Metaverse frenzy has boosted the shares price of Shenzhen ZQGame Interactive Network to surge more than 120% in the past seven days, only after the Chinese gaming studio said it would soon release a life simulation game that contains the core attributes of the metaverse.

Its metaverse themed game is called "Brewmaster". As the name suggests, it is classified as a liquor brewing simulation game. Players are tasked with constructing and operating an empire of breweries in the fictional world of the late Qing dynasty to brewing the best baijiu.

Unlike popular metaverse games such as Roblox, Decentraland, Axie Infinity, players of "Brewmaster" did not earn rewards in the form of virtual items like gear, in-game currency, or cryptocurrency tokens, which can then be exchanged for real money. Instead, the players earn real things-baijiu through operating their franchise in the virtual world.

Shenzhen-based gaming firm has worked with several popular baijiu brands, so that these brands can approach young customers without extra advertising campaign.

"Brewing liquor online, tasting it offline, players can take delivery of baijiu in brick-and-mortar store of distilleries with their unique elements of Baijiu brewing of the game," the game's slogan said. In addition, ZQGame said the players are able to mint their elements of virtual baijiu brewing as a non-fungible token (NFT) and get a verifiable identification code from baijiu brands that represent the player's ownership of the asset recorded on the blockchain, meaning the virtual elements are unique and cannot be exchanged and stole.

Other tech firms like Perfect World, Jinke Entertainment Culture, Wondershare Technology, and Wahlap Technology also stretch their arms to the metaverse world. Often it is believed that those gaming companies only wanted to take advantage of the current hype cycle to inflate share price.

In a commentary piece, the Chinese state media Securities Times warn that investors should not FOMO (fear of missing out) in and blindly invest in an illusionary concept.

"What we have seen is that people invest their money into speculative pursuits, hoping to inflate the share price and profit from metaverse concept. The application of metaverse has so far made very little contribution to the industry," said Securities Times.

Shenzhen Listed Jinke Entertainment Culture, the operator of the viral app "Talking Tom Cat", said in an exchange filing that it is still at an early stage to explore the metaverse, cautioned investors about risks of investing in the concept.

"We still very far away from the metaverse in theory, particularly in the aspects of immersive co-experiences and virtual economic system." a Jinke spokesperson said.

In its IPO prospectus, Roblox summarized a number of key characteristics of the Robloverse. "Identity, immersive, low friction, consistent in a virtual universe." The virtual universe, in this case, is the platform owned by and operated by Roblox. Additionally, "Metaverse should have its own fully functioning economy where it offers opportunities for all users to contribute their creativity."

The business ideas of Roblox demonstrated how value in virtual items could translate to the real world.

In Roblox's metaverse worlds, users regularly update their avatars with new clothing, gears, and accessories using in-game currency Roblox. Any players can create and sell their designs or games on the platform, and Robox doesn't pay players directly for their creations. Instead, creators make money when players purchase virtual items using Robux within their games. Then, the creator can convert Roblux to real cash via the exchange program of the platform.

Metaverse is a relatively old idea, and most people agreed that the concept originated from the 1992 cyberpunk novel Snow Crash written by Neal Stephenson. As emerging technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), 5G continue to advance over time, the business idea of tech firms exploded, and interest in metaverse has kept growing. In the West, the current development of metaverse is much more advanced than that of China. Tech firms like Facebook and Fornite are the pioneer of the emerging sector, with goals to commercialize and adapt it into their business.

Apart from gaming and social network companies, Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have also fueled much of the growth in the metaverse. Blockchain-based platforms like virtual world Decentraland or gameFi (game+finance) title Axie infinity allow users to socialize and trade virtual assets using cryptocurrency. At the center of the business model is the idea of virtual world ownership. Decentraland, for example, users can buy plots of land in its virtual world with the platform's native currencies-MANA based on Ethereum, who then can mint the virtual land as an NFT and sell it on NFT trading platform such as Opensea.

A set of land in Decentraland has sold for a whopping USD913,818 worth of MANA. 

The business idea of Axie Infinity is based on its "Play to Earn" model, where players earn revenue from selling Axis, avatars, and in-game items using the platform's cryptocurrency AXS. Axie Infinity saw dramatic growth, and its one-day income surpassed that of the popular MOBA League of Legends.

Boosted by wide adoption and investors' hype, the price of MANA and AXS went parabolic. According to cryptocurrency price tracker Coingecko, the price of MANA was USD0.078 per coin at the beginning of this year, surging 1951% to the peak price of USD1.6 on May 7. While the investor of AXS even saw a much higher return (about 17500%) if they invested AXS at the beginning of this year for the price of USD 0.53 and sold it at the peak price of USD93.28 on September 04.