What is the metaverse exactly?

What is the metaverse?

If we listen to the opinion of certain CEOs of technology corporations such as Mark Zuckerberg or Satya Nadella, we would have to say that the metaverse is the future of the Internet. Or is, it a video game? Or maybe it’s just a more annoying version of Zoom? It’s hard to say.

It’s been almost six months since Facebook announced it was changing its name to Meta and focusing its future on the upcoming “ metaverse development services .” The bad thing is that time has passed since that announcement and what that term means has not yet been fully clarified. What is known is that Meta is building a virtual reality social platform; that companies like Roblox are facilitating the creation of video games generated by the gamers themselves, and that some other companies are offering a whole universe of immersive games and applications, which “coincidentally” are related to the world of NFTs.

Defenders of the metaverse — from niche companies to tech giants — have argued that this lack of consistency is because the metaverse is still being built and too new for its meaning to be defined. They affirm that — for example — the Internet already existed in the 70s, but not all the ideas that were had of how it would end up being today were accurate.

Then again, there’s a lot of marketing (and money) in selling the “ metaverse “ idea, and Facebook, in particular, is in an especially vulnerable spot after Apple’s move to limit ad tracking affected the scope of the company. It’s impossible to separate Facebook’s vision of a future and metaverse in which everyone would have to count a digital wardrobe and the fact that the platform actually wants to make money selling those virtual clothes. But Facebook is not the only company that can profit financially from the metaverse hype .

So, with all that in mind…

Now, seriously, what is the metaverse?

To give you an idea of ​​how confusing and complex the term “ metaverse “ can be, here is an exercise: Mentally replace the expression “ the metaverse” in a sentence with “ cyberspace “. Ninety percent of the time, the meaning will not change substantially. This is because the term doesn’t really refer to a specific type of technology, but to a broad — and often speculative — change in the way we interact with technology. In fact, the term itself may well end up being just as outdated when the specific technology it was once supposed to describe becomes commonplace.

Broadly speaking, the technologies companies refer to when they talk about “ Metaverse Development company” can include virtual reality — characterized by digital worlds that continue to exist even when you’re not playing — as well as augmented reality , which combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds. However, those spaces need not be accessed exclusively through VR or AR . Virtual worlds — such as Fortnite that can be accessed via PCs, game consoles, and even phones — have taken to referring to themselves as “ the metaverse .”

Indeed, many companies that have jumped on the metaverse bandwagon also envision a kind of new digital economy, where users can create, buy, and sell goods. In the most idealistic visions of the metaverse , it is allowed to carry virtual items such as clothes or cars from one platform to another, although this would be more difficult than it seems. Although some proponents claim that new technologies such as NFTs can enable the portability of digital assets, this is simply not true, and moving items back and forth from one video game or virtual world to another could be a hugely complex task that no company would have the responsibility to do. ability to solve.

It’s hard to parse what this all means because when you hear descriptions like the ones above, an understandable response is, Fortnite has virtual experiences like concerts and an expo where Rick Sanchez (the character from Rick & Morty ) can learn about MLK Jr. You can put on an Oculus headset and be in your own virtual home. Is that what “ Metaverse Development solutions “ really means? Is it about some new types of video games and that’s it?

Well yes and no. Saying Fortnite is “ the metaverse “ would be a bit like saying Google is the Internet : even if you spend copious amounts of time on Fortnite , socializing, buying stuff, learning, and playing, that doesn’t necessarily mean that that app covers the entire realm of what you people and companies mean when they say “ the metaverse “.