The word ‘Metaverse’ has become the talk of the town and has been making headlines with big giants stepping into it every now and then. But, when you ask a layman about his understanding of Metaverse, it is all over the place and majority of the people still ask. ‘What is this whole fuss about?
It's a simple question. However, explaining the metaverse is as tricky as describing the Internet to our grandparents. If you do a quick Google search for ‘What is the metaverse?’, it will take you on a journey that twists and turns, but doesn't get very far. It's confusing.
We all have a different take on the metaverse and the lack of a de facto definition is a product of the times. Till date, the experts have been trying to define something that hasn't achieved its full potential yet – the paint is still wet so we can't see its true colours.
Understanding the Inception of the Metaverse
To help you understand how the Metaverse came into being, let’s have a small walk into the memory lane:
It all goes back to the Sci-Fi as the metaverse was mentioned in the science fiction novel, Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson in 1992. Then several multiplayer games consisting of avatars made their way followed by the rise of communities, services and gaming environments. A remarkable change was brought when Second Life offered a virtual world for users to hang out together and buy/sell virtual items to each other without any goals or objectives, hence establishing a “proto-Metaverse”. Entered Roblox in 2004 that transformed the gaming industry for good. All these events together mark the earliest footprints of metaverse.
The timeline of 2006 to 2015 was majorly reigned by multiplayer online games. While Roblox went on to become a gaming giant, boasting millions of users, RunEscape on the other hand, reached the milestone of 1 million member accounts. Several acquisitions and mergers also took place – Amazon acquired Twitch, Microsoft acquired Minecraft and many more. All of these developments, introduction of the technology companies to multiplayer games completed the second phase of metaverse evolution.
A new facet was introduced to the world of gaming with games like PokemonGo and Fortnite coming into being. Several other industries like music also ventured into gaming and the concert by DJ Marshmello in the wildly popular online game Fortnite, was a testimony to it. In 2020, Decentraland became the talk of the town when it hosted Metaverse Fashion Week with fashion brands like Dolce & Gabbana. Other major events like Facebook changing its name to Meta, Microsoft Corp announcing plans to acquire Activision Blizzard Inc etc. led to the emergence of today’s metaverse.
Metaverse is Constantly Evolving
Well, all these developments aren’t the end of the story as the metaverse is evolving or in other words, ‘a work in progress’ – that will have a lot more concepts, updates and technological advancements unfolding in the near future.
Building the Metaverse is an interactive process. We are a few steps in but far away from the currently perceived end state.
Pew Research Centre and Elon University conducted a survey together to gather expert views about important digital issues. This canvassing of experts was a result of emerging debates in the early 2020s over the potential evolution and impact of extended reality tools like AR, MR and VR, as well as “the metaverse” or “metaverses.” Their report claims the following:
54% of experts believe that by 2040 the metaverse WILL be a much-more-refined and truly fully-immersive, well-functioning aspect of daily life for a half billion or more people globally.
46% experts believe by 2040 the metaverse WILL NOT be a much-more-refined and truly fully-immersive, well-functioning aspect of daily life for a half billion or more people globally.
The Metaverse of Today
Let’s take a look at the Metaverse of today. It is an evolving collection of technologies that immerse users in a social network of commerce-enabled 3D worlds.
Since the Metaverse isn’t completely ‘ready,’ you might feel that it is a fad. But, it is true that words & definitions might change, but the roots are built.
There are no two ways about the fact that the metaverse paradigm shift is now. If the “meta” moment is now, it is quite easy to believe that companies are building on these immersive experiences, rapidly getting closer to the future vision of the Metaverse, drawing in billions of dollars and millions of users today to create a larger market than movies and sports combined.
Brands are slowly enabling themselves to join these worlds, sell goods and services virtually, reach different customers, build better revenue models, optimize work, and collaborate in new ways.
The Bottomline
Metaverse has become an unavoidable part of our lives - whether you like it or not. And it is here to stay and bring a considerable metamorphosis in the coming years. As far as the exact answer to ‘What is the Metaverse’ is concerned, we’d suggest that you hold your horses and let time and technology unleash its own self at its very own pace.
Lastly, we at Rising Capital, have been making the best out of the metaverse of today and also supporting like minded metaverse connoisseurs that help trigger the onset of a decentralised and immersive experience for one and all.