Metaverse ‘rave’ flops miserably, witnesses claim
What was apparently supposed to be a testament to just how fun the metaverse is turned out to be quite the opposite – at least, if the stories and videos of a rave party held there shared by some of the attendees are anything to go by.
The event was held early on Thursday morning in what is known as Decentraland, a virtual-reality platform akin to that being developed by Facebook. The virtual space allows users to explore various locations, communicate with each other, and kill it on the dance floor – though, as evidenced by some of the footage shared from in the thick of it, there was very little actual dancing going on.
One of the attendees who decided to give outsiders a glimpse of the metaverse fun was Alex Moss, chief technology officer at an NFT development company. On his Twitter account, Moss posted a 37-second clip that featured a group of avatars on the dance floor, most of them completely stationary, with techno music blasting in the background. The video snippet was captioned, “This is the #metaverse … A live rave happening right now in @decentraland.”
This is the #metaverse... A live rave happening right now in @decentraland for the upcoming @LightbulbmanNFT release by #BjarneMelgaard. Music from @feedelity@prins_thomas@mightbetwins#NFTdrop#rave#virtualevent#NFTCommunitypic.twitter.com/aC4WYRbgH9
— Alex Moss (@alexmoss) January 20, 2022
Before long, the footage went viral on social media, with users poking fun at the lackluster ‘party’.
Journalists from the Cut and Vice also dived headlong into the virtual party to bring their readers a first-hand experience of the event. The barrier to entry was described as fairly low, as all a person needed to join in was a desktop internet browser and an email address. A user is then offered to choose a name and an avatar out of a “very limited” selection of characters available.
One of the journalists recounted not seeing anyone the first time he entered the dance floor. He had to refresh Decentraland before a handful of avatars appeared, floating “6-10 inches off the ground, traveling above the terrain without moving their legs,” with one person being “stuck in the sky, floating but not moving.”
The journalist also described various glitches he encountered during the party, including the floor and other objects disappearing and flickering. According to his account, there were “about 10 people” on the dance floor, most of them stationary and just “staring off into space.”
