Imagine organizing a huge party worth thousands of euros and then discovering, on the night of the party, that only six people came. Five, because you are one. And it’s better not to know if your relatives are among those five. This is what happened to the European Union, which invested almost 400,000 euros for his own Metaverse. However, only six people showed up at the launch party. Indeed, you are avatars.
Gizmodo tells us the news well, not without irony quoting the famous phrase from the film Field of Dreams: “If you build it they will come”, said the character played by Kevin Costner. And it didn’t quite happen that way. The virtual party, which quickly turned into little more than a condominium reunion, took place on Tuesday night. Also present was a reporter from The Devex, Vincent Chadwickwho tweeted an image of the bleakness of the event in the metaverse.
I’m here at the “gala” concert in the EU foreign aid dept’s €387k metaverse (designed to attract non politically engaged 18-35 year olds — see story below). After initial bemused chats with the roughly five other humans who showed up, I am alone. https://t.co/ChIHeXasQP pic.twitter.com/kZWIVlKmhL
— Vince Chadwick (@vchadw) November 29, 2022
The Party in the European Union’s Metaverse: Chronicles from a Disaster
Global Gateway, this is the name of the European Union’s Metaverse, was presented in mid-October. The ambitions, all unfulfilled, were clear: create a shared digital space to “reflect on global issues to actively contribute to a shared future”. A project from 387.000 euro.
Chadwick explains that Global Gateway is designed for people of between the ages of 18 and 35 “who identify as neutral towards the EU and are not particularly involved in political matters”. Definitely, the goal was to attract these young people across the metaverse to then “encourage them to commit themselves” to “increase awareness of what the EU does on the world stage”.
“In two is love, in three is a party”, recited a famous song by Lo Stato Sociale. So much love for now, but definitely not much celebration.