Metaverse: The Fascinating Virtual Reality Extension of the Internet

Back in my young days, I used to think–wow! what a life Mowgli has.

He can jump around the trees, train with the wolves, stroll near the waterfall, and do things I cannot do at home. I used to wonder, what if I had a magical button that would help me toggle between my world and the jungle? 

Wouldn’t it be fun?

Little did I know something closer to my imagination would become a reality – or at least virtual reality.

This will become possible through Metaverse – the 3d evolution of the Internet. Let us check out what is Metaverse and how it can make our lives interesting.

What is Metaverse?

As of January 2022, more than 33% of US adults are curious about this technology – like you and me.

To understand what Metaverse is let us take a step back to the 1990s and take cues from the creator of the word – Neal Stephenson. He coined the word Metaverse from two words, ‘meta,’ which means beyond and the word ‘verse,’ a short form of the universe.

In his novel the Snow Crash, the sci-fi writer mentioned that Metaverse would be a successor of the internet, where people’s digital avatars will live on cyberspace to escape from reality. The big tech companies have taken cue from this sci-fi novel and tried to add their extensions to create the Metaverse. In short, it means that metaverse is a video game version of the internet, where everything you can do online—like playing games, chatting with friends, going to concerts, or attending classes—everything happens in a 3D world that feels like you’re inside a virtual world.

Definition of Metaverse

Although there is no agreed-upon definition of this new generation technology, Cathy Hackl, a Metaverse expert, believes that it would be a convergence of our physical and digital lives. She is certain that Metaverse is not limited to AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) technology. Current technologies like blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFT, 5G, edge computing, etc., will combine to give an immersive experience.

 

Even Mark Zuckerberg tends to speak on the same lines (convergence of digital and physical world). In his rebranding video, he was seen in his virtual home. His digital twin helps him to make clothing choices, and other technologies help his avatar to teleport into a new space (pun intended).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAL2JZxpoGY

He then calls his friend who is in the digital world, and they have a conversation about a street art. She clicks a picture of the art and the Metaverse automatically creates a 3D object in a digital space. Mark and his friends can view the street art in this space and talk about it. This is an example of Facebook’s virtual universe.

However, Roblox has created a virtual platform where people can play and host events. During Covid, the artist, Lil Nas X, hosted a concert on the platform. His digital twin was singing the songs in a virtual environment and the audience’s digital avatars were dancing nearby his avatar. Although the concert was virtual, it gave a real-time experience to its audience.

Similarly, Decentreland has created a virtual and graphics-intensive 3D environment where people can move around, talk, walk, or participate in events of the virtual world.

Both the Metaverses had limited convergence of digital and physical world.

Elements of a Metaverse

According to Gartner, Metaverse is expected to provide decentralized, persistent, collaborative, and interoperable opportunities to businesses to enable them to extend their digital business. Every metaverse will have the following elements in its virtual universe.

 

• Marketplace e-commerce

Gaming

Use Cases–VR experience of the Australian open

Australian Open made things more exciting for its fans. They partnered with Infosys to create a virtual tennis stadium where fans choose their seats and watch the match. Interestingly, they also created an area where people could practice their tennis skills, buy attire, and walk around the stadium – all in a virtual world.

The goal was to ensure that fans have a stadium-like experience right from the comfort of their couch.

What can we do as writers in the Metaverse space?

Even though Metaverse is evolving slowly, two things are certain about the new tech – the digital universe will have graphic-heavy content and an immersive user experience. As writers, we will have the opportunity to focus more on elements like gamification, storytelling, and UX content.

The onus will be on us to incorporate our design thinking skills and focus more on user experience to help users navigate in the virtual spaces. The stakes will rise for building more immersive and interactive content than ever before. It is high time we equip ourselves with skills before the metaverse storm takes us by surprise.

We would recommend the below courses to prepare yourself for this technology

• Design Thinking – A Primer, IIT Madras – Free online course
• Design Thinking for Innovation – University of Virginia
• Google UX Design Professional Certificate (This course will help you to understand the UX design process and make better decisions to write micro-content)
• The Complete NFT Course – Udemy
• NFT Fundamentals (Buy, Create and Sell NFTs) – Udemy

Final Word:

Logic can take you from A to B. Imagination will take you anywhere, even to a virtual space or a universe parallel to our physical lives. The Metaverse will be one such sci-fi-inspired virtual environment that will make place in our daily lives.

Gartner predicts that 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in the Metaverse by 2026 either for work, shopping, education, social, or entertainment. Let us prepare ourselves for this technology and stay ahead of the curve.

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