In real life, Hitsuzi is a 32-year-old Japanese government employee who lives alone in a suburb north of Tokyo. He usually comes home from work around 8 p.m., eats a ready meal, and then, starting around 10 p.m., the fun begins. He puts on a set of VR goggles that transport him to a great gilded hall built in the clouds, where he chats and games with friends from all over the globe into the early hours of the morning.
In the virtual world, Hitsuzi interacts with his friends not as a 30-something office worker but in the form of his avatar: a purple-haired girl sporting a pair of cat ears and a black mini dress. He says he spends every evening on VRChat, a virtual platform, chatting with other users from a variety of countries and attending virtual gatherings such as DJ events. “It’s different from talking on the phone because you can see your friend’s face and gestures, and you feel that they are actually there,” Hitsuzi, who asked to use a pseudonym, told Nikkei Asia. Digital doppelgangers In many parts of the Asia-Pacific region, physical cities are starting to acquire digital twins. One of the highlights of a visit to Metaverse Seoul is the opportunity to meet Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who can be found in his office, helping digital visitors with a limited slate of tasks: either suggest a policy idea or give him a high-five. Making a metaverse living As the metaverse grows, it is increasingly becoming not just a place to interact with other avatars but a parallel world where users can own property or work for cryptocurrency wages. Rey Familaran has been making a living playing games online since the pandemic, when thousands of his fellow Filipinos, forced to stay indoors due to anti-COVID restrictions, were caught in a metaverse gaming wave. Events in cyberspace With the exception of die-hards like Hitsuzi, most users still do not visit the metaverse on a daily basis. Developers hope they will, however, venture into the virtual world for exclusive events and attractions. Digital Osaka, for example, boasted 100,000 visitors in one day at a live-streamed comedy show in 2021. The daily figure now averages around 500, according to the city of Osaka. Source: Kr Asia
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