Who Will Use the Metaverse?

Six roles that will define how we engage with a connected virtual world

By Miranda Mantey, UX Foresight Strategist, ATB Ventures

When introducing someone new to the metaverse, the first question we always get is “why would I use it?” The description of interacting with each other’s avatars, walking around virtual stores rather than scrolling through websites, and meeting in virtual conference rooms rather than in person or via video chat leaves more questions than answers for people familiar and comfortable with our analog-driven world. That is because those of us that are well-aware of the details of the metaverse and the impact it can have tend to communicate a vision of it being the next generation of the internet rather than a place where people can explore, socialize, play, buy, build, and even trade new asset classes.

This new metaverse reality has in fact already begun to emerge, with virtual concerts drawing millions of attendees in Fortnite, parcels of digital land in decentralized metaverse Decentraland selling for thousands of dollars, and tech behemoths like Facebook and Microsoft making huge investments in advancing the metaverse. If you want to learn more about the space feel free to check out What Is The Metaverse or Maslow’s + the Metaverse.

The People of Tomorrow

While it’s likely that the metaverse will radically change the way we live our lives, not everyone will use it to the same degree or for the same reasons. To understand the different roles people might play in the metaverse, we look to the research and models developed in our Humans of 2030+ tool.

In Humans of 2030+, we sought to understand how people might react to different future scenarios. We used a well-vetted psychographic tool and a wellness framework of five categories (emotional, financial, occupational, physical and social) to model the effect of contextual shifts on three persona groups with similar innate natures and similar responses to changing conditions — the Adaptives, the Dependents and the Uneasy.

Six Roles in the Metaverse

In order to better answer the question of “why would I use the metaverse?”, we explored the ways our three persona groups might want to engage with this immersive world. We used our Humans of 2030+ tool and leveraged data-based insights from each user group’s present-day state along with insights from the New Equilibrium transformation. The reason we also used New Equilibrium is because it most similarly resembles the changes the metaverse will bring as it outlines a future where progress is enabled by technology and accelerated by society.

The process generated six future metaverse roles: Money Makers, Creators, Players, Community-Builders, Self-Expressors and Deceivers. Let’s take a look at how each one might interact with the metaverse:

Money Makers are the first to see the metaverse’s economic potential and learn how they personally can make money from it. Money Makers are early adopters and belong to the Adaptives group. Adaptives have the drive, self-confidence, comfort with technology and entrepreneurial daringness to succeed in this new economic space.

• Sam, 27, is a nonbinary social worker who sees technological advances as opportunities to live a more fulfilling, connected life. Sam dabbled in massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft growing up, and even once sold another user in-game “gold,” earning real currency for his efforts. When the metaverse emerged, Sam recognized its revolutionary potential. Perfectly comfortable with the idea of digital assets holding real-word value — and confident in their abilities to learn new skills — Sam reinvented themselves as a digital real estate investor, buying and selling parcels of land in Decentraland. One plot was in a particularly prime location, so they held onto it. It’s now a popular NFT art gallery showing pieces Sam bought from unknown digital artists, and which they hope to eventually sell for several times what they paid.

Creators see the metaverse as an inspiring new venue for creative expression. Creators’ activities in the metaverse will likely earn them some income, but unlike Money Makers, they won’t primarily be investing in digital assets. Instead, they might be designing experiences or even creating art. Creators are early adopters and also belong to the Adaptives group. Adaptives are optimistic, open to change and frequently inspired.

• Monique, 38, is a digital artist and web designer whose favorite projects allow her to create innovative, stylish experiences for users. When she’s not working on paying gigs, she’s following her own muse and posting the results to her social media accounts. The emergence of a decentralized metaverse inspired Monique to experiment with designing immersive experiences. Her first attempt was a sci-fi-themed virtual puzzle room in which users had to work together to navigate a lost spaceship back to Earth. Feedback was encouraging, and Monique has found a profitable niche designing customized metaverse experiences for virtual birthday parties and remote corporate retreats.

Players see the metaverse as an extension of gaming. They log on seeking entertainment and little else. While many advances in the metaverse have come from the gaming community, Players will not be early adopters. Players belong to the Dependents group. They’re open to new experiences, but they aren’t convinced that technology improves their quality of life so they primarily lean into new technology solely for entertainment purposes.

• Warren, 58, is a single dad and certified personal trainer whose sometimes-abrasive personality and outspoken political views have complicated his efforts to build a client base. He works an extra job as a bus driver to meet his financial obligations to his daughter. All in all, he does okay, but he’s not as happy as he knows he could be. When he started hearing about “the metaverse,” it didn’t mean much to him. But when his brother-in-law let him try out his VR rig after Thanksgiving dinner, he understood the metaverse as an open-ended virtual reality game. It was just the kind of thing he needed to unwind and take his mind off his anxieties. Now, when Warren comes home from working two jobs, he heads to the metaverse, where he logs hour after hour exploring new worlds and playing games. He budgets money every month for equipment upgrades to experience the metaverse at a sharper resolution, higher frame rate and more immersive experience along with budgets for in-game purchases.

Community-Builders use the metaverse’s immersive social experiences to forge real and meaningful connections with other users. Community Builders belong to the Dependents group. Dependents struggle to maintain social relationships in the real world. The globalized structure of social relationships in the metaverse gives them a larger population pool which makes it easier for them to reach out to make friends and sustain bonds.

• Erica, 30, is an administrative assistant plugging away at her sizable student loan debt. Her first encounters with the metaverse were as a gamer — massively multiplayer online games were a great procrastination tool in college, and conveniently, they were available 24 hours a day. After college, she lost touch with her classmates, but kept up easily with the other gamers she had met online. Gradually, they’ve become her primary social circle. When colleagues invite her to grab a drink after work, she usually declines, preferring to spend her free time with her metaverse community. They don’t usually game when they meet up anymore. They stream a movie together or go on a virtual hike. Sometimes everyone orders the same food for delivery and they talk until the early morning hours.

Self-Expressors rely on the metaverse to be their authentic selves. The anonymity of the metaverse gives them permission to explore who they truly are without fear of disapproval. Self-Expressors belong to the Uneasy group. The Uneasy lack confidence in themselves and need external validation. Because they don’t trust the value of technology and underestimate their ability to use it, they are the last to join the metaverse.

• Preet, 41, has been working as a recruiter for a market research group for a decade. Over the years, he’s earned several incremental raises but no real promotions. At this point, he’s older than all his direct supervisors — and he’s been at the company longer than they have. He has ideas for streamlining certain work processes, but he never offers them. Instead, when others talk, he just nods along. In the metaverse, it’s a different story. There, Preet’s alter-ego publishes screeds against corporate culture and longform movie reviews that double as autobiographical sketches. He even runs a virtual theatre, where he curates screenings of skateboard videos from the late 1980s and cinema verité classics. Not many people attend his events, but that’s not the point. Instead, Preet just wants a space where he can be himself, complete and unfiltered.

Deceivers exploit vulnerabilities in the metaverse — and the trust of its inhabitants — for personal gain. Deceivers belong to the Uneasy group. The Uneasy chase quick wins and cheap gratification to the neglect of long-term wellness and success. They lack a strong sense of personal responsibility. They will come late to the metaverse and will take time to learn how to exploit the system.

• Lillian, 19, is a recent high school graduate from an unstable home. She identifies as a hard worker who persists through adversity, but she spends money and parties excessively, regularly borrowing money from her dad to keep ahead of her bills. She lives with four roommates and has no plans for her education or a career beyond her clothing store job. When she posted an innocent gripe to her social channels about a bad day at work, she ended it with a plea for someone to buy her a drink and a link to her online payment account. To her surprise, several users sent her money — enough to cover her share of the utility bills for the month. Since then, she’s created several fictitious metaverse identities with exorbitant medical bills and online fundraisers. Her original plan was to save up money to get a place of her own, but the more she takes in the more she spends.

What the metaverse will look like next year or a decade from now is up for debate. But just as the advent of the internet led many of us to form our first digital connections, the metaverse is likely to deepen those connections in powerful ways. It may challenge the status quo economically, socially and politically. And it may fundamentally change the way we work, play and socialize with one another. While there’s plenty of unanswered questions about the metaverse, one thing is certain: there’s room for anybody who’s ready to explore.