Maxis today announced that it has opened a virtual Maxis Centre on the metaverse. Specifically, the virtual outlet is located within the Genesis Plaza at Decentraland which is among the most well-known metaverse virtual worlds out there.
The company boldly claimed that it is Malaysia’s first virtual telco store in the metaverse and that made me curious enough to make a visit to the Maxis Centre in Decentraland to see what it is all about. In general, the Maxis Centre Decentraland has been divided into several sections.
At the entrance of the two-storey virtual building, I immediately noticed the presence of M.I.R.A or the Maxis Interactive Retail Assistant which the telco first deployed at the Maxis Centre in The Gardens Mid Valley back in 2019. However, the metaverse version of M.I.R.A doesn’t really do anything there and acts more like a showpiece.
In fact, the whole Maxis Centre Decentraland feels more like a gigantic showpiece rather than a proper virtual counterpart to a Maxis Centre. You will get what I mean very soon but first, let’s get back to M.I.R.A.
As we approach the digital assistant, a QR code for Maxis WhatsApp-based customer support would then appear. At the same time, a video explaining its role can also be seen on the screen next to M.I.R.A.
On the opposite side, there is also another screen which showed marketing videos from the telco. That was pretty much it for the virtual outlet’s ground floor, so naturally, I went up to the upper floor.
On this floor, Maxis has reserved the left-hand side of the space for Maxis Home Fibre, Zerolution, device offerings, and Maxis Postpaid family & friends referral program. The rest of the area was occupied by Hotlink.
Just like downstairs, there was not much interactivity on this floor either. There were two screens that played Maxis Home Fibre and Hotlink’s marketing videos while all the clickable areas would just point to a number of predetermined sections of Maxis or Hotlink’s website.
In its current state, the Maxis Centre Decentraland experience is rather rudimentary and not exactly “highly engaging” as per what was mentioned in the announcement today. While I do applaud the telco’s attempt in trying out this so-called new frontier and Maxis did say that what it is doing here is still in preliminary stages but really, the virtual space currently is just a showcase and it is definitely not a place to get anything done.
Hence, I do recommend you to just be in the real world for now and visit the nearest physical Maxis Centre to sort out anything you need when it comes to Maxis services. Nevertheless, you can head on to this particular spot in Decentraland if you want to check out the telco’s new virtual space in the metaverse yourself.
