Ikea pays 10 Roblox gamers to roleplay as workers in its digital retailer

International Courant

Company publicity stunts involving digital actuality are virtually all the time 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 Recreation, 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 will additionally “get promoted to maneuver departments, identical to in the true world.”

A take a look at Ikea’s Co-Employee Recreation digital retailer. Picture: Ikea

I would not 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 is a “restricted contract.” The applying asks you questions like “How do you are feeling about being changed into pixels?” or “In case you have been a pixelated IKEA furnishings, which one would you be and why?”

Ikea says it requires an up-to-date CV, though it would not ask for one upfront, and I could not get previous the shape with my US-based cellphone quantity. (If considered one of our readers throughout the pond needs to offer it a go and ship us an replace, I would 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 is distant, so you may pull up your new Ikea gaming chair after you are performed taking part in round with Ikea’s digital design instrument and serve some digital meatballs from the consolation of your personal residence.

In case you apply and do not get the callback, don’t fret. The corporate says individuals who do not 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 inside the recreation.

I will 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 seller. Different firms have tried their hand at hanging their model out in VR — there’s the Walmart Found digital retailer for purchasing digital gadgets with Roblox’s in-game Robux foreign money, and Gucci has made Roblox environments, together with Gucci city in 2022.

In order that facet of that is nothing new. And folks — usually youngsters — will make cash in Roblox, one thing critics say is exploitative. However that is the primary time I am conscious of that an organization has provided to pay folks actual cash to work of their Roblox world, and it is bizarre, but additionally appears comparatively innocent, and fewer obnoxious than NFTs.

The corporate says it will maintain digital interviews between June 14th and June 18th, and The Co-Employee Recreation launches on June twenty fourth.

Ikea pays 10 Roblox gamers to roleplay as workers in its digital retailer

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