The meta verse event I chose for this review was an air balloon tour of Alula, Saudi Arabia. Full disclosure, it will be impossible not to give an unbiased review of this experience, because the way the meta verse has been branded is detrimental to mental – and thusly – physical health, a money-suck and done before with much better graphics for something like the playstation-verse that came out years ago with all the same features and better graphics. Not to mention how aggressively they market towards children who would be much better off playing outside with other real life children. But I digress…
The experience itself fell flat as a pancake upon entering. I was the only user there. The graphics looked like a beta-version of Minecraft. There were some signs conveniently places nearby with some info about the city, but searching for the single air balloon launch was hidden behind a large block-y boulder and took a few minutes to find. Upon trying to enter the balloon it left without me and glitched through my avatar’s body that was literally standing inside the basket for launch. There was no re-spawn for the 30 minutes I was there, so I assumed the balloon wouldn’t return until it had completed its course. I chose this event because it seemed like I wouldn’t run in to too many advertisements and tempted with “wearables.” Whatever potential disappointment in missing the tour was immediately squashed by the quality of graphics I noticed upon first entering.
While I can understand why in certain instances, people in different areas of the world would want to connect virtually, generally speaking, its because of their inability to meet and enjoy an experience together in person. But digitally meeting up in a virtual Taco Bell to eat virtual food and buy some pixelated shirts will always feel like a cold bowl of capitalist soup. The intentions of the meta verse are so thinly veiled its nauseating, and the target vocabulary they use to entice children to spend even MORE time online to spend their parent’s money on virtual items that don’t exist anywhere than in this half-baked fantasy that’s as bland as cardboard oatmeal is aggravating.