The Metaverse is coming! But what is it?
Simply put, the Metaverse is a digital space represented by digital representations of people, places, and things. According with a NFT collection, the Metaverse can be a real big deal and you don't want to miss that.
A new universe in your hand...
The Metaverse can be defined as a simulated digital environment that uses :
- augmented reality (AR),
- virtual reality (VR) and blockchain,
- as well as social media concepts
to create spaces for rich user interaction that mimics the real world. The Metaverse is a combination of several elements of technology, including virtual reality, augmented reality, and video, in which users "live" in the digital universe.
For example, you can visit a friend's virtual home in the metaverse using a virtual reality headset, or attend digital concerts and conferences with augmented reality glasses.
Meet each other all around the world (but for real)
Essentially, the metaverse is a world of endless and interconnected virtual communities where people can meet, work, and play using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps, or other devices. As the metaverse expands, the metaverse will offer a hyperreal alternate world in which to live together.
Proponents of the metaverse imagine that its users work, play, and keep in touch with friends in everything from concerts and conferences to traveling through the virtual world. The metaverse will also include other aspects of online life, such as shopping and social media, according to Victoria Petrok, an analyst who keeps an eye on new technologies.
Facebook becomes Meta!
Think of the metaverse when the internet came along, or at least 3D rendered. The company, formerly Facebook, is so obsessed with the word Metaverse that it has renamed itself Meta to symbolize its deep exploration of this new online world. While companies like Facebook (or Meta) and Microsoft predict that the Metaverse will one day replace the Internet, critics see the Metaverse as a marketing gimmick that will never happen.
Microsoft's AltspaceVR claims to be a virtual world, and the software giant just announced it will buy Activision Blizzard for $69 billion as part of its expansion into virtual worlds. Graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp., like software maker Unity Software, wants graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp.'s Omniverse platform. Microsoft in particular emphasizes the need to use digital twin technology to build virtual worlds. Another Metaverse-like product is Pokemon Go, a popular augmented reality gaming platform that allows people to interact with computer-generated images superimposed on the real world through a smartphone's camera.
Does the metaverse already exist?
In what tech. pundits like the Facebook founders call the metaverse, virtual reality acts as a computing platform for a second online life. One of the most famous virtual worlds, and perhaps the closest to the ideal of virtual worlds, is Second Life, an "online multimedia platform" launched in 2003. Second Life, a social and gaming platform that's been around for nearly two decades, is the Metaverse and is in the process of being updated.
World of Warcraft became a permanent social place for millions in the early 2000s, and the community continued to grow in and around the game. Since then, various developments have paved the way for a true metaverse, an online virtual world that includes :
- augmented reality,
- virtual reality,
- 3D holographic avatars,
- video,
- and other media
Neil Stevenson famously coined the term "metaverse" in his 1992 novel Avalanche, in which he referred to a 3D virtual world of human avatars, a 3D virtual world of human avatars world. In his 1992 novel Avalanche, the metaverse is a virtual reality world depicted as a marketplace around a planet where virtual real estate can be bought and sold, with users wearing virtual reality goggles inhabiting identically shaped 3D avatars.
In the virtual world, avatars can transcend reality and enter the virtual world, however, in his work "Avalanche", the virtual world is a world of escape from desolation, dystopia and corporate greed. The metaverse can be a mirror world that accurately reflects the physical world, or it can resemble a completely fictional world you might encounter in a video game.
All can be in the metaverse:
The virtual world, like the aspects of Fortnite that can be accessed via PCs, game consoles, and even phones, can be metaversal. Currently, most platforms have virtual identities, avatars, and inventory tied to one platform, but the metaverse could allow you to create a person that you can take with you anywhere as easily as copying your profile picture from a social network to another.
If you think the metaverse doesn't have to be owned by a handful of companies, there are new technologies that could facilitate less centralized virtual worlds, such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens or NFTs.
The Web3 into the metaverse:
These representations of the metaverse overlap with the concept of Web3, a term that encompasses decentralized internet services where users retain more personal control over the data they post online. In parent company Facebook's metaverse imagination, users will have full creative control over their virtual worlds, designing everything from waterfront homes to space stations where you can work together, chat with friends, or study.