The metaverse is one of the latest buzzwords that are ever present in online discussions. Companies are spending billions of dollars in an attempt to become the first fully functioning metaverse on the World Wide Web.
Indeed, Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, which rebranded to Meta Platforms in June 2022, made a loss of over $10 billion in 2021 as it invested heavily in creating a metaverse for its users. Zuckerberg warned investors those losses would increase meaningfully during the 2022 financial year. Why are companies like Meta spending obscene sums of money on virtual worlds?
The first instance of the term metaverse came in 1992 when American author Neal Stephenson used it to describe a virtual world in his science fiction novel Snow Crash; it is a portmanteau of meta and universe. Stephenson describes the metaverse as an online virtual world that people access to escape the monotony of real life. Users gain access to the metaverse via personal terminals that project a high-quality VR display onto wearable goggles. Metaverse users can purchase virtual real estate and restricted access environments, such as an exclusive metaverse club called the Black Sun. At the time, Stephenson’s ideas seemed far-fetched and very much fit into the science fiction genre, but those ideas are slowly, and expensively, becoming a reality.
Video Games Already Have a Metaverse of Sorts
Video games have already embraced the metaverse even though it is not currently known as such. Massively Multiplier Online Games (MMO) like World of Warcraft or Eve Online see millions of users enter the same space, and their actions affect the world they are in. Most MMO titles have an in-game currency where virtual items are bought and sold for tangible real-world currencies. Indeed, MMO players collectively spend several billion dollars per year on virtual items, with some users “farming” items to sell as their sole source of income. Online VR poker sites and casinos are increasing in number, with PokerStars’ VR world making it possible to have a fully interactive experience akin to playing in a live environment but from the comfort of the user’s home. It is only a matter of time before you can bet online, receive betting slips and tickets, and watch sporting events through a VR headset from your living room while the metaverse makes it appear you are in Las Vegas or some other luxurious location.
The possibilities for the metaverse are endless once technology catches up, that is. Zuckerberg and many early metaverse adopters envisage a virtual world where people live and conduct business through VR headsets away from the physical world. People can meet up with friends and family despite them living hundreds or thousands of miles away in real life, while contracts will be signed by your avatar, negating the need to travel vast distances to complete business deals. Eventually, you can be whoever and whatever you want to be in the metaverse. Always wanted to be a professional sportsperson? Fancy yourself as a pilot? Want to make a run for President? You will be able to.
What’s Holding Back the Metaverse? What Are Potential Issues?
Technology and infrastructure are the two most significant issues holding back metaverse development. Creating an immersive world that is genuinely persistent and accessible by billions of people in real-time requires technology thousands of times more powerful than what is considered state-of-the-art by today’s standards. Furthermore, metaverse developers are monopolistic because they are fighting for what will be a very lucrative market. Zuckerberg’s Meta wants to be number one, while Microsoft is looking at a standalone version. Companies are not pooling their resources because they want to be the number one metaverse product out there.
User safety is another potential issue, not least because users could become addicted to the metaverse, much like some gamers become addicted to video games. In addition, metaverse users will naturally adopt a more sedentary lifestyle, plus they could miss out on actual human interaction, which is vital to mental well-being.
Then there are regulation and law-related issues. Not everyone will use the metaverse for good and entertainment in the traditional sense, but there will be career criminals and unscrupulous users. Who would be in charge of ensuring a metaverse is a safe place? Who would ensure that any products someone creates in the metaverse are trademarked and protected in the real world?
The metaverse has the potential to be life-changing and could be the most extraordinary form of entertainment ever created. However, for now, much like in Snow Crash, it is still science fiction.
This article was provided by Alex Vel
