Stand on a virtual cardboard box – Kommersant FM

Kommersant FM columnist Alexander Levy talks about the Virtual Market festival.

The largest market has opened in the virtual space. Until the end of July, the tenth anniversary VR festival Virtual Market is open for users and companies. Imagine something like an anime exhibition, where visitors look at the stands and buy avatars, clothes, accessories for their characters and other things. And all this takes place in the virtual world.

This time, Las Vegas, the Japanese prefecture of Fukuoka and the Tokyo quarter of Akihabara were chosen as the key venues for the Virtual Market, and, of course, these are virtual images of the named locations. There is a special term for this category of objects – parareality.

Therefore, visitors to Parareal Las Vegas Venue will be able to walk along the most famous, but still modeled street of the city of the Strip, along which the festival organizers have placed stands of various companies. Along the way, people easily recognize the most tourist attractions of the real-life Las Vegas, such as the Paris hotels with a miniature of the Eiffel Tower or the Bellagio with its fountains, as well as countless casinos and other entertainment attributes.

Similar principles are observed in the organization of the exhibition area in the parareal Fukuoka. The eponymous skyscraper, Hakata station and shopping center, lively Nakasu area with nightclubs, traditional Japanese bars, karaoke, street food stalls and markets.

Also reflected in the parareal space were some sights of the cities of Itoshima and Dazaifu from the same Fukuoka prefecture.

Once a quarter of gadgets and the latest electronics, and now the center of otaku culture, anime and informal cafes Akihabara or the “electric city” in Tokyo has also become one of the centers of attraction for the anniversary VR festival.

Among the many participating companies are, for example, Sony, Disney, Yamaha, Canon. The Virtual Market has already entered the Guinness Book of Records as the virtual reality event with the largest number of booths.

The organizers expect more than 1 million visitors this time, including because, in addition to desktop PCs and VR devices, for the first time you can visit the festival using a smartphone. To help attendees, the event debuted a guide based on ChatGPT tools.