552 Metaverse Apps, 70 for socializing, which one can really make friends?

Welcome to the WeChat subscription number of “Sina Technology”: techsina

Text / Gao Xuyang

Source/Snow Leopard Finance and Economics (ID: xuebaocaijingshe)

In 1971, the world’s first email kicked off the development of social networking. 50 years later, with the rapid progress of technology and the increase of human spiritual needs, the metaverse social society came into being.

In order to seize the opportunity in this emerging field, an enclosure movement quietly started. Sensor Tower data shows that since the outbreak of the “metaverse” concept, an average of one “metaverse” app has been added every day. From November last year to January this year, about 552 apps added the word “metaverse” to their descriptions, an average of more than 6 per day, and 70 of them claimed to be metaverse social apps.

At present, there are two main types of Metaverse social apps. One is to add functions such as face pinching and virtual scenes on the basis of virtual communities. live in the world.

At the same time, the life cycle of many Metaverse Apps is extremely short. Baidu’s jelly and Douyin’s party island were all taken off the shelves after a fuss, and there are not many apps available for download on the market.

Snow Leopard Finance and Economics has downloaded and experienced a number of Metaverse social apps, and conducted key evaluations on the following 9 apps from multiple dimensions such as picture sound effects, community atmosphere, and user experience, to explore the true face of Metaverse social networking.

Are they real universes or mobile QQ shows? I believe you will give your own judgment after reading it.

Application evaluation

Xiyong

App Store Rating: 2.2

Snow Leopard Score: 3

Picture and sound effects: 4

Social experience: 2

App experience: 2

Before entering the world of Xi Rong, you can choose the image set by the system, such as a young man or a green snake, or you can generate your own image in a sentence or take a photo. However, this image may have little to do with your requirements. After Snow Leopard Finance and Economics said a “fitness girl”, Xi Rong created a female image wearing a cheongsam.

In Xiyong, you can check out Baidu Apollo’s driverless car, visit the campus of Communication University of China, and even run two laps in the playground.

The hyper-realistic streets and architectural styles are the obvious features that distinguish Xiyong from other metaverse social apps.

The founder of a virtual content production company told Snow Leopard Finance that the two types of modeling tools commonly used in virtual spaces at present, the free material packages in it are all European-style. Therefore, behind the phrase “a lot of Chinese elements are integrated into it” in the introduction of Xiyang’s application, Baidu has indeed made a lot of money.

However, at least for now, the experience of using this app is far from good.

The life that can be experienced in Xirong is very monotonous, and it may only be a map scene. Snow Leopard Finance and Economics has landed in Xirong at different times for a week, and encountered very few players, let alone submitted to friends.

What makes people laugh and cry is that there are ubiquitous mold-piercing bugs that may hit at any time in Xiyang (between objects or between characters, due to the wrong setting of the collision volume, which leads to mutual penetration and superposition). For example, when encountering a bumblebee, it will pass through his body, and when navigating to a certain place, he will see himself passing through the wall all the way, and “arrogantly” rushing to the destination.

Even just standing quietly, there may be flashbacks, downloading maps or clicking other buttons on the screen are more “high-risk” actions.

original world

App Store Rating: 4.3

Snow Leopard Score: 4.5

Picture and sound effects: 4

Social experience: 4.8

App experience: 4.5

If Xiyang is Chaoyang District, then Yuanyuan World may be a corner of Chaoyang Park. There are only 4 party halls, 4 tents and an open-air stage in the app, which can be called a minimalist version of the metaverse.

The painting style of the original universe is also relatively young, not like an application for adults. However, because there are not many players, this application has not been captured by primary school students for the time being.

Compared with similar software, what makes this app more fun is the players in it.

Among the multiple Metaverse social app user groups joined by Snow Leopard Finance and Economics, the number of group chats in the original world is only 90, but the activity and atmosphere are the best, and the players encountered in the app are also very friendly.

After Snow Leopard Finance entered the original universe, it accidentally encountered a group of friends who were chatting around the fireplace in the tent. When they approached any player, they would automatically join the voice group. After everyone greeted each other, they also played Werewolf together.

In addition to the basic social functions, there is also a “Go to K Song” button on the home page of the original universe. Clicking it will lead you directly to the party hall called “Lanxiang Conservatory of Music”, which is equipped with card seats. After putting on the microphone, you can hear the sound of the ear return. There are common KTV functions such as canceling and opening the original singing, adjusting the vocal and accompaniment volume, and there are many songs to choose from. There are also songs by Jay Chou in the playlist.

At 8 o’clock every night, there is a singing session in the party hall, and there are resident singers, and there is a chat room in the tent at night.

Snow Leopard Finance also met the creative team of Yuanyuan Universe in the App. One developer said that his dream is to have 1,000 people online at the same time. This dream seems a little far away now, but if it can continue to operate, it is also a way to retain users through the community atmosphere.

Maybe that’s why, despite only having 22 ratings, the app has a 4.3 rating on the App Store.

Rainbow Universe

App Store Rating: Offline

Snow Leopard Score: 2.5

Screen sound: 3

Social experience: 2

App experience: 3

“There are very few styles of clothes. I don’t have a house yet, so I can only sit on the moon every day, which is quite boring.” Someone in Xiaohongshu commented on the experience of using the rainbow universe. This sentence basically sums up the experience of Xuebao Finance in the universe many days of life.

All in all, this is a game where the first comers eat meat, and the latter ones can’t drink soup. The main way of socializing here is to visit. Users can visit any player’s house and decorate their own house. However, this also means that if there is no house, then the game is basically useless.

“Real estate speculation” is the most prominent feature of Rainbow Universe.

The houses on the Rainbow Universe can be divided into six levels: SSS, SS, S, A, B, and C according to the level. Among them, the rarest SSS-level “Xianting” has a total circulation of only 35 sets. Most players of this game are not concerned about whether they can make friends, but whether the house in their hand can be sold, how much it can be sold for, and whether or not to make another set.

Players who participated in the internal testing in the early stage were able to obtain houses by doing tasks. When the concept of virtual real estate became popular last year, many people took out the houses they had drawn and resold them. In mid-December, a player said in Xiaohongshu that he had only played for 3 days, and after doing random tasks, he got an S-class house and sold it for 3,000 yuan in Xianyu, while he “worked hard for a month.” I can’t even make 3,000 bucks.” At that time, a house with SS grade and numbered top 100 had already reached 88,000 yuan in Xianyu.

The booming real estate transactions in Rainbow Universe and the ensuing disorder caused Xianyu to block keywords such as “Metaverse” and “Hong Universe” at the end of December last year, but players such as WeChat and QQ are still the gathering places for virtual real estate auctions , and even organizing auctions has become a business.

Every night at 8 o’clock, the group joined by Snow Leopard Finance and Economics will hold an auction. If the turnover is greater than 500 yuan, the auctioneer will charge a 5% handling fee, and even if the auction fails, a 2% fee will be charged.

slow planet

App Store Rating: Available on Android only

Snow Leopard Score: 4.5

Picture sound: 4.5

Social experience: 4

App experience: 4.8

Compared with other metaverse social apps, Slow Planet has more and more active users. Snow Leopard Finance and Economics is the 150,000th+ resident of Slow Planet.

The interface of Slow Planet is similar to the original world. They are all in a cute Q-print style. When entering the app, there are limited images to choose from. There are 6 images for boys and girls, and custom functions such as pinching faces are not supported. The advantage is that as soon as you enter, you will have a small home of your own, with sofas, tables, chairs and beds for sitting and sleeping.

Before going out of the slow planet, the system will prompt you to choose a destination, including the first-generation residents’ gathering place on the slow island, the youth-oriented Xingxing Island and the music island. In addition to being able to chat in tents, cafes and other spaces, Slow Planet’s unique gameplay is the ability to play 3V3 football matches. There are two main forms of in-app communication. When the player approaches, a voice group will be formed automatically. At the same time, there will be an additional text chat dialog box compared to other apps.

When you enter the slow planet at any time, you can find people to chat, and the real-time online number of the three islands combined fluctuates around 50 people. However, in the many days that Snow Leopard Finance and Economics has experienced in the slow planet, most of the teenage primary and secondary school students encountered, and the common user names are “XX is a handsome guy” and “I’m not growing taller”.

From the perspective of interactive experience, when the slow planet encounters obstacles, it will not get stuck, nor will it pass through it, but will detour or even jump over it, which is already quite pleasing to the eye in the metaverse social application.

FateU

App Store Rating: Available on Android only

Snow Leopard Score: 1

Screen sound: 1

Social experience: 1

App experience: 1

Today’s FateU is more like the original pan-entertainment social application, forcibly adding a first-level entrance to the metaverse social network, and it calls itself “the first metaverse social app in China”. But this universe may be full of creatures like “lightning”, and the average time to switch pages is greater than one minute. After entering the app, it is a general image creation function. Although there are functions of changing clothes and pinching faces, there are not many clothes to choose from. As a more realistic character image, the head-to-body ratio is also a bit strange.

There are 3 entrances on the FateU homepage, namely Superheroes, CP at Club and Summer Party Island.

Superhero is a 123 wooden man game of the same style as the popular online drama “Squid Game”. You need to match 10 people to start the game, but Snow Leopard Finance and Economics has logged in for many days, but failed to gather 10 people.

The most challenging is the summer party island. When playing hide and seek with friends, the character can randomly change into anything, such as a drink bottle, etc. However, the Snow Leopard Finance Club has turned around a lot on the island, and no one has been caught. When I came out, I sent a friend request to the players I met, but no one passed.

In terms of user experience, the loading of any page is very slow, and the characters running are also very stuck, so we only give a score of 1 point.

write at the end

The social media track with 4.55 billion users around the world integrates the emerging concept of the metaverse, and it has become a new blue ocean that makes the giants excited.

According to Tsinghua University’s 2020-2021 Metaverse Development Research Report, the Metaverse will be the close integration of the virtual world and the real world in economic systems, social systems and identity systems. Social media in the metaverse world will It is a virtual world that is parallel to reality and online in real time in a social scene.

The stranger social software Soul also proposed the concept of a social metaverse. According to its vision, in the social metaverse, users can experience a variety of immersive social scenarios by virtualizing their bodies, and establish social links in a near-real common experience. The social metaverse will have five characteristics: avatars, social assets, immersion, economic systems, and inclusivity.

But on the whole, the current metaverse social app is just a shell of the metaverse, and it is far from “immersive social”. Even this shell is not delicate, the characters and the settings of the scene are a bit simple and rough. Snow Leopard Finance has made preparations to include emerging products in advance, but the results are still somewhat disappointing.

Zuckerberg’s vision of a metaverse that uses his favorite avatar to complete all activities in a virtual space is still very far away.

This article is reproduced from: http://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/csj/2022-08-03/doc-imizmscv4634149.shtml
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