During my time with the Oculus Quest 2 I’ve taken down a zombie religion cult, manipulated time like the Matrix, became a secret agent, and spent time as a wooden lighthouse keeper. So I’m pretty much a pro. While getting myself acclimated to a parallel virtual world, I’ve noticed what works for the upcoming Metaverse and what’s just meh.
If I worked for a media and gambling giant, here’s what I would suggest.
There’s a key distinction that needs to be made here between interaction and interactive. Allow consumers to interact with your media the same way as always just on a separate platform. Blogs, videos, and podcasts, posted to an Oculus app same as your phone. Will a lot of people use the Metaverse to read and watch videos? Probably not at the moment, unless they get a notification while in a game or something. Why put on those big ass goggles when you can read or watch on your phone? So how do you get people onto your Metaverse app? Install interactive features.
I wrote a blog back in April talking about making a board game of “The Dozen Trivia” where players can read off questions given to them or write in their own. With the Metaverse, a Dozen Trivia game would be straight fire. You could challenge friends or go head to head with your favorite Barstool personalities. See if you could get the celebrity mashups yourself. Or steal a question from Brandon. If you pre record Jeff asking teams questions, you can have put in pauses and steals for the customer to answer. The best part from a business standpoint is this game would be perpetual. You could update questions every six months or annually and charge each time for the new season. Like Fortnite or Call Of Duty expansion packs. The customer will feel like they’re actually on their favorite Barstool show from their living room.
People go to this fake world but want it to be as real as possible. It doesn’t make sense really, but it does. It gives you access to places in the real world that you’d otherwise have no business being in. Which brings me to my next point. Invest in VR cameras. Allow people to put on the headset so they can stand next to Dave as he does a pizza review. Or sit in the studio with the PMT boys while they record. Or allow Erika to give you life advice face to face. Or let people see how tall Coley actually is. You get it. People want to feel like they’re a part of your product, and the Metaverse can put them right in the room with you safely and not stalker-y fashion.
On to gambling.
The arms race to the first successful virtual casino is going to be intense. Yes, you’ll be able to walk around a room playing cards, roulette, and slots but I’m predicting that novelty will wear off pretty quickly. Why put the goggles on your face to see a ball spin round and round a roulette wheel when you can just as easily do it on your phone? You have to provide opportunities that people can’t see on their phones.
Gambling has evolved from the traditional Pesci and De Niro casinos. If you can make it a game, you can sure as fuck gamble on it. For instance, say you had a multiplier game. We’ll call it, “To The Moon”. You place a wager and step into a rocket. The rocket shoots up towards the moon and it’s breathtaking as you look out your windows as you see yourself leaving the atmosphere. The higher the rocket goes, the higher the multiplier gets. But the player doesn’t know when the rocket will explode. If you pull out and glide back down to earth, you take your cash with whatever the multiplier was at. If the rocket explodes before you eject yourself, you lose everything.
Now, is this a lot like “The Rocket Game” on DraftKings? Yeah it is. But it’d look really cool and there’s gotta be a way around it legally. DraftKings doesn’t own rockets. But if you can’t shake the pesky bastards, there’s other avenues to take. Like say you made a multiplayer game where you’re on a gridiron that looks like it goes on forever. You place a bet and get the football handed off to you. The more yards your back gains, the higher the multiplier goes. You never know if they’re going to juke a defender or break a tackle. So if you slide before you’re tackled, you take your money and run. But if you get hit sticked before you slide, you lose everything.
But what about sports betting? How can we tackle that in the Metaverse. What I would do immediately is partner up with NASCAR. We’re a still a ways away from watching POV baseball, basketball, football, or hockey on a professional level. The cameras would have to be as big as the tip of a pinky to place on somebody while they’re playing. But putting a camera in a car? No problem. How fucking rock n roll would it be to place a bet on a race in the Metaverse, and then hop into the car of the driver you bet for the last lap. Cars bumping into you, going unimaginable speeds, and money on the line as you sit right behind the wheel.
The Metaverse is limitless. All it takes is an imagination and you could build pretty much whatever the fuck you want. You can view things larger than life, live lavishly, blow zombies heads off, or rub virtual shoulders with your favorite bloggers and podcasters.
Now, is this a lot like “The Rocket Game” on DraftKings? Yeah it is. But it’d look really cool and there’s gotta be a way around it legally. DraftKings doesn’t own rockets. But if you can’t shake the pesky bastards, there’s other avenues to take. Like say you made a multiplayer game where you’re on a gridiron that looks like it goes on forever. You place a bet and get the football handed off to you. The more yards your back gains, the higher the multiplier goes. You never know if they’re going to juke a defender or break a tackle. So if you slide before you’re tackled, you take your money and run. But if you get hit sticked before you slide, you lose everything.
But what about sports betting? How can we tackle that in the Metaverse. What I would do immediately is partner up with NASCAR. We’re a still a ways away from watching POV baseball, basketball, football, or hockey on a professional level. The cameras would have to be as big as the tip of a pinky to place on somebody while they’re playing. But putting a camera in a car? No problem. How fucking rock n roll would it be to place a bet on a race in the Metaverse, and then hop into the car of the driver you bet for the last lap. Cars bumping into you, going unimaginable speeds, and money on the line as you sit right behind the wheel.
The Metaverse is limitless. All it takes is an imagination and you could build pretty much whatever the fuck you want. You can view things larger than life, live lavishly, blow zombies heads off, or rub virtual shoulders with your favorite bloggers and podcasters.
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