In the context of the Metaverse, what we mean by this is that too many developers and studios are building large expansive virtual worlds with planets, regions, and zones driven in the main of course by land sales.
But buying land is boring. What's much more interesting is what is on the land. The buildings, places, and spaces created to be occupied by avatars. I highly doubt many of the people who have purchased virtual parcels of land actually plan to build/create anything on their land. Either because it is a purely speculative purchase or because they don't actually have the skills required to terraform or construct. Hmmm. there's gonna be a lot of empty land.
Getting back to the power of small, we spend so much of our lives in rooms and combinations of small spaces. It's what we're used to. It's familiar. What we don't spend a lot of time doing is roaming and exploring, seeking new places. Metaversed has over 15 years looking at how people interact with virtual worlds and spaces and what is very clear is that new users of virtual worlds react much better during on-boarding and the 'first hour' if they're placed into places that are familiar and/or small.
This allows them to get to grips with avatar driving systems and also transition them from the real world to the virtual. This transition is super important, particularly for brand-new Metaverse users and even more so if that experience is in VR. Smaller spaces are also much more conducive to meaningful social interaction which of course is the backbone of community building.So, don't always think BIG. Sometimes SMALL is SMART.
We track all of the companies developing Social Hangouts and Small Spaces in the segment of the Radar chart below. This is the sector that will demonstrate sustainable and sizable growth in the years ahead. The next wave of Metaverse users (25-45 year olds in the Late Majority), will gravitate towards spending time in their own virtual places and spaces on a social basis rather than wanting to play games or go on quests.
This user cohort is therefore not interesting in any type of 'Play to Earn' gaming mechanic and it's a strategic error creating platforms with this gameplay for this cohort - they just want to hang out, socialise and maybe go exploring when they want to as opposed to because that's how the VW is constructed.So Metaverse Developers: Don't get carried away with trying to build brand-new worlds.
Also, don't get lured into thinking that users will flock to your platform just because you're offering something new or have great PtE mechanics. The users you actually need inside your worlds don't care about those things, they want to be somewhere they feel comfortable, in control of, and that's an interesting place to be.
