This study explored dominant topics about the metaverse discussed in Twitter and the sentiments in each topic in the case of Decentraland using topic modeling and sentiment analysis. The appraisal theory of emotion and motivation theory were used to explain why positive or negative sentiments were expressed toward specific topics. The majority of topics were related to economic benefits such as coins, NFTs, tokens, estate, land, and spaces or socializing with others at specific events. Many of them included predominantly positive sentiments because consumers appraised them as motive consistent. This serves as an important implication for marketers and developers in the metaverse that they need to focus more on these features so that consumers can interact with the motive-consistent features and thus have positive emotions.

• Eonyou Shin(Virginia Tech, United States)
• Chreston Miller(Virginia Tech, United States)