“The Metamarket” is a virtual pop-up farmers market hosted on virtual world, Gather, which offers virtual spaces for meetings and events. The online pop-up featured over a dozen different farmers’ produce and brands, each of which had a virtual exhibit stand in a Sims-like 2D world. Visitors were able to interact with sellers via Zoom-like video calls and visualise the products.
To interact with the objects and move around the space, visitors used the same keyboard controls as they would use in a 2D open-world video game. Elements that were included in this “metamarket” were unique discount codes for a product, links to a website or sign-up sheet for a newsletter, and links at the various booths to a special Shopify website that allowed visitors to purchase products.
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