The foreign development department of the European Union organized a gala in the metaverse to stimulate young people’s interest in the EU. In the end, only five visitors came to take a look. After some brief interactions, only a single guest remained. The joke of the EU cost almost 400 thousand euros and was paid for by European taxpayers.
Boring party in the metaverse
The investment is part of a 300 billion euro initiative to improve the development of new infrastructure in developing countries. The target group was according to a spokesman of the European Commission people between the ages of 18 and 35 who have a ‘neutral’ opinion of the European Union.
The relevant target group, which is mainly ‘active on TikTok and Instagram’, is not exposed to information about the policy of the European Union. The metaverse event was supposed to change this. It can therefore be said that with five visitors, the gala finally missed the mark.
One of the guests, and also the last remaining guest at the gala, Vince Chadwick, reported about the boring party via Twitter. Employees of the department that organized the metaverse gala were also not satisfied with the initial choice to organize the gala. One of them called the party “depressing and embarrassing”.
I’m here at the “gala” concert in the EU foreign aid dept’s €387k metaverse (designed to attract non politically engaged 18-35 year olds — see story below). After initial bemused chats with the roughly five other humans who showed up, I am alone. https://t.co/ChIHeXasQP pic.twitter.com/kZWIVlKmhL
— Vince Chadwick (@vchadw) November 29, 2022
“digital junk”
There was also a lot of criticism of the event via Twitter. It was called “digital junk” among other things. One researcher was stunned by the choice of the European Commission to spend money on the metaverse event.
“Serious? There is a huge drought in East Africa, there is not enough food in refugee camps, and this is what you spend money on?”
It is clear that the metaverse project of the European Commission can simply be called debatable. In addition, the quality of the ‘gala’ was not entirely inviting. That’s how it was according to a source the controls within the metaverse platform are very poor. No one responded to chat messages either.