Makers of The Metaverse: Grant Stanley Of Izumi World On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Building a strong network and a good team. Building a strong network of people as you progress in the industry will help you turn your ideas into reality in an easier and faster way. Having a good team is even more important. With a good team of trustworthy, intelligent, and hard working people, you can do amazing things.

The Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Industries are so exciting. What is coming around the corner? How will these improve our lives? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? Aside from entertainment, how can VR or AR help work or other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewing Grant Stanley.

Grant Stanley is the founder of Izumi World and has 10+ years of gaming experience and 5+ years of blockchain experience. A game designer at heart, Grant is an avid gamer with a passion for building digital worlds and has over 10,000 gameplay hours in MMORPG games.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?

I grew up in Los Angeles and was always obsessed with gaming from a young age. In 2015 I got into cryptocurrency and loved the fundamentals behind blockchain technology. I always saw the potential between gaming and crypto, and when play to earn began exploding I searched for ways to innovate in the market.

Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I loved Swort Art Online, a Japanese manga and television series. The idea of full dive technology captivated me and inspired me to start creating in the AR gaming industry.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?

Starting a project in the gaming industry is very fun, but it also requires a lot of collaboration — within our own team and outside parties. It’s been a wonderful journey seeing this come together and the creative work we’ve done to get the project running.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I first started working in the blockchain industry I made a lot of decisions out of emotion and without consultation. I learned that staying composed and listening to other experienced people is the best way to learn and grow.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I am so grateful to the incredible people on the Izumi World team that have helped me take this project to where it is today, and I am so excited to continue working with them. I’ve learned that having a team with great chemistry is crucial for success.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

Yes, I am currently working on Izumi World, the first play and earn AR (augmented reality) game. I believe the opportunity that the blockchain industry provides to people in third world countries around the globe is amazing. People can earn good wages playing these games, wages that are not possible to get otherwise in their circumstances. All these games require is a mobile phone or tablet and anyone in the world can earn tokens playing.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?

1. I am extremely excited for the launch of Izumi World. I believe that we are building something truly innovative and I cannot wait to see the bright future this game has.
2. Apple and Google are working on AR glasses which is something everyone on the Izumi World team is really looking forward to. We want to explore this technology and possible ways to be the first movers in the gaming space on this revolutionary hardware.
3. I am very excited to see what other games launch in the Play-and-Earn gaming industry over the next few years. I believe we will see some really incredible growth.

What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?

I believe that the hardware for these industries is very early in development. Fortunately AR can be used on smartphones and tablets so it is fully workable now and easily accessible. VR on the other hand has some very high entry barriers right now, but the future of both AR and VR is definitely bright and I expect some really incredible tech to launch in the near future in both these industries.

I think the entertainment aspects of VR, AR and MR are apparent. Can you share with our readers how these industries can help us at work?

AR and MR could definitely be used to make work more fun. Being able to change our environments to fit our liking is something that could boost productivity and enhance capabilities for teams.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?

I’ve heard a few people in the traditional gaming industry say that NFT/blockchain-integrated gaming is a type of cash grab. Quite the opposite of this, I believe that once gamers begin to see that incorporating NFTs and crypto into gaming benefits them in so many ways they will begin to accept it. Our goal at Izumi World is to bridge the gap between the mainstream audience and the crypto niche. We are empowering our community with our governance token — token holders will be able to vote on all game updates, DLCs, and more. Rewarding players with NFTs and tokens takes gaming to a whole new level.

What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”

1. Having a clear vision of what you want to create. It’s important to have a dream and to chase that dream. Inspiration has a lot of power.
2. Creating a plan and thinking long term. It’s important to think things through before taking action. If you skip this, you may realize you took a lot of unnecessary steps in retrospect and wasted precious resources.
3. Building a strong network and a good team. Building a strong network of people as you progress in the industry will help you turn your ideas into reality in an easier and faster way. Having a good team is even more important. With a good team of trustworthy, intelligent, and hard working people, you can do amazing things.
4. Working hard and staying consistent. Pursuing any kind of business or career path is hard work. Be willing to sacrifice a lot of time and effort into this.
5. Having fun and enjoying the journey. When we are enjoying what we do it always works out better. If I am doing something I love, I naturally put a lot more time and effort into it.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would love to see the creation of full dive tech in my lifetime. I believe that it is something truly incredible that can change the world.

We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

I would love to meet Elon Musk. I think he is really innovative and I admire that. I’m interested to see what he does in the future and I think his company Neuralink sounds awesome.

Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!

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Makers of The Metaverse: Grant Stanley Of Izumi World On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.