What is the metaverse? It's a popular buzzword in tech, finance, and business. Like all buzzwords, its definition is contested and fuzzy. Is this what VR needed to be relevant again?
One thing is certain: Neal Stephenson used the term metaverse in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, to describe a virtual future he imagined. It was a 21st century dystopia. The metaverse, as depicted in Snow Crash, is a virtual-reality realm that had digital assets such as real estate that can be purchased and sold on a market around the planet. Users wearing VR goggles inhabit 3D avatars that they choose.
These three elements, a VR interface, digital owner, and avatars, are still prominent in current conceptions. None of these elements are essential to the idea. The metaverse can be described as a richly rendered virtual world that allows people to interact with each other in real life or online. Metaverse supporters often emphasize the concept of "presence", which is feeling as though you are truly there and that other people are there with you.
This metaverse may already exist in the form of video games. There is a second definition of the metaverse, which goes beyond what we are familiar with. Although this definition doesn't really describe the metaverse, it does explain why everyone believes it is so important. This definition doesn't focus on a vision of the future or new technology. It instead looks back at the past and the already common technologies of the internet, smartphones, and assumes it will be necessary for the creation of a metaverse to replace them.
Matthew Ball, a prominent venture capitalist, describes the metaverse as "a kind of successor state to mobile internet." Mark Zuckerberg gave Facebook the name Meta last year and stated that the metaverse would be its center. It is clear that Ball's essays have a huge influence on Silicon Valley thinking. Do you remember when smartphones revolutionized technology, society, and the economy? Many businesses are eager to make the metaverse a similar watershed.
Ball's vision is not without its challenges. But the most important is his assertion that the metaverse would be an open, interconnected and interoperable network, just like the internet. This is a huge task. We are getting ahead of ourselves.
Is the Metaverse a new concept?
It's clear that this term is not a fictional invention. For a long time, it has been a part of corporate visions for the future. Sainsbury's in the UK created a VR shopping experience that was very similar to one that Walmart did in 2017 during the first VR boom.
Metaverse-like virtual worlds are more than just marketing hype-pieces or proof-of-concept demos. They have been around for nearly as long as fictional counterparts. Anyone who has been following online gaming for decades will be familiar with the hype about metaverse couples getting married. Second Life, an online multimedia platform, is one of the most well-known virtual worlds and possibly the closest to the metaverse ideal. It was launched in 2003.
Second Life is a very similar online role-playing game to World of Warcraft in the early 2000s, just remove all of the gameplay such as the combat, quests and rewards. Since its inception, it has fulfilled many of the role that was imagined for the future metaverse. Avatars allow users to interact with one another in virtual spaces. Virtual versions of real-world experiences are available, including business meetings and clubbing. You can trade with other users and create your own content and services. Virtual economies have their own currency that can be used to exchange real-world currency. Second Life is almost a textbook Metaverse, to the extent such a thing exists.
PlayStation Home was another notable, but often overlooked example of an early metaverse. PlayStation Home, Sony's virtual social network for PlayStation 3, was launched in 2008 and shut down in 2015. Although it didn't move and appeared pointless to casual users, it is a fascinating example of how a corporatized metaverse might look, as opposed to Second Life's free-spirited, community-driven world. It was awash with advertising and offers for one-way purchases, and had little else to do. The PS3 interface allows you to access richer, more enjoyable virtual worlds. Its utopian futurism, clean and blandly styled, clearly prefigures Zuckerberg’s recent metaverse demo. This is how companies see our dreams.
Reality is, however, closer to messy and sometimes grubby Second Life. If humans are given the chance to create a world that is free from restrictions, they will either find a branding opportunity or a fetish-dungeon. This is either a warning to future metaverse architects, or an opportunity.
Why is everyone suddenly talking about the Metaverse?
It has been able to rise to the top of the tech industry's thinking over the past few decades due to a few key factors. One is the maturation of a few technologies that are closely linked to visions of a metaverse. Virtual reality, which was in its early stages of development as Stephenson wrote Snow Crash in the 1990s, is now a well-established reality. There are a variety of headsets that can be purchased commercially, including the Quest wireless device. Facebook's 2014 purchase of Oculus was an indication of the direction Zuckerberg believed his company would go.
Another is the blockchain. This technology, which is difficult to understand and extremely energy-hungry, has made it possible for cryptocurrencies and NFTs. The NFTs have been a fascination for crypto enthusiasts, snake oil salesmen, suggestible executives and some parts of the arts world in the past year. They could allow the ownership of virtual goods and real estate within this metaverse.
You should note that virtual items can be "owned" or traded in many games and virtual spaces (Second Life included) without the use of blockchain. However, this ownership is very fragile and is usually subject to a license agreement. NFTs provide different, but equally flimsy methods of proving ownership. Metaverse supporters are excited about NFTs' uniqueness and portability.
The coronavirus pandemic has had a profound impact on the metaverse trend. It's not surprising that tech companies are looking for ways to bridge these two needs, with people spending so much time in Zoom meetings for work and a rising use of videogames as people seek more vibrant and exciting environments within their own homes.
The deal was sealed by Facebook's late 2021 rebranding and metaverse-focused mission statements. The term has been used with increasing frequency in business since then. It may take some time for politics and government to catch up. They will be trying to limit the power of Big Tech right now and how to reduce the negative effects of social media on society. Boring!
Will the Metaverse be another platform just for gaming?
Maybe! Who do you think so? Microsoft. Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, stated that Activision Blizzard was bought for nearly 70 billion dollars. We must support multiple metaverse platforms... In gaming, we view the metaverse as a collection or communities of individuals anchored in strong content franchises that are accessible on all devices.
It is possible that Nadella was simply trying to give shareholders the buzzword of today in order to get them behind this huge acquisition. He was describing a vision that was quite different to the all-encompassing VR Internet presented by Zuckerberg and Ball. His metaverses were plural and are all around us. These communities are formed around virtual locations where people wish to be, such as World of Warcraft or Call of Duty: Warzone.
Microsoft's thinking is consistent. Microsoft purchased Mojang, the popular Minecraft game, in 2014 at the same time as Facebook acquired Oculus. Minecraft's social, creative and highly customizable gameplay is frequently cited as a metaverse-adjacent title. It's noteworthy that Microsoft hasn’t tried to force it into exclusive use on its own platforms. Instead, it sees Minecraft as a valuable platform.
There is a clear kinship between MMOs such as WoW and metaverses in their form, if they do not function. There are two post-Minecraft games with similar appeal that are very popular among kids. Roblox and Fortnite are both about your avatar, presence, customization options, and social connections. Roblox is plural.
Roblox offers a completely free-form environment that is almost as open-ended as Second Life. Players can create their own games, chase real-world success and pursue status. Brands also have advergames to reach this elusive demographic. Fortnite has also hosted massive in-game cultural events like the 2020 Travis Scott concert, which attracted more than 27 million players. These events are, according to many, the closest we have come to a truly metaverse experience, Ball included.
Should I start packing to live in the Metaverse?
Don't start packing yet. The technology is still in its infancy and there is a lot to be done if it wants to be "the next Internet" as Ball and Zuckerberg envisioned. Even though the pandemic has kept so many of us in our homes, there is still a strong consumer demand for a metaverse experience that's not just a game.
Interoperability is the biggest barrier to Ball and Zuckerberg's metaverse becoming reality. It's also known as standardization. This is the idea of being able to carry your avatar and digital possessions from one app to another, whether it be in a game or virtual world. Ball imagines that you could bring a Counter-Strike gun skin into Fortnite. Interoperability is essential for the metaverse to evolve into the next stage in the evolution of the internet.
However, the obstacles are so large that it seems impossible to overcome them. There are technical issues: How to transfer an asset from one graphics engine into another and render it accurately across a wide range of hardware configurations? Legal and commercial issues also arise: how to circumvent intellectual property rights, and convincing many businesses not to wall off their gardens. It is much more difficult than agreeing to a standard for hyperlinks, for instance.
People must be convinced that this is what they want. Accessing these worlds must be as easy and comfortable as possible using a smartphone. It also needs to be portable. Otherwise, it will be seen as a step back from the mobile internet that it is supposed to replace. While the appeal of a virtual world may seem obvious, it is important to consider how deep that desire actually goes. Metaverses are often portrayed as a way to escape from dystopian realities too terrible to bear in fiction, such as Ready Player One and Snow Crash. We are not there yet, I dare to hope.
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