Can someone explain the Metaverse?

An ELI5 (ish) breakdown on the Metaverse and what it could be

https://i.chzbgr.com/full/8597131008/h05FD3389/simulation-games

If you’ve been following along, I’ve been writing a 3-part series on the Metaverse and what it could mean for the internet. So far, I have covered Web3 and how the fundamentals of it are needed for a true metaverse, while also discussing how AR/VR technology can be used to interact with the metaverse (I highly recommend reading part one and part two before continuing with this article).

This week, I am going to try and close off the series with an explainer on what the metaverse could be, some of the projects in the space, and my thoughts in general.

Hopefully, this article is timely for readers since mentions of “metaverse” in Q4 2021 earnings reports by public companies are up 135% quarter over quarter and everyone, including Disney, says that they will be building a metaverse. Kanye, who is also quite topical right now, shared that he really doesn’t like NFTs and will likely be doing very little with the Metaverse, while Adidas will be selling their non-Kanye sneakers on it.

The Ye-ta-verse

So what is it?

A metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection. In futurism and science fiction, the term is often described as a hypothetical iteration of the Internet as a single, universal virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual and augmented reality headsets. The term “metaverse” has its origins in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash as a portmanteau of “meta” and “universe.” Various metaverses have been developed for popular use such as virtual world platforms like Second Life. Some metaverse iterations involve integration between virtual and physical spaces and virtual economies, often including a significant interest in advancing virtual reality technology.

Let’s be real, despite the definition, the usage of the term “metaverse” is much broader and leads to a lot of confusion behind what it could actually mean.

Everyone says that they are building a metaverse and it’s becoming ubiquitous to “I work in tech”, where companies such as Dominos re-invented themselves as tech companies by simply branding outsourced technology under their banner to increase their stock price. In Domino’s case, they market themselves as a company working on autonomous delivery when in reality they don’t build drones but have a contract with drone builders.

In my opinion, the term “Metaverse” doesn’t refer to a specific technology but is a change in how we interact with technology as more and more time is spent online (46% surveyed in 2021 spend 5–6 hours daily on their phones). I believe that a true metaverse needs to have three key characteristics:

• Continuity: With leisure time turning into screen time, the metaverse experience will need to mirror real-life — continuity even when we are logged off. This can include virtual worlds (VR) that continue to exist even when you’re not online— as well as augmented reality (AR) that combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds. This is not exclusive, and games such as Roblox and Fortnite could be “Metaverse-like.” This also stands true for the virtual offices being built by Meta.
• Interoperability & ownership: Sharing and connectivity functionality needs some sort of digital economy, where users can create, buy, and sell goods. A Web3 metaverse without walled gardens will make ownership interoperable, allowing you to take virtual items like clothing from one platform to another. In the real world, I could buy a pair of Addidas sneakers at any store and then wear them anywhere. This is different from the internet today where virtual identities and inventories are tied to specific platforms and not interoperable. For example, the clothing on an avatar in Roblox is not interoperable with a Fortnite account. NFTs will be important for interoperability as they will legitimize ownership across platforms on a blockchain. There’s nothing like flexing on the internet with a cross-platform Rolex NFT.
• Accessibility: We’ve learned a lot about accessibility and reaching different audiences over the years — The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was only confirmed in the 90s, and likewise, the metaverse needs to take these learnings into account when building for social interactions. Collaboration is required to rethink how these interactions can be adapted for those not physically-able, but also not financially-able as well. Accessibility also means seamlessness in ways such as making AR/VR headsets less nerdy and more approachable. From a growth perspective, re-imagining social interactions will need scale and virality, so accessibility and an understandable value proposition are going to be important characteristics of bringing people into the metaverse.

Doesn’t the Metaverse already exist?

The short answer is kind of. Roblox is an example of a persistent virtual world where players can buy and sell goods with virtual experiences — but it’s not interoperable. Fortnite has virtual experiences like concerts but awful experiences in other areas such as education despite being continuous and persistent. Oculus is a great AR/VR technology, but how does it manage accessibility for those that suffer from motion sickness or don’t want to wear a big headset?

So while a lot of experience seems to cover key aspects of the metaverse (often well), there aren’t yet experiences (in my opinion) that can truly replace real-life just yet. For example, wouldn’t you want a better virtual home experience on the Oculus before you started living there instead of in your physical home?

So while you could, theoretically, spend large chunks of time in experiences such as Fortnite, Roblox, and Oculus socializing, communicating, buying things, learning, playing games, and even sleeping, it doesn’t necessarily mean that these experiences encompass the entire scope of the metaverse — perhaps a metaverse-lite?.

This is where I believe that most discussions on the metaverse get murky. We have an idea of things that are like the metaverse, and we know which companies are investing in the space (Meta, Microsoft, Roblox, Disney, Nvidia, etc…), but we still don’t know what it is. Meta thinks that it is a virtual house party. Microsoft hints at virtual meeting rooms and Disney is reaching for a theme park.

This all seems fine and dandy, but none of these companies are advertising a real product or even a future one that is drastically different from their existing core offerings — at risk of oversimplification; they are all offering existing products bundled with virtual avatars.

The demos shared by these companies are also absurd and raise more questions on how real-life constraints such as motion sickness and the bulkiness of AR/VR experiences would be managed.

I’d imagine 50% of people doing a backflip mid-meeting may pull a muscle in real life

What are some cool projects?

We’ve all heard of how Meta, Google, etc. are building for the metaverse, but there’s a lot more going on;

• Nike is building a virtual sneaker locker for NFTs and also started testing the legal waters of the metaverse with a lawsuit.
• Seoul, Korea has started developing its metaverse with an investment of USD 3.3m to offer virtual services and events including a virtual mayor’s office.
• Dropbox is building a virtual environment for document sharing and collaboration.
• Decentraland is a virtual world where the metaverse real estate market is booming. Younger people are more and more comfortable with seeing value in virtual assets and this has led to some extravagant increases in virtual land prices (eerily similar to boomer real estate).
• Sandbox is also a virtual world similar to Decentraland but backed by bigger VCs (venture capital).
• Gather is a low-fi metaverse experience that serves as a platform to communicate and connect.
• Niantic, the makers of Pokemon-Go want to platform their AR experience and allow others to connect to the metaverse through it.
• Axie Infinity is an NFT based game with an in-game economy where tokens can be bought, earned, and traded by users. Interestingly, some game developers question the value of NFTs in games as do I. Sure you can prove ownership of your NFT in a game, but you still need the game platform to use it.

There are so many more players in the space, but the commonality between all of them is the concept of reimagining experiences to something different and more involved than what we have today.

So what's the deal?

There is no guarantee that people want metaverse experiences and that these experiences themselves will be seamless enough to replace our current interactions with existing technologies such as smartphones. Most potential users don’t even know what a metaverse really is.

Whenever someone mentions they are building the metaverse, I always sense check if the project is truly related to be metaverse by asking myself if the project is built for continuity? If it is accessible? and if there is interoperability with respect for ownership?

In the end, the metaverse could simply end up being an amalgamation of virtual avatars, or it could push the ceiling for technology as the space race did, or it could also be this truly open social experience by definition. Based on what I am seeing today, I don’t think anyone really knows what the metaverse actually is/will be — but I think it is an opportunity to use technology to create better social interactions as we spend more of our time online. We often see technology as a disconnect from real life, but the metaverse could connect us to an even bigger world that we may not normally have access to.