What opportunities will the metaverse bring to young creators?

On The day of World Book Day, a dialogue about the metacosm was held at the physical bookstore of China Youth Daily in the Nanxiaoshun Hutong Shuxiang Shiye Cultural Block in Beijing's Dongcheng District, "Warm BaoBao Youth Bookstore". Liu Ying, executive vice president of the University of Online Literature, Tang Feng, editor-in-chief of Chinese the Online Fantasy Universe Science Fiction Station, and Lost Leaf, a well-known online writer, together with the reporters of this newspaper, jointly discussed the "youth writing and reading in the meta-universe era" through the "warm one square" live broadcast room.

At the "Warm BaoBao Youth Bookstore" in Beijing, a reporter from China Youth Daily (left) talked with Liu Ying, executive vice president of the Open Class of the Internet University (right), Tang Feng , editor-in-chief of the Chinese Online Fantasy Universe Science Fiction Station (middle), and lost leaves (video link), a well-known online writer, to discuss "youth writing and reading in the meta-universe era". Haiwen Wang/Photo

After more than 4 months of works collection, the "First Global Meta-universe Essay Contest" hosted by Chinese Online has received 11,000 submissions. As one of the co-organizers of the competition, China Youth Daily launched the theme activity of "Youth Meta-Universe" on April 28 to explore the content form of the meta-universe era and promote the growth and development of young people in this new wave.

The concept of "metaverse", which was first born in science fiction, has become a wave sweeping the global technology, economy and culture, how do we tell the story? How will the literary creation of this era be affected by this? What will the future "metaverse" IP look like?

The metacosm offers opportunities to young people

Tang Feng said that the concept of "metacosmology" did not suddenly catch fire, and the term appeared in the 1992 science fiction novel "Avalanche". "When Google Glass came out, there was a small fire, but the technology was not mature at that time." Tang Feng pointed out that the internal cause of the recent "meta-universe" fire is that technology has begun to mature, and vr glasses hardware and software conditions have kept up. External factors include two points: the popularity of 5G networks and the emergence of digital currencies based on blockchain technology.

Liu Ying believes that the meta-universe is an opportunity for the younger generation. He recalled that before entering the online literature industry as an editor, he did not have much confidence, and other peers at that time were also the same, did not expect that online literature would develop into such a large industry and create so many opportunities. "The metacosm is the same, it is driven by technology first and foremost, and if there is no technology as the bottom layer, it cannot evolve to the next generation."

Liu Ying believes that the metaverse is more like the next generation of the Internet. "It's going to provide a lot of opportunities, especially in the field of content creation, where there may be a big, fertile piece of land for everyone to cultivate together, and there will be a lot of good stories, and then through technology, these stories will become reality."

Tang Feng pointed out that the "good stories" brought by the metaverse will not be mainly reflected in the form of words, but will be more film and television, gamification and even industrialized content. In Tang Feng's view, the biggest impact of the meta-universe on young people will come from the meta-universe's own strong cross-border ability.

"The metacosm is to think about where you should be in the universe. Cross-border will give freedom to many young people and users. Tang Feng said.

The metacosm and literature complement each other

The lost leaf, which was first known to many readers for creating online game novels, said that the genre of game novels created before actually echoed the current popular meta-universe concept. As the metaverse has gradually gained public attention, the details of this concept have become clearer, more complete, and more concrete. "The metacosm will provide a clearer theoretical basis for the online game novels I write; and the imagination contained in the novels also has certain guiding significance for the metaverse, and I think the two complement each other."

Liu Ying, a reader and friend of Lost Leaf for many years, began researching online game novels in 2004.

"At that time, there were already smart helmets in the novel, as well as VR and AR technologies that appeared later, and there were also health pods." Liu Ying said that at that time, the authors of such novels would think more about how to make readers have a "sense of invigorating immersion" and less about technical content, but many elements and designs have alluded to the current metaverse.

In November 2021, the "First Global Meta-Universe Essay Contest" initiated by Chinese Online and co-sponsored by China Youth Daily attracted the active participation of creators. At present, the judges are judging the entries layer by layer.

Tang Feng laughed and said that at the beginning, many authors actually "did not dare" to participate. "Because at the beginning the metaverse gave everyone the impression that it was like the movie The Matrix, so I felt that if I wrote something that was not as good as The Matrix, then why write it? There will be such confusion. ”

After finding that everyone was a little confused and timid about the metaverse novel, Tang Fenglian made four or five explanatory videos, telling everyone the specific direction of the metaverse, key technical points, key story points, and content suitable for play and needed to be avoided. These explanations are also seen by the Lost Leaf.

Lost Ye said that he just wanted to open a new book at that time, and when he saw the Meta-Universe Essay Contest, he "didn't think about it, he thought it was too appropriate", so he directly signed up.

Liu Ying pointed out that the core consideration of Chinese Online's original desire to hold this event was to promote the rapid development of the meta-universe. Liu Ying frankly stated that some other countries started early to explore the metacosm, and the country is not yet mature. He hopes to get the metaversic concept to land on a larger scale in China as soon as possible, experience "growth from small to large, and then participate in global competition."

Metaverses will tell more good stories than words IP

According to the 49th Statistical Report on the Development of the Internet in China, by the end of 2021, the total number of online literature users in mainland China reached 502 million, an increase of 41.45 million over the same period last year, accounting for 48.6% of the total number of Netizens, and the number of readers hit a new high.

After more than 20 years, the online literature industry has developed rapidly, and has created many high-quality IP and successful transformation cases. Liu Ying, Tang Feng and Lost Ye all pointed out that the meta-universe era may bring us a different concept of IP.

In Tang Feng's view, in the era of the metaverse, IP is not necessarily just a novel, but will "evolve". "For example, if a grandmother has already passed away, but AI records her voice and smile, then this deceased person, if she is born kind and very good at comforting people, she will live forever on the Internet and become a goddess." 」

"A lot of people are waiting slowly, and only a few people are promoting it to happen." Tang Feng said that "Web 3.0" means a huge development across time and space, and some content that you once imagined may also become new IP, and the power is huge.

Tang Feng believes that in the meta-universe era, the creator's world has been broadened and he can have more opportunities to express his talent. Even a non-written story, if it can be recorded by the ubiquitous network technology of "Web 3.0", it is also likely to become a super IP.

For the cooperation between the Chinese Online and China Youth Daily in the "Youth Meta-Universe" section, several guests expressed their expectations. Liu Ying believes that if you want to turn the metacosm from a concept to a reality, you need the participation of the whole society. "China Youth Daily has a very big impact on young people, and young people are the most receptive to new things; at the same time, the media can amplify social influence."

Lost Leaf said: "With the advent of the metaverse era, the content presentation will be more realistic, so there are many challenges for young people, but there are also many opportunities, as long as you dare to work hard, you can still succeed." ”

(Chen Xinyao also contributed to this article)

China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Shen Jiequn Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily