Metaverse 100 - Evolving and Engaging the Internet
Is your internet addiction dominating your life? Well wait until the Metaverse comes around to make that worse.
TL;DR: The Metaverse is Virtual Reality, and its increasingly becoming more economically viable to build businesses that users can engage each on.
Hi,
Today I’m here to talk about the Metaverse. As a video gamer, I will admit I’m a cynic to it all.
But as someone that is a tad entrepreneurial and loves to look at business and interaction models, the Metaverse offers a new way for businesses to engage consumers, beyond the confines of very expensive Video Game development studios.
And that to me is powerful.
I just really hope it doesn’t fall apart like 3D Movies and 3D TV Screen did.
As always, you can find TL;DRs and graphics as I explain this shitshow cash grab set of concepts.
P.S. If you need help with Crypto Taxes, LMK.
In Case You Missed It
NFT 100 - It’s a Start
Crypto Wallets 100 - The Researched Rant
WTF is a Rug Pull - How People Get Screwed in Crypto
Sections You Can Skim To
WTF is the Metaverse?
WHAT’s the Bet?
WHY Now?
WHAT’s Your Take as a Gamer?
TL;DR: The entire internet turned into a 3d interactive video game, except instead of only the fun video gamey stuff, you can do boring stuff too similar to how Wreck It Ralph was having the equivalent of Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings in digital space.
The Metaverse describes a digital-based reality that has spatial interactive elements. Saying that differently, it’s about being able to use the internet in 3D Spatial form.
Today you are using the internet through a flat screen, with content served directly to you in a flat medium. You are limited to your fingers touching a phone screen, and the only mainstream option you have is to scroll up or down usually.
Tomorrow, the Metaverse hopes to serve you every day content and every day interactions in a 3D Spatial Manner, and that one day you can interact with it using a mix of Virtual Reality Headsets, or Augmented Reality Devices and Applications. You’ll be able to physically walk around the content, and move beyond up and down.
It’s like if the current internet was just an X and Y axis (2D), and the Metaverse is introducing Z, for XYZ, or 3D. Can you imagine shopping in a 3d environment from the comfort of your home?
Real quick:
Virtual Reality, or VR, is when you fully immerse yourself in a digital world using a headset device.
Augmented Reality, or AR, is when you use a device to modify a real-world space and enrich it digitally. An example is seeing extra information a store front through your phone camera.
TL;DR: Businesses are trying to find the next big disruptive technology that rivals or eclipses what Smartphones did for society.
When Smartphones were introduced, it revolutionized how people and business interacted with each other. Everyone now has a smartphone, basically. And over 54.4% of all internet traffic is consumed on a smartphone device.
The Metaverse is expected to capture a similar allure, creating a third category altogether on how content can be consumed.
I’m not convinced it will since there’s still a massive digital-divide between internet-first users, and people without any kind of internet. For those of us who live in a digitally-savvy lifestyle, we can now expect a new way to interact with media.
Is it better?
Debatable.
Specific User Purchasing Behaviors to Look At
Currently I see six specific kind of product areas that people buy today that can lead us to the grand path of adoption of the Metaverse. Buying these products, or using these products to buy things, sets you up as a prime candidate that would help new businesses exist in the Metaverse.
Crypto
Smartphone Apps
Cosmetic Skins
Streaming Supporters
Paid Community Subscribers
MMORPG Subscribers
Maker
IRC
If you have bought things with Crypto, there’s a high chance that Crypto will be used to power smaller, virtual economies in the Metaverse. Not to mention, NFTs being used to verify your ownership and identity to enter some virtual spaces.
If you have bought Apps on the iOS store and don’t chalk at spending $0.99 on an app, you’re a prime candidate for the Metaverse. If you buy sticker packs in Line, you are 100% the target.
If you have bought cosmetic skins from the Steam Marketplace, League of Legends, or Fortnite, you’re a prime candidate for the Metaverse.
If you watch streaming heavily and actively participate as a supporter, you’re a prime candidate for the Metaverse.
If you are a recurring paid subscriber to Patreons of Youtube Channels and Creators, paying for whichever respective tier, you’re a candidate for the Metaverse.
If you have subscribed to MMORPGs at $14.95 per month for a life impactful amount of times, you’re a candidate for the Metaverse.
If you are a maker that love to make beautiful worlds in Minecraft, and join others in building things such as Game of Thrones in Minecraft, or have done something similar in other video game settings including modding and making custom maps, you’re a prime candidate for the Metaverse.
If you have ever participated in Internet Relay Chat (IRC), aka text-based messaging systems, and even lounged in chat rooms or lobbies, it’s safe to say you’re a prime candidate too.
For me, I can’t get in on the streaming aspects, and I can’t get in on buying apps on a smartphone store. But for everything else, I can or have already done for years.
Note: IRC - you all do it, it’s now evolved to Discord, Slack, and Microsoft Teams, and it came from X-Fire and AIM, and those came from literal text screens.
TL;DR: We have the tech, the people, so I guess this was inevitable.
Within the next 10 years, we will have streamlined all the core technologies needed to power a very useable Metaverse experience. It’s unfortunately clunky today, but Meta’s VR headest products are one of the cheapest, but immersive enough ways to get into the VR space (Also that’s my referral code and we both can get $30 if you buy a $250-$300 headset).
So in a way, instead of saying you are “surfing the internet” (no one says that anymore), you’ll be “Diving into the Metaverse” or “Surfing the Metaverse”. I gagged a little saying that - sorry that’s the gamer in me.
Using Matthew Ball’s take from 2018 (He’s a Silicon Valley VC dude), there are 8 major focus areas that need to be tracked in regards to the Metaverse
Hardware - or the devices used to access, interact, or create things in the Metaverse. Virtual Reality Kits are part of this, and so are Augmented Reality. Sensors and cameras used to model and scan physical environments into virtual environments, as well as other Internet-of-things devices that helps us measure and visualize data.
Compute Power - It’s going to take a lot of calculation to keep up with all the activity going on in virtual reality, let alone, multiple virtual realities. A whole lot.
Network Capability - Great internet is a minimum requirement.
Ask gamers what life is like with poor latency.
Virtual Platforms - Digital Environments that allow people to do all the things, and also allow people to create things like a sandbox and share it with others.
What’s important is that there will be software and tools that allow people like you and me to build digital worlds, similar to how someone in Minecraft can go build cool things. But what’s also important is there are native, or natural, lobbies for people to congregate and do a myriad of VR-based activities together.
Interchange Tools & Standards - More of a techy thing, but essentially common approaches to common technical challenges should be followed by the industry. An example would be everyone agreeing to use the same file format, and thus, consumers would need to keep less tools on their device to interact with a file. Another example is think about how bad it was when phones and Laptops didn’t share the same charging cable. Now we’re at the point where USB C can do it all.
It’s like agreeing on whether we are using metric or imperial to build things, but at a software technology level.
Payment Services - Probably the most important thing, or else there is no business for businesses here. The ability to create payment processes within a digital environment and allowing content creators to charge, and consumers to easily purchase, within a digital context.
There used to be a day when buying online was sketch. Now it’s the norm. Buying from my phone was sketch. Now that’s the norm too.
Content, Services, and Assets - Digital Assets including who owns it. Digital Home, furniture, clothing on the avatar (a digital representaiton), and so forth.
Users - It’s a sad Metaverse if there aren’t users, but there is optimism that we’re close to a critical mass of users. But first there needs to be more VR kits for everyone.
We’re at 7.5 million as of 2021, we’re a very very long way to go.
TL;DR: Reluctant, Jaded, and Excited, all in one.
I’m mostly offended, but I have to take a step back and realize that the Metaverse is not being marketed to hardcore gamers, or people who grew up with a lot of video games.
It’s being targeted toward businesses that want to expand, or build, their digital identities in a more interactive way, and its being targeted toward consumers who don’t really know about the video gaming world like I do and is offering an alternative way to engage with content and brands in the internet in a way that’s more immersive than a phone screen. Perhaps a Verizon deal where you get an Meta Quest, similar to how Apple ushered an era of Paid Carrier Plans, would accelerate adoption.
While using VR can be exhausting, and I mean very very exhausting, I will admit that interacting with things in VR is quite convincing, even if it’s low-graphical quality. Don’t worry, your heart will stop “jumping off” a low-graphic building all the same.
PARTING WORDS
Here’s the only video game based media to see that basically does all of the above, without the VR Part. It’s from one of my favorite games on the Playstation and it is called Dreams. It’s just basically user-based experiences built in a game called Dreams, and you can surf different “Dreams” to experience different activities.
Except the engine is so powerful, but easy enough to use, that you can fundamentally change how a user interacts with the content in every way possible, including making it a cinematic movie.
DREAMSCOM