Metaverse and Beyond: Emotions, Challenges, and New Opportunities

Claudia Yáñez-Valdés () and Frank Huancollo ()
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Claudia Yáñez-Valdés: Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción

Chapter 8 in The Expanding Horizons of Business and Management, Volume II, 2026, pp 183-203 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter investigates the emotional and ethical dimensions of user experiences in metaverse-based gaming environments, using Roblox as a representative empirical case. Through a mixed-method design combining sentiment and lexical analyses of 34,326 user reviews collected from the Google Play platform, the study identifies dominant emotions, such as sadness, anger, and trust, linked to key challenges of safety, harassment, and hate speech. While negative emotions prevail, findings also highlight opportunities for positive social interaction, inclusion, and novel business models. Results reveal that virtual environments mirror and sometimes amplify real-world inequalities, underscoring the need for ethical and inclusive design. The chapter contributes to a nuanced understanding of user emotions in immersive contexts, offering insights for researchers, developers, and policymakers to align technological innovation with social responsibility and emotional well-being in the evolving metaverse.

Keywords: avatars; customers; cyberspace; ethical challenges; ethical dilemmas; games; gaming platforms; immersive; interactive experiences; metaverse; opportunities; platform; social environment; technology; user experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:pscchp:978-3-032-26500-5_8

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-26500-5_8

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