AlterVerse announces their plans to bring in-game, real-life marketplaces into Sky City, allowing players to make purchases from within their virtual world. Shopping for shoes has never been more virtual!
AlterVerse has partnered with a gaming marketplace called Scuti, to bring interactive shopping to Sky City. Players will be able to click on items and billboards in the game to bring up a Scuti kiosk. From this interface players can browse and purchase real life items. As a bonus, players receive 5% back in SCUTI, which can be exchanged for ACE tokens.
Now, of course, the main question is, do people really want to use an in-game interface in a virtual world to make real life purchases. What about the exchange fees involved with moving the ‘cashback’ to usable tokens?
In addition, the official announcement has a couple of quotes that make me dubious of the whole affair. (emphasis in the quotes is mine)
“AlterVerse provides brands with cutting-edge tools to engage, reward, and sell directly to every player”
“adding rewarded shopping for players to enhance their game experience.”
Selling and shopping experiences seem to be the focus here, which is not really what I want in my virtual worlds. And this could quickly go too far, with everything in-game turning into an advertisement of some sort!
It seems inevitable that advertisements and merchandising will continue to seep into virtual worlds. Especially as they gain in popularity. But will it be a cool feature, a barely noticed addition, or a dystopian nightmare? Or maybe a little of all three? We’ll see how it turns out!
What is AlterVerse?
AlterVerse is a new metaverse in development. With a decentralized, 3D, multiplayer, interconnected, VR-enabled platform, AlterVerse aims to claim a spot in an increasingly crowded field.
Servers for AlterVerse are player owned, with various customizeable, pre-built environments and games. Newly launched game servers are automatically added to the server list for players to access. At the center of this lies Sky City, a social hub with customizable spaces and storefronts for partnerships. One of those partners Double Protocol, and NFT renting system. Not only will Double Protocol own an in-game office, but they will also power the in-game rental market, allowing players to rent out land plots and other items!
Sky City is considered Phase 1 of the AlterVerse. Phase 2 includes Outpost, a FPS, sci-fi shooter with quests, mining and crafting. Phase 3 brings us Rekt, a hard core survival game set on a hostile planet Sky City is currently going through alpha playtests. Expect to see the Sky City Beta, and alphas for both Outpost and Rekt within the first half of this year.
For more about AlterVerse, visit their website, follow them on Twitter, and join their Discord.
