Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Flavian, Carlos, Ibanez-Sanchez, Sergio, Orus, Carlos, Barta, Sergio
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.15125
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866910536812199936
author Flavian, Carlos
Ibanez-Sanchez, Sergio
Orus, Carlos
Barta, Sergio
author_facet Flavian, Carlos
Ibanez-Sanchez, Sergio
Orus, Carlos
Barta, Sergio
contents The virtualization of cultural events in the metaverse creates opportunities to generate valuable and innovative experiences that replicate and extend in-person events; but the process faces associated challenges. In the absence of relevant empirical studies, the aim of this article is to analyze the positive and negative aspects of the user experience in a cultural event held in the metaverse. A mixed-methods approach is employed to test the proposed hypotheses. The results from three focus groups demonstrated the difficulty that users face in focusing their attention on the main elements of the metaverse, and the inability of this virtual sphere to convey the authenticity of a cultural event. Based on these findings, a metaverse-focused quantitative study was conducted to examine whether perceived gamification mitigate the negative effects of users failing to pay attention in their metaverse experiences. When users increased their attention levels, their ability to imagine the real experience and their perceptions of the authenticity of the cultural event increased, which produced positive behavioral intentions. This is one of the first studies to empirically analyze the tourist experience in the metaverse; managers and policymakers can benefit from the results to hold valuable virtual cultural events.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_15125
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The dark side of the metaverse: The role of gamification in event virtualization
Flavian, Carlos
Ibanez-Sanchez, Sergio
Orus, Carlos
Barta, Sergio
Computers and Society
The virtualization of cultural events in the metaverse creates opportunities to generate valuable and innovative experiences that replicate and extend in-person events; but the process faces associated challenges. In the absence of relevant empirical studies, the aim of this article is to analyze the positive and negative aspects of the user experience in a cultural event held in the metaverse. A mixed-methods approach is employed to test the proposed hypotheses. The results from three focus groups demonstrated the difficulty that users face in focusing their attention on the main elements of the metaverse, and the inability of this virtual sphere to convey the authenticity of a cultural event. Based on these findings, a metaverse-focused quantitative study was conducted to examine whether perceived gamification mitigate the negative effects of users failing to pay attention in their metaverse experiences. When users increased their attention levels, their ability to imagine the real experience and their perceptions of the authenticity of the cultural event increased, which produced positive behavioral intentions. This is one of the first studies to empirically analyze the tourist experience in the metaverse; managers and policymakers can benefit from the results to hold valuable virtual cultural events.
title The dark side of the metaverse: The role of gamification in event virtualization
topic Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.15125