital world composed of high quality and high level experience content and positive emotional link between users provides a template for the final landing of the meta-universe. Outside the virtual world, how to integrate with real life and serve real life, the predecessors of the game are also slowly moving out of a way.
In fact, among the large number of virtual players in Egg Party, some creators have chosen to devote themselves full-time and achieve goals and recognition in the value of their work. A player whose ID is "Jieworry Game Shop" has found his own work direction in "Egg Party" after experiencing a considerable period of unemployment, and output creative and heart-oriented game content for players. ID "Twilight ah Twilight wine" anchor also after years of obscurity, to "Egg Party" harvest the expected popularity, to achieve the dual goal of work value recognition.
In today's "Egg Party", there are dads who earn milk powder money by map creation while taking care of their children, and young vendors who have flexible side businesses and free income generation. "Egg Party", which can fully link all aspects of user interests, social interaction and work ideals, has quietly become a platform for many people to find self-worth and realize their work ideals.
Based on this, we can further glimpse the future of the meta-universe, the real meta-universe, not only the presentation of a new generation of technological forms, but also to meet the interests of millions of users for real life, emotions and ideals of the export. From this perspective, the meta-universe is still the undisputed tuyere, which can become a "digital virtual society" in which countless users can find their own interests, values, participation, positive emotional gains, and even, including new job opportunities.