[ad_1]
Accenture partnered with Virtual Regatta and The Ocean Race to design and pilot a meta-based version of the iconic event, with sailing fans able to learn and interact in a digital race village.
The 14th edition of The Ocean Race, described as the toughest team event in the world, will skip Australia this year as competitors circumnavigate the globe.
But local sailing fans looking to get up close and personal with the action will have an alternative to expensive and environmentally costly international flights, with professional services firm Accenture teaming up with the event to pilot the metaverse.
Along with Virtual Regatta, the official e-sailing game of The Ocean Race, Accenture’s collaboration will allow yachting enthusiasts to participate in exclusive online events and interact with other fans through a “digital racing village” that includes team pavilions and e-shops. . In addition, users will have access to detailed race statistics, as well as learn about the race organizers’ ocean health and sustainability program and conservation efforts.
“Metaverse will usher in a new era of our digital lives, transcending the limitations of the physical world and creating new opportunities to dive into issues and connect as communities,” said David Treat, co-leader of Accenture’s Metaverse Continuum business group. “Our collaboration with The Ocean Race and Virtual Regatta is helping to reinvent how people engage with the race and protect our oceans while creating value for all stakeholders.”
First held in 1973 and formerly known as the Whitbread, the last event in 2017/18 featured a leg from Melbourne through Cape Town and Hong Kong, although the country was again overlooked this year. The sailors left Spain instead and will finish the race in Italy via Africa, South and North America and Northern Europe, with a month-long marathon of 12,750 nautical miles from South Africa to Brazil on the agenda.
It will be during the final week of this mammoth leg from Cape Town to Itajaí in south-east Brazil that the Accenture pilot metaverse and Virtual Regatta will be available to users for the first time on a limited basis, with more than 20,000 players expected to take part in the onshore and offshore game versions of the plant that mimic the real thing. Through a dedicated science corner, visitors can also see the important data these teams collect along the way to protect the oceans.
“We are entering the metaverse because we are explorers and pioneers,” said plant chairman Richard Brisius. “Since 1973, we’ve been looking for new ways for people to get involved in what’s happening in the ocean. Protecting our racetrack and restoring the ocean’s health is vital, and metaversion can be a fantastic tool to give the ocean a voice. We realize that it is the young generation where we need to focus our efforts on building ocean literacy.”
[ad_2]