Meta’s working on a new way to spark more interest in its evolving VR experiences, with users now able to view a list of “Avatar Quests” on Facebook and IG, which relate to various VR experiences.
As you can see in this example, shared by app researcher Jonah Manzano, some users are now able to view an Avatar Quests tab in their profile options, which leads to a listing of achievements in VR games and worlds that can be conducted via your Meta character.
So playing “Kailju City Showdown” or “Super Rumble Rocket Ruckus,” both VR titles, will grant you XP points for your avatar, essentially gamifying VR experiences in order to spark broader interest.
And if Meta can get you to compete with your friends on completing these various tasks, in order to gain more XP, that’ll enable it to drive more VR engagement, and potentially spark more interest by, say, showing your achievements to your connections.
It’s a pretty light means to drive more interest in its VR experiences. But as Meta gradually edges us towards its broader metaverse shift, it could be another helpful step.
And yes, despite Meta shifting its focus to AI, and basically culling all mentions of the metaverse from most of its PR materials, after initial backlash to the concept, it is still very much on the cards for the future of its business.
Meta’s hope is that AI will empower the next stage of VR development, by democratizing VR creation. Which means that, eventually, you’ll be able to create your own immersive VR experience, simply by speaking it into existence.
It’s already well on the way on this front, with Meta recently previewing its updated Horizon Worlds editor, which can now use AI prompts to generate VR objects.
So if you want to create a craggy mountain range, which you can then explore in fully immersive VR, you can now do it, by simply typing in what you want to see.
Meta’s still developing this, but that’s where its AI push integrates with its metaverse vision. And once everyone can create amazing, engaging VR experiences, that’ll help drive more interest in VR more broadly, while its coming AR glasses will also play into that more immersive day-to-day environment, as we get more used to interacting via headset wearables than handheld devices.
It all connects, it all aligns. And as such, the more Meta can drive interest in things like its digital avatars, the more it can boost interest in this next phase.
Avatars may seem like a much smaller element in this respect, but when you consider how kids already use avatars to engage in the current version of metaverse experiences, in gaming worlds like Fortnite and Roblox, it makes sense that this would be the logical medium for Meta to drive its metaverse push.
As noted, another small step, to a wider Meta-built digital world.
