Metaverse | What is the Metaverse?

The Metaverse:

The metaverse concept isn't new.  it had been first described in the 1992 novel Snow Crash. Several companies later developed online communities that supported the concept, most notably Second Life, released in 2003.

In the metaverse, people use avatars to represent themselves, communicate with one another, and virtually build out the community.  within the metaverse, digital currency is employed to buy clothes -- or weapons and shielding in the case of video games -- and many other items. Users also can virtually travel through the metaverse for fun with no goal in mind using a virtual reality headset and controllers.

Snow Crash was more of a dystopian view of the longer term and didn't put the metaverse in a positive light. Author Neal Stephenson coined the term metaverse as a sort of next-generation virtual reality-based internet.  a method to achieve status in Stephenson's metaverse was by technical skill, which was represented by the sophistication of a user's avatar. Another indication of status was the power to access certain restricted environments -- a precursor to the paywalls and registration requirements some websites use today.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline was another novel that helped popularize the thought of the metaverse.  it had been later made into a movie directed by Steven Spielberg. The 2011 dystopian sci-fi novel is about the year 2045, where people escape the issues plaguing Earth in a virtual world called The Oasis. Users access the planet using a virtual reality visor and haptic gloves that let them grab and touch objects in the digital environment.

Difference between the metaverse and the internet?

The internet is a network of billions of computers, many servers, and other electronic devices. Once online, internet users can communicate with one another, view and interact with websites, and buy and sell goods and services.

Within the metaverse, users traverse a virtual world that mimics aspects of the physical world using technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), AI, social media, and digital currency.  the web is something that people "browse." But, to a degree, people can "live” within the metaverse.

Must Read the differences between AR, VR, and mixed reality.

Even governments may extend their reach to the metaverse.  for instance, while most countries have a comparatively static presence on the internet, Barbados plans to open a diplomatic embassy within the metaverse -- specifically, the web world Decentral and.

In gaming, you see Roblox, Minecraft and other immersive video games -- and even Zoom -- foreshadow what the metaverse is meant to offer," said Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies. You even have a sort of digital presence on social media.

Now he says it is a question of what form the metaverse ultimately takes. Will, it open like the internet? The big players all want to be early movers and have their ecosystem win out, said by Bajarin.

Metaverse companies

several companies with their metaverse visions.

Facebook

In a letter, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company's metaverse investment represented a fundamental change and was a part of a new vision for the social media giant designed to "bring the metaverse to life."

He also said that Facebook may be a metaverse-first, not Facebook-first, company. That’s a crucial change because it means users eventually won't need a Facebook account to use other services in the metaverse. Among other non-Facebook products, Facebook has already sold many of its Oculus VR headgear units for navigating the metaverse.

In the Meta announcement, Zuckerberg said Facebook aims to accelerate the event of the fundamental technologies, including social platforms and artistic tools, required to "bring the metaverse to life." After the Meta news dropped in late 2021, Facebook launched Horizon Worlds, a VR space that users can navigate as an avatar, and tools for developers to make additional virtual worlds.

Epic Games

Epic Games, makers of the favored online shooter game series Fortnite -- with some 350 million users -- and the Unreal Engine software for game developers.

Epic Games' vision of the metaverse differs from Facebook’s therein it wants to provide a communal space for users to interact with each other and brands -- without a news feed riddled with ads.

I strongly believe that this aligns with our purpose to fill the planet with emotion, through the facility of creativity and technology, said Kenichiro Yoshida, chairman, president, and CEO at Sony Group Corp. in a statement.

Microsoft

The metaverse will come to Microsoft Teams -- the software giant's online meetings competitor to Zoom. Microsoft said it’ll release Mesh for Microsoft Teams in 2022. The new service lets Teams users in several physical locations join collaborative and shared holographic experiences during virtual meetings.

Microsoft said Mesh will let users establish a virtual presence on any device employing a customized avatar of themselves. This builds on the sooner announcement of Mesh for Microsoft, a platform for developers that has a suite of AI-powered tools for avatars, session management, spatial rendering, synchronization across multiple users, and "haloboration." Haloboration may be a 3D capture technology that lets users reconstruct and transmit high-quality 3D models of people in real time.

Microsoft has already been working with professional services firm Accenture to make Mesh-enabled immersive spaces. Accenture hires quite 100,000 people per annum and uses Mesh to help onboard new employees.

New hires meet on Teams to receive instructions on the way to create a digital avatar and access One Accenture Park -- a shared virtual space that's part of the onboarding process. The futuristic amusement park-like space includes a central room, a virtual boardroom, and digital monorails that new hires use to visit different exhibits.

How do NFTs fit into the metaverse?

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) figure to play an enormous role in the usefulness and popularity of the metaverse. NFTs are a secure sort of digital asset based on the same blockchain technology used by cryptocurrency. rather than currency, an NFT can represent a bit of art, a song, or digital land. An NFT gives the owner a sort of digital deed or proof of ownership that can be bought or sold in the metaverse.

Metaverse Properties bills itself because of the world's first virtual real estate company. the corporate acts as an agent to facilitate the purchase or rental of property or land in several metaverse virtual worlds -- including Decentral and, Sandbox, Somnium, and Upland.

While the metaverse has created opportunities for brand spanking new companies such as Metaverse Properties to offer digital goods, established brick-and-mortar companies also are jumping in. for instance, Nike acquired RTFKT -- a startup that creates one-of-a-kind virtual sneakers and digital artifacts using NFTs, blockchain authentication and augmented reality. On its website, RTFKT said it had been "born on the metaverse, and this has defined its feel to the present day."

Before the acquisition, Nike filed seven trademark applications to assist create and sell virtual sneakers and apparel. Nike and Roblox also partnered on "Nikeland," a digital world where Nike fans can play games, connect and dress their avatars in virtual apparel.

"NFTs and blockchain lay the groundwork for digital ownership," said Nick Donarski, CEO of ORE System, a web community of gamers, content creators, and game developers. Ownership of one's real-world identity will carry over to the metaverse, and NFTs are going to be this vehicle.

How close is that to the metaverse?

While the essential idea of being able to engage in a virtual online world has been around for many years, a real metaverse where lifelike interactions are possible is still years away. In his annual year during a review blog post, Microsoft co-founder Gates noted that most people don't have the VR goggles and motion capture gloves to accurately capture their expression, visual communication, and quality of their voice.

But for business, Gates predicts that within the next two to three years most virtual meetings will move from two-dimensional square boxes to the metaverse -- a 3D space with participants appearing as digital avatars.

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