How do you define a culture? Culture can be reflected in both materials (lifestyle, fashion, aesthetic tastes) and spirituals (customary beliefs, future expectations, value systems). It affects how people behave and interact with each other in the world. As every change in technology brings new culture, the metaverse can usher in a new form of culture (Metaculture), which can affect our real lives. Metaculture is also a crucial part of metaverse applications as different cultures (community-driven/ corporate-driven) can attract different user groups. This series of articles on the metaverse culture aims to draw a profile of Metaculture and forecast the implication of this new wave.
Metaculture: How it can affect the world inside and outside
The Internet age has ushered in cyberculture, characterized by online social activities, online communities, and openness of information. Metaverse further compounds these social interactions and introduces a new value system.
Below is a framework to assess how Metaculture can affect our minds and eventually the material world. The key components of the metaverse like avatar, digital ownership, creator economy, virtual economies, and gamification can each bring a new form of change.
Credit: Andrea Chang
It's also worth noting that the change may happen faster than we think as the "metaverse-native generation" has already appeared with the main users' age at Roblox and Rec Room being 9 to 16 years old. In fact, over 25%+ of users on Roblox are actually under 9 years old in the past few years.
To me, the direction of metaverse culture can be understood as corporate-driven vs. community-driven cultures that are reflected in each layer of the metaverse. The main reason why I choose to make this dual-direction is my background as a "crypto-native" user and Web3.0 community member, where I experienced a totally different vibe and value system outside the world of crypto. As the crypto/NFT communities are already big investors/spenders on virtual assets, it is highly likely that the same group of people will be the first batch of users and target customers in the metaverse. Hence, I believe the community-driven culture will also appear in the metaverse that reflects Web3.0 value.
Credit: Andrea Chang
With new breeds of products matching Metaculture appear, Metaculture's impact can be on a larger scale, changing major industries, especially media, gaming, and consumer. As these three industries all involve lots of retail-facing elements, metaverse opens up a new arena for companies to create more experiences and types of product offerings, collectively boosting growth for these industries. Each of the elements of metaverse previously mentioned can cause direct impact with examples as follow.
Credit: Andrea Chang
Forecasts: New breeds of behaviors and value systems in Metaculture
Democracy of "luxurious experience" for consumers and producers
Metaverse opens up a different form of living style that was once not achievable (to most people). The advancement of technologies also creates upside to make these virtual experiences more "real".
The new affluent
The affluence created in the metaverse can extend beyond monetary wealth but spiritual and intellectual contentment. As virtual economies grow with the metaverse, new job opportunities and forms of entertainment can emerge. Thanks to the Internet, people already can know how people outside our normal social circles (or even social classes) think and learn accordingly. Metaverse can enrich the diversity of information flow as it creates more scenarios for people to interact with.
Personality and contribution matter more than titles
In the real world, there are lots of social labels like schools and companies worked. However, in the virtual world, the unit of society turns from family/ alumni/ colleagues into clubs (or "DAOs" in Web3) that got united based on a specific goal/hobby/share of value, which can't be labeled with real-life social titles. Hence, the ideas/creations/ level of commitment for the group can embody more of who you are. As the metaverse grows, digital status can matter more in real life or even surpass the real-world counterpart.
A flourish of entrepreneurship and creator spirit
As the creator economy and digital art in the metaverse lower the bar of creativity and increase the addressable market of arts/ virtual assets, people can be their own boss more easily. Thanks to the last Internet age like e-commerce and streaming, we have already seen a surge of individual businesses. It's amazing to think how the metaverse can unleash even more creativity.
Last but not least, we think that the metaverse, with all its innovation and opportunities, can reward the underdogs, the rebellious, and adventurers that hope to blaze a trail for themselves in this new world.
Bio of Andrea Chang:
Chang is a partner at NGC Ventures, which is one of the first and largest institutional investors in crypto since 2018 and a Web3.0 metaverse-focused fund since 2021. She has 5+ years of experience in Crypto investment and Web 3.0 technologies globally. Before crypto and Berkeley Haas MBA, she was at Goldman Sachs global investment research in Singapore and technology VC in the Greater China region.
Andrea Chang, partner at NGC Ventures
Editor's Notes:
The article was originally published in "Metaverse Research," an independent study initiated by Andrea Chang and Jane Lu, as part of their Berkeley Haas MBA program.
