I am standing in a brand new city, vast and almost deserted. In one direction is a medieval castle. In the other, a pixelated pig looms several storeys high. As I run towards it, a giant statue of Bart Simpson materialises out of nowhere.
Welcome to the metaverse, or at least one version of it. Decentraland is a two-year-old virtual world that uses blockchain technology to sell “land”, upon which owners can build anything. The result is a city planner’s worst nightmare, a mishmash of sci-fi structures and facsimiles of real buildings, including Selfridges’ Birmingham department store.
Last month, a huge floating Estée Lauder make-up bottle signalled the arrival of big brands to Decentraland. During the recent Metaverse Fashion Week, labels such as Dolce & Gabbana and Tommy Hilfiger sold digital clothing as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). I wonder how many fashion executives visited Decentraland before jumping on the metaverse bandwagon. My own experience there, as with other crypto-centric virtual worlds such as The Sandbox and NFT Worlds, was underwhelming.