What is the metaverse?

Metaverse worlds offer many benefits for their users, such as new entertainment, education, socializing, and business opportunities.

Users can explore different metaverse environments while creating avatars, interacting with others, learning new skills, and collaborating across borders. Metaverse worlds can also help them access unique services like virtual art galleries, music gigs, or virtual shopping.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become an integral part of the metaverse. They help to represent ownership of the services, products, structures, and in-game characters these digital worlds are built upon.

As more companies step into this new space, it's possible we may see greater integration of real-world services across metaverse worlds. For example, it might become possible to buy real clothes from a 3D virtual shopping mall, or experience the latest theme park rides from your living room.

Before the internet became widely accessible, there were some early attempts to create metaverse-like virtual worlds using VR arcade machines. One example of this was the Sega VR-1 motion simulator, which users enjoyed across many arcades during the early 1990s.

Sony started early experimentation with VR headsets in 1993 with the Visitron and Glasstron. According to one reviewer, these devices simulated "watching a 33-inch TV from four feet away."

However, due to hardware and software limitations at the time, none of these devices took off in any meaningful way.

Virtual reality technology advanced significantly in the late 2010s. Devices such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR have become increasingly more affordable and accessible.

As these VR devices evolved, they allowed users to experience more immersive and realistic virtual environments. These advancements also sparked more interest and investment in creating metaverse platforms.

While these devices are significantly more powerful than their arcade game predecessors, they still lack interoperability with each other.

This limiting factor forces players to choose between specific games and experiences supported by their chosen devices, much like choosing between the Xbox or PlayStation ecosystems.

Virtual worlds evolved in parallel to VR hardware. Let's explore some of the first environments that laid the foundations for the metaverse.

Many regard Second Life as one of the earliest and most influential metaverse platforms. Launched in 2003 by Linden Lab, the game was one of the first immersive social environments. It built a following thanks to its focus on interactions between players rather than action driven gameplay.

Second Life allowed players to replicate many aspects of real world life. They could create and customize their own avatars, which they could use to explore and build virtual worlds. Players could also socialize and trade with other users. Players could participate in different activities and events, and even rent or own any piece of land in the virtual world. Second Life was one of the first environments to popularize the idea of digital ownership.

World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released by Blizzard Entertainment in 2004. It's set in a fantasy world called Azeroth. Players can choose from different races and classes, complete quests, join factions, fight enemies, and interact with other players.

World of Warcraft spawned other massively multiplayer games including Elder Scrolls Online (ESO), an immersive fantasy game.

• IMVU: A 3D real-life simulator designed for social interaction. People chat and connect with one another using player-controlled avatars.
• Roblox: A vast metaverse where players can meet others, as they create and engage with user-created experiences. By the end of 2022, Roblox clocked more than 56 million daily active users.
• Minecraft: Minecraft is one of the world's best selling video games. Players interact with a fully customizable 3D block world, where they can build any type of structure they wish. The game also features a survival mode where players have to earn food and resources, build shelters, and fend off attackers.
• Fortnite: Fortnite combines the creation mechanics of games like Roblox and Minecraft with a third-person style shooting game. There are several game modes that offer both single and cooperative quests and battles.

The world is still waiting for a leading metaverse gaming experience.

Console-based video games continue to dominate the industry with millions of daily users, while many headset-based games have yet to gain the same notoriety. Many expect that could all change dramatically over the next decade.

First, the metaverse could become a social hub and enable new forms of interaction that transcend physical boundaries and limitations.

Just like the internet, people in the metaverse could meet, chat, collaborate, and create anything with anyone in the world. The immersive quality of metaverse worlds would also offer far more realistic modes of communication than what's available in the text only forums of much of today’s web.

The metaverse could also foster a sense of community and belonging among users who share common interests and values. The proliferation of NFT communities in the crypto industry is a great example of this. Huge online groups have amassed around iconic NFT collections, united by their mutual appreciation for digital artwork.

The metaverse could transform various industries and sectors by providing new ways of working, marketing, selling, and innovating.

Businesses could leverage the metaverse to improve productivity, collaboration, communication, and creativity among their employees and partners.

They could also use the metaverse to reach new customers, showcase their products or services, and create unique brand experiences.

The metaverse poses significant security issues for users, including exposure to potential cyberattacks, hacking, fraud, identity theft, harassment, and manipulation by malicious actors.

Protecting user data, privacy, and safety in the metaverse requires robust encryption, authentication, and moderation systems as well as ethical standards and regulations. NFTs will allow users to maintain ownership of items throughout multiple metaverses, a prospect that gives new utility to these digital goods.

The metaverse raises complex legal and regulatory issues that involve multiple jurisdictions and stakeholders.

For example, who owns and controls the content, assets, and intellectual property in the metaverse? How are disputes and conflicts resolved? What are the rights and responsibilities of users, platforms, and governments? How are taxes and fees collected and distributed?

These questions require clear and consistent rules and policies that balance innovation, competition, accessibility, accountability, and fairness.

The metaverse could present significant user privacy issues, depending on how the metaverse is developed, and who develops it.

Private companies may opt to track their players' data without their consent or awareness, including biometric data, behavioral patterns, preferences, interests, relationships, and transactions.

This information could become accessible to third parties for targeted advertising, personalization, and analytics purposes.

The concept of the metaverse continues to change regularly and dramatically.

As new technology enters the market, metaverse games and worlds expand to keep up with the latest innovations. With the rise of NFTs, the first wave of the “modern” metaverse has emerged.

The experiences the Metaverse aims to deliver has the potential to transfer how individuals connect and transact.

As these environments and the experiences they offer continue to evolve, the Metaverse will likely play an important role in the way we interact with others for decades to come.

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