The metaverse is bringing a flood of new economic opportunities to people all over the world. This article discusses the metaverse and the jobs in it.
Naturally, a large number of the jobs will be in the science, engineering, and business jobs required to build the entire value-chain from semiconductors and basic materials to the enabling software; however, I’m focusing on the jobs that will be in the metaverse, rather than the jobs involved in its creation… because this is the aspect of the metaverse that has the greatest impact on the work we all do.
Participants and Actors
These include those who play-to-earn, participants in the governance of DAOs (Distributed Autonomous Organizations — people we call DAOists), customizers, guild leaders, traders, speculators and modders.
P2E (play-to-earn) necessitates some additional explanation.
Currently, play-to-earn closely resembles the world of “gold farming” that has occurred in MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft where players level up and collect characters. The difference now is that some games are designed with this economic structure in mind from the start, rather than relying on an illegal secondary market.
It is important to think creatively when imagining how play-to-earn will evolve. It will not be limited to power-leveling services. Games will have their own creator economies with opportunities for participants to earn money through customization, experimentation and exploration.
Performers
This is essentially another type of creator, but it focuses on real-time jobs (as opposed to previously-created or recorded). Live actors, musicians, guides, streamers, v-tubers, educators, leaders, and coaches are all included.
Community
One of the benefits of the metaverse is that it will bring creators and performers closer to the people who participate in their communities. These positions entail attracting, supporting and assisting members of the community, as well as maintaining moderation and preventing harassment and other toxic behavior.
This will create new opportunities for community managers and leaders, customer service representatives, moderators, evangelists, influencers, advisors, and curators.
Builders
Builders will be the experienced designers and organizers: game designers, experience creators, producers, impresarios, curriculum designers, storytellers, and those who structure generative art.
Bridgers
Remember that the metaverse isn’t just a place we’ll visit; it will surround us. Consider it an alternate plane of existence, some of which will layer directly on top of our physical world… and are frequently influenced by what happens in physical reality
This will necessitate the use of a large number of people, including digital twins, geo-taggers, cartographers, naturalists, spatial mappers, historians, traffic analysts, public health and safety experts, data providers, and spatial mappers.
Creators
Unity noted in a recent earnings transcript that game development is already trending toward far more artists relative to the number of technologists. This has implications for how the metaverse will evolve.
Everyone who contributes to the metaverse is a part of the creator economy. However, I’m specifically referring to the people who create the components that other builders, performers, and participants will embed, mash-up and otherwise use.
Artists, modelers, motion-capture creators, dialogue writers, character designers, composers, videographers, fashion designers, and a plethora of other forms of creative art are all included.