Everything about our life keeps changing. The way we play games, shop, hang out with friends and even work. Everything has to go through changes. Technology continues to advance and continue to change our lives. Whether it is through smartphones, connectivity, social media or the internet of things.
Things are getting really exciting. Everybody knows Facebook, in July 2021, Mark Zuckerberg revealed the future of Facebook and rebranded the name of the company to ‘Meta’. He promises to spend billions of dollars to build a metaverse platform and other companies are also working on their plans for this immersive concept.
Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for around USD 70 billion. Activision makes games like call of duty. Google also invested around USD 39 million into private equity funds for the metaverse. Other companies like J.P. Morgan, HSBC, Gucci and Coca-Cola are also dabbling with this concept.
And if you look at the huge amounts of money that these companies are investing, they had to justify that investment. These companies are creating the next iteration of the internet and a new future with immersive technical infrastructures. It is a combination of virtual reality, augmented reality and high-speed internet connections to create a new notion or virtual space called the Metaverse.
The metaverse is difficult to define, it’s usually described as an online virtual space where people create a digital avatar of themselves to socialize, work, travel and play. An easy answer can be the next version of computing and a more complicated answer is the story of how we imagine the world. So what exactly is the metaverse?
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What is the Metaverse?
The metaverse is an alternative reality that allows you to experience another life in a virtual place. It is a nebulous concept that will allow people to participate in a range of immersive experiences in different digital spaces. This could be as simple as a massively multiplayer virtual game or as complex as a seamless integration of physical and digital spaces.
The best way to think about the metaverse is through immersive technology. The technology behind this virtual realm combines Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) to provide a first-person experience. Digital glasses or a smartphone could also be used to access location-specific immersive digital content.
It is still too early to tell what kind of digital content the Metaverse will have but the possibilities are endless. It is currently under development and may be implemented in the future. In the meantime, companies are already gearing up to make the immersive realm as accessible as possible.
Advances in software enable realistic experiences through higher levels of fidelity. Which is the degree of real-world exactness that’s digitally reproduced. Second Life is an early example of a metaverse. The San Francisco-based firm Linden Lab developed this experience and featured a virtual economy, which enabled people to buy and sell goods.
Players will be able to exchange real money for game-based money. The Meta-universe could include a variety of cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens. Some believe social media companies will eventually create their own virtual currencies. These innovations are just the tip of the iceberg.
The digital universe already exists in the form of immersive games. Whether you are engaging in gaming experiences like multiplayer platforms or those deeply immersive games like online communities there’s an argument to say that the metaverse. Roblox and Minecraft have been building virtual worlds for years.
Fortnight, Minecraft and other games all incorporate aspects of virtual, augmented or mixed reality to create an extended immersive gaming experience for users. Some of these games allow you to make money, level up your character, buy or sell your account to someone or create a whole new economy.
Many claims that the metaverse is the next phase of the internet. Companies investing in the metaverse are hailing it as a sort of utopia that will make the time we spend online more interactive and fun. They also say it will present businesses with new ways to make money. One report estimates that the metaverse economy could be worth between USD 8 and 13 trillion by 2030.
Why the metaverse is growing in importance?
We’re at the beginning of a long journey. Since the inception of the internet, we’ve started to spend a lot of time online and we created a digital version of the world. Hence, the metaverse was inevitable, it will have happened sooner or later. But the pandemic has accelerated the trends.
We’ve already had an interesting step in the right direction with the pandemic. Everybody has experienced the pandemic where a lot of people couldn’t go to work, children missed out on a full year of school, and on top that social gatherings, concerts and restaurants all seize their activities. We were all forced to be inside our house due to restrictions.
A lot of trends have changed with the pandemic, we’ve started to live a more blended life like working from home. The shutdowns have led to a lot of changes. And as we were isolated, we started to value social media more because we couldn’t hang out with friends and family. The only way we could keep up with them was through messaging apps, video games, facetime or Instagram.
We also started to value what we saw on digital platforms. We started to value how many followers or likes we get on a post. How many views do we get on our story? We started valuing the way we look in the digital age more than how we look in real life. And with people are becoming more and more isolated.
Human connections are necessary because for people to thrive we need interaction. Communication and interaction have made the human race evolve throughout history. And the digital age is taking that from us. To rectify this, companies are trying to physically converge humans to the digital world.
When we start valuing how we look more in the digital world, we start moving into the digital future of the metaverse. Imagine you’re in a digital world where you can’t even tell the difference. Where you could be walking around a three-dimensional version of yourself creating an alternative universe with a hyper-realistic intuitive interface. This alternative reality is adding a layer on top of where we are today.
The metaverse concept is already used in many video games and has been around for quite a while. The game does not have an end goal but allows you to interact with other players in a digital universe. These players are normal people spread all around the world. It allows people to create digital worlds without ever leaving the game.
Many online games, such as World of Warcraft, use metaverses to build persistent worlds that players can revisit at any time. Whether these worlds require special goggles or simply play out on a computer screen, they are an interesting prospect for the future of gaming. Creating an immersive realm is an infinitely large concept and the purpose it serves will be as varied as the number of users who join it.
Its main advantage is that it connects its users across various platforms, making it possible to interact with people from all over the world. In a recent interview, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Fortnite publisher Epic Games said that they see games as a part of a larger, interconnected “metaverse.” It is like taking gamification to a whole new level.
However, Facebook is not alone in creating this realm, many other games facilitate similar activities through modding. The Sandbox, a multiplayer video game by Microsoft, incorporates a sophisticated cryptocurrency-based economy. To understand the metaverse, we must define the present. Already, we use digital concerts, video calls, online avatars and e-commerce platforms.
A metaverse might consist of an online playground where users could play Fortnite or Netflix movies. It would resemble the internet, albeit in a more advanced form. Second Life users would be protometaverses. In other words, they would own their own virtual property. They would also be able to trade goods and services in the virtual world.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asserted that a grand metaverse will be here by the end of the decade. While the foundations for this kind of virtual gathering are already in place, our infrastructure will have to be able to support it. If the parallel universe is built properly, it will support massive virtual gatherings. For example, 12.3 million people tuned in to a Fortnite Travis Scott concert.
Beyond the future of gaming, the immersive universe will be ubiquitous. People can use mobile devices and traditional computers to access the experience. Immersive wearables will also be commonplace. There are many more uses for this technology and it is expected to be widely available before the end of the decade. This technology has great potential to revolutionize the way we live our lives.
Benefits of the metaverse
Since Facebook rebranded itself the hype around this concept has spread fast. The new brand has plans to make major moves in the metaverse world. Facebook has an ambitious plan to expand its social platform. The concept of a parallel digital world is complicated and a blend of multiple technologies is needed.
The impact of the Metaverse is vast and is currently under construction. As such, multiple organizations are ramping up their efforts to gain a foothold in the emerging virtual reality space. This virtual land grab is not simply a fantasy, the innovations that will come out of this immersive innovation will impact real-world economies in a variety of ways.
Various industries are already testing the new technology. Some companies are already developing new products based on the Metaverse concept. This means we will see new and fascinating innovations with it. Entertainment, manufacturing, healthcare, education, and retail are just a few that will be revolutionized by it.
As this new technology becomes more prevalent, new standards for privacy will emerge. These standards will translate into new technologies. For instance, the Internet of Things (IoT) will require high-resolution processing power. New types of technology are needed to support the new virtual realm.
Developed in the Metaverse, the concept of the “Internet of Things” is transforming the manufacturing process. By combining human and virtual environments, companies are now able to develop products faster and more efficiently. This has enormous implications for manufacturers and their customers. And people tend to engage with things that are gamified.
As the meta-universe grows, the business benefits will become clearer. Customers will be able to see and hear what the company is doing in real-time. With the advent of blockchain technology and the introduction of the Metaverse, the world of online gaming will change. The benefits of decentralized Metaverse-based games are countless and will have an integrated economic model.
They support play-to-earn gaming and they even allow users to trade their assets within the game. Moreover, metaverse-based games feature avatars that explore virtual space. The blockchain may lead to the revolution in online gaming that we’ve been waiting for. Users will find that the virtual universe allows them to experience different environments and cultures.
The interoperable nature of the Metaverse enables users to freely swap digital goods, content, and items. For example, a user can transfer a virtual car to another car and vice versa. Users will also be able to share their virtual models among different games. Thus, users will be able to experience new cultures and explore different areas of the world.
The Metaverse offers students a way to interact with educators, instructors and other students from any part of the world. The use of avatars eliminates this barrier, which can be a serious obstacle for online education. Students can collaborate and share files and play games with other students in a virtual environment.
This new form of learning offers many benefits for students and educators. It can even be used for training. The benefits of this technology are far-reaching and the World Bank is currently working to provide accessibility to Eastern Caribbean countries. One potential benefit is the increased availability of high-quality products and experiences.
This could bring down the price of goods and services and allow even the poorest to access luxuries that were previously only affordable to the wealthy. For example, the Metaverse may make virtual world travel possible for most of humanity, enabling them to interact in high-quality ways with family members who are living in different parts of the world.
This immersive universe will impact all industries. In the city of New Jersey, for example, a water utility company uses a digital twin to ensure that employees do not damage infrastructure by working in virtual reality headsets. This location precision is crucial in many real-world industries.
The Metaverse may also become an avenue of escape for many people in our society. If it becomes the new reality of virtual reality, it may also have significant benefits for the workplace and for business. It also has many potential advantages for businesses. As immersive technology continues to advance, businesses will be able to operate more efficiently, without the hassle of having to wait in a lobby.
However, it is a good idea to understand the fundamentals of technology and build proactive relationships with the biggest technology companies to ensure that your policies and regulations are effective and responsive. Whether the metaverse will come together as a single platform is an open question.
Right now industry standards don’t exist for this universe which means that companies are just competing to lay the foundation. Others will have to follow the pattern just like how it takes to establish the development of the internet. It is still unclear whether this meta-universe will live up to its promises or fail to live up to the hype.
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