iThe Future of Gaming and the Metaverse
Today we look AT the Internet, in the future, we will be IN it
Have you ever dreamed about a bit more reality, immersion, involvement, sense of unity while sitting in front of your monitor and doing whatever you are doing in the digital world? Well, everyone who does and even those who haven’t permitted themselves to hope, now can have something to look forward to.
At Connect 2021, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced a new company brand Meta, which aimed to unite all company products and services under one roof. The company’s focus is to bring the metaverse to life and help people to explore their interests, connect, communicate, play games and grow businesses.
Ex-Facebook is not the only company that embraced the metaverse as a promising future perspective. Tech giants like Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, Google, and Roblox are building the infrastructure for virtual experiences and developing the technologies to interact with digital worlds.
To many, the term metaverse can be inaccurately associated with simply introducing augmented reality, but it’s not. A metaverse is a 3D version of the Internet and computing or web 3.0. When these two technologies (internet and computing) emerged, all interactions were mainly text-based (messages, emails), so-called web 1.0, then they slowly became media-based (photo, video), known as web 2.0. The next evolution step is the submergence of the user interface and user experience into 3D. In the metaverse, everyone has an avatar and through these avatars, people interact with each other. It doesn’t mean that connection to such space is exclusively provided via VR or AR. Some virtual worlds can be accessed through PCs, game consoles, or even smartphones. Basically, it is a place parallel to the physical world, where you spend your digital life.
The gaming world seems to have already adopted the most basic form of metaverse effectively mixing web 2.0 and web 3.0 technologies.
A competitive shooting game Fortnite, released by Epic back in 2017, used to be about 100 players dropping from the plane onto the isolated island and battling until the last one standing. But these days this battle royale component is just one of many experiences you can get. Epic is trying to transform the game into a large social platform by launching a new game format called Party Worlds. This format is all about experiences and self-expression, where players can hang out, play fun mini-games and make new friends. In many ways, Epic wants Fortnite someway to resemble Roblox, the publicly traded game platform where players can create their own experiences and even monetize them.
Talking about monetization, we should keep in mind that further development of metaverse will undoubtedly lead to the creation of new virtual marketplaces. And here comes blockchain technology. In the metaverse, everyone will have digital goods and to buy them the one will use crypto. Worth mentioning, that the metaverse isn’t built by one company and new worlds will evolve constantly. Different groups and companies will create their own virtual spaces and as people move between them, they would want to bring their digital stuff with them. Blockchain can help with it by authenticating the ownership of goods in different virtual worlds.
If you are an esports fan, most probably you have attended or wanted to go to the International, CS:GO Major, or any other significant event.
New ways of accessing such tournaments may come into fruition with the development of metaverse. Being progressive and keeping up with the time, fans around the globe can easily imagine themselves in the metaverse watching the game, having fun, socializing, and most importantly feeling the electricity of the crowd. When possible, such virtual events will bring a bunch of possibilities both for companies and viewers. Effectively using the blockchain technology companies would be able to equalize in-person and virtual viewership experiences by developing their own rewarding programs. Same as goodie bags you get on the arena, each viewer will be able to get an NFT just for participation. Having the avatars in the metaverse esports tournament, fans would have a chance to interact with their favorite professional players, attend signing sessions, etc. If only we had the metaverse, then Valve wouldn’t need to cancel the Dota 2 tournament in 2022 due to Coronaviru concerns. This decision aimed to protect both players and organizers, but it would not be an issue in the metaverse.
Of course, thinking about the existing games coming into the metaverse, meaning you can travel between them and bring you digital assets, could be hard when you keep in mind such giants as Activision Blizzard or Valve. Some big corporations don’t want to open up and bring such a huge change into their long-ago established businesses. Unfortunately, Valve already has banned blockchain-based games and NFTs from its Stream platform. Encouraging is the fact that such an attitude towards the metaverse and blockchain technology is present in only a few companies while others are all for it.
To put into perspective, the metaverse is an unavoidable and powerful step in the evolution of the internet and the gaming industry can shape it like nothing else. Needless to say, many new technologies, innovations, and protocols should be developed for the metaverse to thrive. However, if you cast a glance at the huge investments by the large tech giants and gaming companies, you’ll understand that the idea has already been set in motion. Most probably sooner than later fans around the globe will be involved in their favorite games in a new way, not just playing, but participating. Does it mean that the virtual worlds could completely replace real-world experiences? Probably not. Even so, the metaverse will definitely become an essential part of our everyday life.
