The Metaverse has to be open and collaborative according to Virtua co-founder – CryptoSateIRL #23

Virtua is a multi-chain metaverse project that utilizes Polygon, Elrond, Wax, and Cardano within its ecosystem. Additionally, partnerships with top IPs, including Top Gun, King Kong, The Godfather, Kevin Hart, Shelby, and William Racing, enable players to live out exciting and varied experiences within the Virtua metaverse.

Virtua was co-founded by Gary Bracey, a BAFTA-nominated games industry veteran with over 35 years of building top-tier games. Having seen the rise of console gaming, the revolution of mobile gaming, and the explosion of interest in esports, Bracey is no stranger to a shifting paradigm within the gaming world.

Evolution of gaming

CryptoSlate’s Akiba met up with Bracey and Virtua’s CSO Ash Mohammed to dig deeper into the project and discuss the evolution of web3 gaming with the industry veteran. When asked for his view on blockchain’s role in gaming, Bracey compared it to other innovations that revolutionized the gaming space.

Just as many people disregarded the potential of home gaming consoles in the 80s and that mobile games “weren’t real games” in the 2000s, Bracey commented that current reservations about web3 gaming would eventually die out.

According to Bracey, those who downplay blockchain gaming are no different from those who believed mobile phones wouldn’t take a meaningful share of the gaming market.

Traditional game developers did not embrace mobile which led to a splintering of the industry and a rise of new mobile-first game studios. The same developers, Bracedy stated, are not “terribly welcoming towards NFTs and the metaverse.”

The blockchain revolution

Bracey, who is also Virtua’s Chairman, believes that blockchain is the next evolution of gaming and will “open up a whole new way for people to consume interactive content.”

“blockchain is going to fundamentally change the way people play video games over the next few years but it’s not going to be an overnight thing.”

Further, Virtua’s chairman continued to affirm that “blockchain is going to further enhance those experiences and build communities in ways we can’t really conceive of.”

Leaning on his 35 years in the industry, Bracey argued that “it’s not the content itself that is necessarily going to be affected by web3” but the “bits behind it.” The trading element of NFTs will be a large part of this evolution as gamers stop “renting” skins and owning them instead.

Virtua’s CSO, Ash Mohammed, built on Bracey’s points by explaining the intense level of community engagement seen within the Virtua player base. Mohammed explained that Virtua players have made their own guilds and micro-communities based on niche interests such as car racing, jet pilots, and yacht clubs.

Interestingly, Mohammed explained how Virtua has embraced these communities by building them into the game as small factions in order to stimulate community ownership and development.

An open metaverse

Virtua is also leveraging the blockchain the open possibilities of the metaverse to integrate Virtua’s in-game resources to build and create within other gaming projects. The future of the metaverse is not in closed communities but in an open, collaborative working relationship between metaverse projects.

“It’s going to be collaboration for it to work” according to Bracey. Virtua is a “tool for you to create your own self-expression… an extension of your own personality” which “has to be open.”

To listen to the full interview and learn more about how Virtua is working with other metaverse projects, expanding its communities, and developing the future of the blockchain metaverse, watch the video linked above.

Connect with the Virtua community via its Discord channel. A new mobile app was also released recently allowing users to purchase new NFT drops directly from a mobile device in-app and view collectibles in augmented reality.