When my editor forwarded me a WhatsApp message with a link to join Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL) 45th annual general meeting in metaverse, though my eyes lit up at first, I was a bit sceptical.
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What should I be expecting from a traditional business house? Is not the Web 3.0 space meant for the new-age startups? At least that's what my reading has been till now given the information technology giants are still to come out clean on their plans in the space, but startups have been making a lot of noise.
I joined the session eagerly; after all metaverse experience is new for most, as of now. Disclaimer: I logged in from a personal computer.
The lobby had an extravagant setting with the centre stage having a screen welcoming new entrants to RIL's AGM. The metaverse was developed in a way to provide a standalone experience, i.e., it was an avatar-less experience. The left corner consisted of four doors, each dedicated to the different verticals of RIL (Reliance Foundation, Reliance Industries, Reliance Retail and Jio) whereas to the right of the centre stage was a display board with two quotes from Dhirubhai Ambani. The roof of the lobby had a revolving logo of Reliance Industries which made it all the more appealing.
Each door displayed financial numbers from different business verticals. The metaverse was well set up and everything seemed organised. Here's where the happy note ends.
The functioning of the metaverse was minimal and RIL could have enhanced this part, interactive if I may say. Each room had the same vibe: fact displayed on the wall in same pattern.
The metaverse felt choppy and transitions were not smooth and the stand-alone experience made it boring.
Though the idea was extremely new, it would take a while for the user interface to be refined and smoothened. Apart from toggling from one fact to the other, there were no visitor-engaging elements in the metaverse.
The potential and possibilities of metaverse is huge with an architecture having no boundaries whatsoever and no real-life physics to worry about. And with RIL's resources, exploring these possibilities should not be a problem.
I am looking forward to the 46th edition of RIL's AGM.