Virtual worlds 2010 – 2015 Part Two: Live Sports sector
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Crystal (foot, base, tennis, etc) ball time, focusing first on how virtual worlds and the sports sector could be in the next five to seven years.
But first, a recap on the current state of play in terms of virtual worlds and sports. In this context, this is more about real world sports augmented into virtual environments than pure MMOG’s with their own game functionality.
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The sports virtual world category can be classified as ‘vertical worlds‘ (terminology created by K Zero), referring to a metaverse created towards specific genres or interests. And there’s several of these worlds already in development. For football (soccer), we have Football Superstars which is currently in closed beta with a launch date expected over the summer. Another sports world is Shot Online tailored for golf and another called Empire of Sports (in open beta), loosely based around some olympic events. Furthermore, Whyville creators Numedeon recently announced the launch of SportsBLOX, ‘the first vertical interest virtual world catering to sports fans of all types’. Hot off the press is another world, this time skateboard-based called Tech Deck Live, launching this summer.
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And let’s not forget the activity taken place inside Second Life related to sports. IBM has done some interesting work alongside their technology association with the tennis grandslams, most recently with the Australian open. Other sports have also been represented in Second Life, such as Major League Baseball, the America’s Cup and the NBA.
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But this is now, so what about the future?
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I think the sports sector in terms of future metaverse development falls into one of three categories, namely spectator interaction for live events, spectator interaction for past events and virtual sports participation.
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1. Spectator interaction for live events
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Anyone who’s ever been to a major live sporting event understands the drama, sense of occasion and engagement related to seeing a match or competition happen in the flesh. And although TV companies do a great job now in terms of broadcasting and presenting sports, at the end of day we’re still consuming the event primarily through our TV’s. However, with the exceptions of faster replays and more camera angles, the presentation and delivery of sports via TV hasn’t really changed at all since it first started to be broadcasted, which, when you think about it is odd.
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We need to get closer to these events and virtual worlds may be the answer.
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Interestingly, the BBC recently broadcasted an entire international rugby match in 3D and relayed it into a London cinema. So, positive steps towards a more immersive experience, but we want more! Stanford is also developing an early stage prototype of a 3D camera.
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The vision I have for live sports events is the ability to virtually be there as it’s happening. This would mean being able to sit in a virtual recreation of the stadium and watch the match (using football as the example) as it happens, watching the players react, interact and move around in (near) real time.
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This could mean that the players themselves are high quality (much higher than at present) avatar representations of their real world counterparts or maybe even holograms based on captured TV footage. But how will the graphics (aka the visual experience) be delivered? Perhaps with digital glasses (a la virtual reality headsets). Why? Because what’s really important here it the ability for the spectator to chose where to look (just like being at a real sports event).
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Expanding more on the theme of the spectators experience, something really worth thinking about is the social aspect of what this type of concept could deliver. You get to sit wherever you like in the virtual stadium. That’s good. But what would make this even better is the ability to sit next to and with your friends at the same time, all virtually, regardless of real world geographical location. Now we’re talking. Throw spatial 3D audio into the mix and now we’re chanting.
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But we all might want the front row seats right? So we have to think about how to create a solution for housing an unlimited number of spectators – all wanting the best seats in the house. The best solution for this is to create part persistent (the game) and part sharded (stadium) environments. Here, the stadium in effect is under the control of the avatar – they choose the seats and they choose who they sit next to. So in a jigsaw type way the stadium would fill up with pockets of people (clans, guilds, groups – supporters). But this still creates the issue of distance and angles from the action. Maybe just as the players are digitally recreated from real life, the ‘other’ supporters in the arena although to them seating in the best position are actually placed around fans with a higher ‘viewing priority’ – they fill-up the empty spaces from the perspective from each priority viewer.
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This issue solved (well, maybe) means virtual worlds have the ability to increase fanbases of teams and the awareness and popularity of sports, not to mention improve the overall accessibility and enable many thousands if not millions of people (globally) to enjoy a truly immersive sporting experience – the closest they would get to watching live.
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A brand new massive revenue stream for sports then? It could be. Because people would be more than prepared to pay for this and the sheer potential volume of spectators facilitates amenable pricing strategies for consumers.
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And in a weird type of way, this technology-led concept would actually shift the balance away clubs being heavily reliant on sponsorship and TV deals and instead place the importance of the fan at the heart of the future value of the organisation.
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Next, Spectator interaction for past events
