The metaverse can be best described as a virtual reality space where people interact With one another and computer Generated environment. Up until a few years ago, the metaverse was nothing but a hypothetical and fictional idea Whose probability of being real was very low.
It is said that the metaverse is the best progression of the internet, where you can have interactions in virtual reality environments that can be accessed using augmented reality, virtual reality, phones, and of course personal computers. Every person in the metaverse is represented by their avatar, and these avatars meet and talk about various things in virtual spaces, going as far as playing various games too.
In the metaverse, an avatar is supposed to be exploitable and used in different spaces. But as of now, that is impossible, as the current initiatives are wrapped around a proprietary and locked In metaverse solutions. It would be possible to do so, and a key to enabling this is building a system that connects the world, with avatars and assets that are interoperable.
If that were to happen and get to be successful, it could open up possibilities of a level of reality fully digital complete with its economy and values and space where people would be able to fully express themselves just like the real world.
What are the challenges that the metaverse will come with?
In the metaverse, the above-mentioned come with grave concerns of security reasons, identity theft, and privacy and these are concerns and challenges that should not be ignored but rather addressed properly.
Some suggestions are available for some of these challenges. For instance, on the issue of identity theft, it has been suggested that some technologies that could offer securing transactions of virtual materials, ensuring the interoperability between various metaverse spaces, and guaranteeing ownership of the digital identity.
Another challenge in the metaverse that caused major concern was the language barrier. But the good news is this challenge will not be too big of an issue as the employment of automatic language translation, among others will be featured in the metaverse. That aside, it’s been known that the alter egos will be able to research important work for you and send the information to you as desired. Now that will be simplifying a lot of work.
With how technology is getting, soon we will be using alter egos to do some work for us while we are doing other important things too.
When things get hectic, some people tend to wish they had a clone of themselves doing part of the work while they were stuck doing other duties. Well, now some will get their wishes to come true through the introduction of the metaverse.
Many companies loved the idea of their staff running around physically and also having avatars that interact with others in 3D virtual space. It is no surprise they loved it because the metaverse is being called the next big thing after text, image, and video communication, also called social networking service.
Mark Zuckerberg and the metaverse
Facebook, a parent company of major networking services, changed its name from “Facebook” to, “Meta” as an indication that it will also be focusing on the metaverse.
The change was brought to people’s attention in October, explained by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, now called Meta. This change shows just how much dedication Facebook is willing to put into virtual reality.
The beginning of the metaverse
American science fiction author Neal Stephenson talked about the metaverse in his novel Snow Crash, published in 1992 by Bantam books. The clear definition of metaverse had not been established, but what was clear was that the name metaverse is a forge of two words, meta which means beyond, and verse referring to the universe.
As the metaverse calls for losing yourself deep into virtual reality, the Japanese game dragon quest is also regarded as the metaverse. Dragon Quest is a national game that is role-playing game. The game has various adventures located in another world.
This shows that Japan was the leading country in the metaverse concept in the 1990s. There was an official launch of a 2D graphic chat service from Fujitsu, which then became a forerunner for multiplayer online role-playing games In Japan.
1997 saw various test runs conducted for 3D Machiko, which was said to be used for e-commerce among other things, and the text runs were done by NTT Data communications. It was commercialized In March of 1998, and by then was patronized by 75,000 users and 300 stores at one point in time. This was the era of phone lines, where users shopped online and chatted when phone charges were set, and that meant mornings and late nights only.
There was a hot hit for metaverse in 2003 when an application by US-based Linden Lab users Toyota and Nissan opened virtual stores and users started trading lands. However, this was a short hit before it flopped because of the graphics and the internet speeds.
What has brought changes to the metaverse?
Advances in technology and the game industry are the reasons why the metaverse is starting to gain popularity again. Said games are open world, which means it is up to the user to choose how they will play the game or what they will do in it.
There are plenty of choices in the game world, where you can choose to play as a rare item collector or choose the kind of storyline that will involve defeating a bunch of enemies and saving the world.
To make things more interesting for players, a lot of details must be sharp and realistic, for instance having plants and animals, a change of scenery now and then, and even residential behavior. Just like that the created outlook of the alternate world will be closely similar to the real world.
In recent years, the use of virtual reality goggles has made the metaverse experience unique and fun as everything seems life-sized and real. There are expectations that in the next technology generation, metaverse will be a settled and available service to most.
