Company publicity stunts involving digital actuality are nearly at all times dangerous, however Ikea’s new Roblox retailer feels particularly foolish. The corporate introduced final week that it plans to pay 10 folks £13.15 or €14.80 per hour to work in The Co-Employee Sport, a digital Ikea retailer in Roblox. The corporate is taking functions till June sixteenth, solely from candidates within the UK or Eire who’re 18 or older.
Being paid to be an NPC. What a world. The digital workers will perform duties like serving meatballs or serving to folks discover faux furnishings or different Ikea gadgets. They’ll additionally “get promoted to maneuver departments, similar to in the actual world.”
I wouldn’t assume it is a actual job, even when Ikea is paying actual cash for it. The web site the place you may apply says it’s a “restricted contract.” The applying asks you questions like “How do you are feeling about being became pixels?” or “If you happen to had been a pixelated IKEA furnishings, which one would you be and why?”
Ikea says it requires an up-to-date CV, although it doesn’t ask for one upfront, and I couldn’t get previous the shape with my US-based telephone quantity. (If considered one of our readers throughout the pond desires to present it a go and ship us an replace, I’d like to examine your expertise.) The gig is open to candidates 18 and older who dwell within the UK or the Republic of Eire, and it’s distant, so you may pull up your new Ikea gaming chair after you’re accomplished taking part in round with Ikea’s digital design instrument and serve some digital meatballs from the consolation of your individual dwelling.
If you happen to apply and don’t get the callback, don’t you are concerned. The corporate says individuals who don’t get the job may “work, discover, and expertise” the Ikea Roblox retailer. And it says you may win Ikea-exclusive UGCs, Roblox’s time period for user-created gadgets or different content material that exists throughout the sport.
I’ll be very up-front, right here. I’ve by no means performed with something made in Roblox. However few issues sound much less interesting to me than pretending to be a retail worker in a digital model of a real-life furnishings vendor. Different corporations have tried their hand at hanging their model out in VR — there’s the Walmart Found digital retailer for getting digital gadgets with Roblox’s in-game Robux forex, and Gucci has made Roblox environments, together with Gucci city in 2022.
In order that facet of that is nothing new. And other people — typically youngsters — do become profitable in Roblox, one thing critics say is exploitative. However that is the primary time I’m conscious of that an organization has supplied to pay folks actual cash to work of their Roblox world, and it’s bizarre, but in addition appears comparatively innocent, and fewer obnoxious than NFTs.
The corporate says it’ll maintain digital interviews between June 14th and June 18th, and The Co-Employee Sport launches on June twenty fourth.
