The Multi-Versal Self and the Rise of Virtual Fashion

The Business of Fashion Podcast

The Business of Fashion

Fashion & Beauty, Business, Arts

4.6 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2021

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Billions of people across the world call themselves gamers. And as gaming technology improves and increasingly acts as an extension of the real world, it’s becoming a prime market for fashion brands. BoF's Imran Amed talks to Herman Narula, co-founder and CEO of Improbable to learn more. Gaming is often synonymous with entertainment. But Herman Narula, co-founder and chief executive of Improbable, a London-based gaming company, says that’s a misconception — games dominate all kinds of culture. Footballers perform dances that happened first on Fortnight, and gamer verbiage like “level up” is now used in human resources initiatives. Now, Narula says, the multiplayer games people play have become part of their social lives. Gaming is no longer just entertainment, but a space for experiences and learning lessons. Further, with the growth of gaming, Narula predicts we will see the rise of the multiversal self: people will no longer have just one identity, but many distinct selves within the various game worlds they occupy. On the latest edition of the BoF podcast, BoF’s Imran Amed chats with Narula about how the notion multi-versal self is driving the rise of virtual fashion, and how brands can position themselves to thrive in the space.

People who start playing games typically don’t ever stop — even as they shift life stages. “The primary reason people remain engaged and keep playing games, especially online and social games, boils down to three key motivations: a desire to be more competent at something, a need to relate to other people, and a desire to self-express,” Narula said.
Games are no longer just something people do to pass the time, and that has consequences related to their real-world significance. “Games are something that the majority of gamers are seeking out doing, and avoiding other activities to go and do, and beginning to contest other forms of spending,” Narula said. “That means that they are where culture is going to be born.”
The opportunity for fashion is real. “I think [gaming] will become not merely a place for brands to go, but a place in which brands will be born, a place in which first class cultural ideas will emerge and begin to populate other aspects of how our society works,” Narula said. But, he warned customers will be able to see through superficial engagement with gaming, so brands must find a way to authentically engage in order to not cheapen the experience of their brand in either realm — the real world or the gaming world.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Video games today are the only place on the planet where rich or poor, regardless of race,
0:07.0	cultural or background, people are being mixed together, melted together, and forming and making
0:13.0	relationships completely absent their real world status.
0:16.0	What role will physical experiences play in the lives of this generation that's grown up with all these screens and games.
0:21.6	I look at dislike it in hubs. I think you might meet someone in a game for the first time, get to know them with some incredible experience.
0:27.6	You then might go meet in a real world location, perhaps a restaurant or a place that even reflects some of your sensibilities and shared artistic interests in game world.
0:35.6	I think game walls will flood into the real world.
0:42.1	Hi, this is Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the Business of Fashion. Welcome to the BOF podcast.
0:48.0	This week we go inside the world of virtual fashion and meet with Herman Nerula, the co-founder and chief
0:54.1	executive of Improbable, a London-based
0:56.5	gaming company.
0:57.7	Multiplayer games have now become a part of people's social lives, and gaming is not just entertainment,
1:03.8	but a space for experiences, learnings, and self-expression.
1:08.0	He predicts that we will see the rise of the multiversal self.
1:11.2	People will no longer just have one identity,
1:13.6	but many distinct selves within the various game worlds that they occupy.
1:18.0	And this provides a very interesting opportunity for fashion.
1:21.2	Here's a conversation we had with Herman at Voices 2020.
1:40.3	Music at Voices 2020. Herman Nerula, who is the co-founder and chief executive of Improbable, a London-based gaming company that recently struck an alliance with the Chinese Internet group NetEase, valuing the company
1:45.8	at more than $2 billion, US dollars, according to the financial times.
1:51.0	Improbable developed software that enables thousands of people to play video games simultaneously.
1:58.3	And the company has advised the strategic command of the British Armed Forces
	...

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