In 2021 and 2022, Singapore introduced the significant use of visual animation, a VTuber¹ mascot named August the Merlion and even a metaverse experience into those years’ iterations of the official National Day celebrations. The following is an excerpt from a dissertation chapter that analyses these new media as they are implemented to support Singaporean nationalism. This excerpt focuses on one of the metaverse experiences introduced for the National Day Parade 2022. It first discusses the emergence of the metaverse and describes the specific components of the National Day Parade metaverse experience I participated in, before touching on the ways users interacted with the metaverse as a model replication of Singapore.

The newest addition to the National Day Parade 2022 was the promotion of metaverse experiences. On the National Day YouTube channel, August the Merlion is used in the thumbnail of a video promoting the new metaverse experience — “Be Part of NDP 2022’s Metaverse Experience.” The video itself overlays that year’s National Day song with clips of short gameplay from the metaverse experience — showing that you will be able to interact with August, drive around the city, and most importantly pilot Singaporean military vehicles while donning uniforms from military, police and emergency response forces. This section briefly explores the concept of a metaverse before tackling the repercussions of this manifestation of the metaverse for Singaporean nationalism.

A metaverse is an internet-mediated 3D space in which users can interact with the virtual world and one another through virtual reality technologies, which can range from simple personal computer setups to VR headsets and haptic feedback setups. At its simplest, the word “metaverse” refers to a virtual world which is socially shared. At the time this research was conducted in 2021, “metaverse” was becoming popularised as a term due to a public shift in social media giant Facebook’s business strategy to move from focusing on social media platforms to metaverse platforms. Adopting the new name “Meta,” the company sought to cement their pledge to use their acquired virtual reality developers and social media expertise to build a popular metaverse. As the pandemic necessitated physical isolation, digital technologies for connection became trendy topics. Besides some advances in the viability of commercial virtual reality headsets, the development and popularisation of blockchain technologies like cryptocurrencies and NFTs further captured the imaginations of people globally as the possibility of owning items opened up another avenue for monetising the metaverse. In tech-savvy Singapore, these technologies were increasingly being experimented with by companies seeking to capitalise on the trend and was now being introduced as a portion of the National Day experience.

Although advertised as a metaverse experience, the 3D and virtual reality nature of the game was not emphasised, making the experience relatively indistinguishable from virtual worlds like Second Life or MMORPGs that have existed for decades. However, the experience I participated in was hosted in Roblox, a popular virtual world platform that allows developers to create their own worlds. Players are given LEGO-body avatars and can collect various assets like clothes, cars and equipment from the worlds they visit. They can move their avatars and assets between the worlds, thus enhancing the feeling of moving between unique spaces that is one of the goals of the metaverse (in contrast to classic virtual world games which tend to have a single large virtual world that users can claim portions of). The developers of this virtual space set out to make a relatively realistic recreation of downtown Singapore.

I spawned into the game to find my brand new, and hence bare-bones, avatar standing in an open space that resembled Esplanade — Theatres on the Bay, the mixed-used retail and arts space lining the north-east side of Singapore’s Marina Bay. Across the water I could see the towering structure of Marina Bay Sands, alternatively looking like a cricket wicket or a boat elevated by three legs. I quickly oriented myself to find a cutout in the shape of August the Merlion and I interacted with it to bring up a dialogue screen. August delivered some basic instructions about what I was able to do in the game — driving a car, going to the new National Day activities, and so on. Beyond August, I could walk along the waterside to leave the Esplanade and enter the Floating Platform, a set of bleachers facing a platform elevated above the water of the bay. The Floating Platform, referred to simply as “the Float,” is the usual host of the National Day Parade and is also where the special National Day activities were located in this virtual space.

As I approached the Float, the year’s National Day Song (“Stronger Together”) suddenly played as I crossed some invisible threshold, requiring me to lower the volume settings. Walking through the Float where the Parade would be held, I arrived at the access point for the National Day activities. Upon clicking on it, I was transported to a train car in an aboveground Mass Rapid Transit station. I carefully navigated my way down the escalator and out of the turnstiles of the station and was greeted by a bouncing figure of August just outside of the station next to some clothes. Clicking upon them put those clothes on my avatar, emblazoning the avatar’s chest with “I <3 SG” and similar messages.

I progressed past August to the main attraction of the space — four hangars each coded to a different branch of military and public service: the Singapore Army, the Republic of Singapore Navy, the Republic of Singapore Air Force and the Civil Defense Force. Further past them was a stage displaying a leaderboard and a red carpet photo-op setup where you could pose your character with an image of August for a picture. Each hangar was outfitted like a station or base for their respective branch. Inside, one could find many more options for donning military, police and other first responder uniforms. There were also vehicles inside and outside of each hangar. Some of these vehicles were coded to specific experiences which I systematically moved through. The first experience transported me to a combat vehicle. I attempted to navigate a swamp before trying to drive the unwieldy vehicle through a dilapidated urban zone. I later found myself very unsuccessfully trying to take off with and fly a fighter jet. In another experience, I became a parachuter, flying and then landing onto a platform just like the Singapore Red Lions parachute team do on every National Day.

Each of these experiences was an invitation to participate in “the nation,” but with a focus on the military. The structure of National Day celebrations each year instantiates the division between military and cultural nationalisms in Singapore — during the day the military parade features demonstrations of Singapore’s military technologies and the discipline of the soldiers, while the evening performance focuses on aspects of Singaporean life expressed through music, dance, and audiovisual displays. Assuming the anticipated users of the space were children (67% of Roblox users are under the age of 16), they would be participating in, if not practising, the very activities they may be doing in the future as part of their National Service (military or civil service training that is mandatory for 18-year-old male Singapore citizens and permanent residents).

After interacting with the National Day specific content, I spent some time exploring the rest of the virtual world. Most users were concerned with the ongoing promotion that allowed people to purchase and use cars for free. You could select cars from a car dealership and refill your vehicle at gas stations spread throughout the virtual space. Most Singaporeans do not own cars because of how expensive they are — cars are highly taxed to ensure space and encourage use of Singapore’s robust public transportation system. The selection of cars available ranged from comfortable commuter vehicles commonly seen on the streets of Singapore to expensive sports and luxury cars that are much rarer. Players tended to select these rare cars, racing around the model city.

However, for a brief period the ability to receive cars did not work, causing concern among the player base. As we tried to figure out how to get the car system to work, several of us whiled the time away by hanging out in the car dealership and taking on the role of workers as we figured out what to do. This was the virtual world’s other key system — allowing players to work in some pre-set jobs. The car dealership and a replica of local bubble tea shop Liho Tea were places where you could take on a role as a worker, passively gaining in-game currency to incentivise you to roleplay and populate the world’s businesses. These gameplay functions mostly involved being present at the site with the tag on — it was not necessary to actually participate in roleplay and there were no functions to interact with. However, I did find that several people enjoyed roleplaying while working, leaning into the social experience that the game seemed designed to promote.

When the ability to summon and drive cars was working again, that seemed to be the activity that most people spent time on. They would mostly drive around the city, running red lights and using noisy sports car models that would rarely be seen on the streets of Singapore. A few people seemed to enjoy operating as rideshare drivers. They would post in the global chat, advertising their services through which they would come to pick someone up and take the passenger to their desired location within the space if a certain sequence of numbers was entered into the chat. Playing as a rideshare driver was not directly encouraged by the game as a job in the same way as working in the car dealership or tea shop was. However, the very act of driving did also give users the in-game currency. Thus, the roleplay could have been a way to make farming currency by driving into a more interactive activity.

Finally, some roleplay within the space had nothing to do with gaining in-game currency at all. Driving through the city, I found myself behind someone as we approached a red light. Seeing that no one else was at the intersection, I expected the other driver to go through the red light and was thus surprised when they stopped, causing me to stop just behind them. Suddenly, a message in the chat showed angry Singlish messages about how I had rear-ended them, with the driver’s blocky body popping out of the driver side door. I did my best to argue back in Singlish while I also got out of my car, embracing the roleplay, before eventually realising that I could just get into the other driver’s car (which happened to be much nicer than mine) and drive off, ending the interaction.

These interactive experiences show that a core Singaporean concept remains salient even in the virtual representation of Singapore — the “Five Cs” of car, condo, country club, cash and credit card. Originally a humorous local observation on the objects of materialist desire in Singapore in the late 20th century, the Five Cs remain a moving target on which to evaluate Singaporean satisfaction even as the model shows its age. For example, credit cards are now commonplace and synonymous with cash, yet the aspiration to acquire more capital remains high in Singapore. Here, players in the virtual space continue to labour for virtual currency when offered the chance to — either in programmed options like the jobs offered or as their own way of transforming the mundane act of farming virtual currency into a more interesting activity. Of course, cars were a key attraction of the virtual space for users and a relatively undeveloped feature allowed users to make personal flats, leaving only the “country club” missing.

The metaverse experience hence models the average Singaporean male’s life. Users can experience a simulation of National Service, participate in different forms of labour, and earn currencies to consume in-game goods. Gamified military activities allow youth to participate in exercises they may have only seen on television before. They play at employment, taking up the traditional jobs that the game has designed while also inventing new ways to play as non-traditional gig economy workers. Through playing, users obtain some of the Five Cs (except for country club), working towards the stereotypical aspirational goals of many Singaporeans. In a sense, the metaverse provides a comprehensive roleplay experience of the social roles that the ideal (male) citizen would take up while serving the nation. Although the game does not explicitly encourage it, there is also a sense of community and civic life through interacting with other regulars of the server. For young users, these opportunities to model these social roles would be a form of preparation for their life ahead. For older users, this may serve as a form of nostalgia for the life that they have lived, or even the life they were not able to participate in.

If the use of cinematic animation and VTuber mascots in Singapore’s National Day make us consider the updated technologies for signifying the imagined community of the nation, then the introduction of metaverse models make us consider technologies for signifying the nation spatially — as a surface for possibilities of the future of Singapore. During my foray into the metaverse, I vacillated between two positions: the Singapore presented before me was both intimately familiar and unfamiliar. Where the Esplanade and Marina Bay Sands ended, the familiar heartland Housing Development Board estates did not arise. But more than the uncanny tension between the incompleteness and familiarity of the built environment, the actions that were possible within the game transformed the space. The fact most people roleplayed everyday activities — becoming employees of tea shops and ride share drivers — contrasted the experience of zooming around in sports cars or stealing each other’s vehicles — simultaneously instantiating and reimagining Singapore.