The term “Metaverse” has gained a lot of attention this year. The Metaverse cannot be characterized exclusively today or in the future. However, there are indications that its principles and elements are starting to permeate the arts and entertainment industry.
This article aims to give meaning to several parts of the sector that are evolving and moving into what many refer to as “The Metaverse.”
What is the Metaverse?
People can work, socialize, transact, play, and even create in the enormously scalable, persistent network of interconnected virtual worlds known as the Metaverse. Advanced virtualization technologies (AR, VR, haptic sensors, etc.) are used to fully immerse the user in the virtual environment. However, the existence of a definition for digital identity, digital ownership, digital currencies, and the universal transferability of digital assets are still significant factors.
What Will Change If the Metaverse is Just the Internet?
- Spatial Computing - The main deal is that more individuals, including many more grandparents, might feel at ease using computers. As a result, “spatial computing” is increasingly used to describe these interfaces. In this regard, a classic video game like Fortnite is spatial (you walk around), whereas a Zoom call is not, even though it is not played using a spatial interface.
- Game Engines - The software developers use to create (and execute) video games is known as a game engine. In these software tools, you can upload 3D objects, set rules for how they can move, add noises, etc. Of course, the word “video game” is also deceptive, which implies something frivolous or unimportant. Game engines, however, are powering the computing interfaces for various sectors as the world becomes more digital.
- Virtual Worlds - The “places” we’ll be logging into on the future internet are virtual settings, but they can be challenging to identify. Twitter and Discord are virtual spaces where people gather and exchange information differently. Technology firms are rushing to create the so-called mirror world or augmented reality cloud. You only need to apply the airport concept to the entire planet to create a tool for creating virtual objects.
- Digital Economies – Non-Fungible Token is referred to as NFT. Blockchains, which are computers that track property ownership, power NFTs. Bitcoin is fungible because all bitcoins are equally worth, regardless of which one you have. The opposite is true of non-fungible: each item is distinct. This explains why NFT tokens are increasingly being used to buy and sell works of digital art.
What Image of the Metaverse Does Popular Culture Portray?
We would be better off exploring the idea of the Metaverse in popular culture rather than immediately delving into more technical issues. The most well-known Metaverse image is displayed in the novel and film Ready Player One (2011 and 2018). The pictures of the omnidirectional treadmill, VR goggles, and haptic suit (see below) have become crucial to visualizing how people join the Metaverse.
The Metaverse is a portal from the film’s dismal physical reality, filled with suffering and sorrow. The interface places the main character in a detailed, immersive virtual environment where he is free to act and behave in any way he pleases.
To be freed from regular social rejection, physical discomforts, and oppressive governments is a typical online fantasy. Yes, this is fantasy, and our technology is far from accomplishing anything similar. However, if you watch Meta’s hour-long presentation, you’ll discover just how much tech-utopian expectations affect the day-to-day operations of major tech firms.
What are Modern Metaverses?
Big organizations occasionally assert that they have created a Metaverse. These are a few examples of Metaverses:
- Minecraft: Over 140 million people play the Lego-inspired gaming world known as Minecraft daily. The company, acquired from Microsoft, enables players to create limitless virtual worlds independently, complete with digital resources and other features.
- Roblox: Roblox began as a platform for creating and sharing your games with other users. They have intensified their efforts to develop their Metaverse since the IPO. By collaborating with companies like Vans and Gucci, they now provide exclusive items you can purchase for your virtual self.
- Microsoft Mesh Platform: Microsoft Metaverse is advancing mixed and augmented reality (XR). They, therefore, intend to add mixed-reality elements to Teams in 2022. The main benefit of this development is that it will make it possible for avatars and holograms to attend meetings, events, and possibly future retail experiences and video games.
- Second Lives Metaverse: Second Live is a 3D virtual environment where people may interact with one another, learn new things, and conduct commerce using avatars. The concept also includes an NFT marketplace for trading collectibles. The harvest festival for the Binance Smart Chain is believed to have occurred in the second active Metaverse in September 2020. Numerous projects that are part of the BSC ecosystem could be viewed and interacted with by users thanks to the virtual expo.
- Meta Horizon Worlds: Facebook has introduced a virtual meeting space accessible through Horizon Worlds and the Oculus VR headsets the firm owns. It enables you to communicate with colleagues using your avatar in virtual meeting spaces. Still, in the future, it should serve as the foundation for other products from Oculus and Meta.
Fundamentals of the Metaverse
Before delving further into the technical intricacies, let’s look at the many components and preconditions necessary for a Metaverse to function. There are several difficulties in making a virtual world where you can manage every element and feel like you are there.
- Digital Ecosystem. We have observed that most platforms developed and referred to as the “metaverse” are currently centered on virtual events, virtual gatherings, and particularly gaming. Virtual worlds, however, have a wide range of applications and may be more than simply a fad.
- Avatars & Identity Management. A virtual world with a virtual identity may sound appealing, but real identity verification is necessary to ensure that it is safe and is not an “outlaw” environment. There would need to be a standard protocol and something akin to a meta-identity that could be tied to the users’ avatars and allow them to use avatars and identities across numerous virtual worlds for this to happen in many of them.
- Remittance & Transactions. Every Metaverse needs an ecosystem to function correctly. Finding a standard method of payment and transaction is necessary for this to function. Due to the possibility that each ecosystem may have its payment and transaction methods, connecting various worlds becomes challenging on many levels.
Activities in the Metaverse
The Metaverse is a reality that will affect everything we do in life and is here to stay. Here are a few examples of how Metaverse is used.
- Virtual live events. Travel limitations brought on by COVID-19 have caused us to stay inside and forgo large gatherings for things like sporting events, art openings, concerts, and other types of entertainment and culture. However, because everything is conceivable in the Metaverse, you may meet up with your friends wherever you like and do things like dance and meditate with them.
- Without using GoogleMeet, Google meeting your regular work calls will advance with Metaverse. Instead of simply seeing one another onscreen like current video calling apps, picture yourself in a virtual environment with your coworkers where you feel present to one another in real-time.
- Gaming. Blockchain and Web3-powered video games will advance thanks to the Metaverse, making multiplayer games feel even more authentic. The only requirement for playing immersive video games in the Metaverse is a digital avatar. Players can also obtain non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as rewards, advancing the gaming industry.
- Online purchasing. You can try virtual clothing and appliances while shopping in the Metaverse. As a result, there will be fewer returns of misrepresented goods or ill-fitting garments. Before purchasing, shoppers can hold items and evaluate them from all sides.
NFTs and the Metaverse
A fundamental idea in the metaverse ecosystem, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) enables users to hold virtual goods in the form of real-world property, objects like cars and boats, or even accessories and artwork. This is because NFTs are based on blockchain technology, which grants NFT holders legitimate ownership. Users can construct a metaverse-neutral avatar minted on blockchain and portable between metaverses.
Will It Represent the “Internet of the Future”?
The “future of the internet” analogy is another way to think of the Metaverse. This is the best way to understand the Metaverse, according to many actively engaged in the debate over its fundamentals: as the development of the internet. Something that “grows” on top of international computer networks, similar to how virtual places like app stores, social networking, and e-commerce have developed from the contemporary internet.
Most individuals think that the Metaverse will not be one space governed by one entity but rather the interoperable spatial dimension of the future internet, much like the global web with all its various websites. This is frequently where the topics of web 2.0 and web 3.0 are brought up.
Many people believe Web 3.0 will create new, decentralized cyberspace by shattering big tech’s data silos and platform dominance. This new web version would be more in line with the open ecosystem supported by a decentralized structure that most people also hope to see in the Metaverse. For them, these technologies must be decentralized and not rely on a small number of dominant businesses or governments to protect things like privacy, safety, legitimacy, and ownership.
Final Thoughts
The Metaverse is the internet’s logical next step. We have all progressed from the early stages, when we could only read what was previously available online, through the era of social media and the economy of artists, to the integration of the virtual world into our own. The direction of the internet and the information age is apparent. People will get fully immersed in the new virtual worlds that will appear.