What is the Metaverse and why everyone is talking about it?

Lara Raven

Lara Raven

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Where Did Metaverse Come From?

In the next decade, technology will speed up at an exponential rate. With technology, our physical and digital lives will converge even further. Companies, brands, and industries seek to be a part of the future.

This term can’t define as a company or a single person. Describing the future in today’s language is ever-changing. Many professionals share their perspectives on the metaverse to delve deeper.

Metaverse defines as a collective virtual shared space. It created the convergence of enhanced physical reality and persistent virtual space. Marketing professionals need to pay attention to the metaverse. Communications, marketing, and brand professionals will face new challenges but also new opportunities. The new iteration of the internet will have massive implications for society.

What is Metaverse?

Metaverse is very vague. It’s a collective virtual shared space including the sum of all virtual worlds. It may contain derivatives of the real world but is distinct from augmented reality.

The critical point about metaverse is to be an open economy and not controlled by a single company. Many companies create products and services that aren’t compatible with any of their competitors’ products. 

Where did Metaverse come from?

The metaverse is not new at all. The “Metaverse” term comes from Neal Stephenson’s 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash. Where it uses to describe a VR successor to the internet. It’s a similar concept to William Gibson’s cyberspace (Burning Chrome, 1982). Since cyberspace has entered general usage to talk about the internet.

Who Benefits from the Metaverse?

Reading about big tech companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, you might end up feeling advances in technology are inevitable. These technologies will shape up our society, politics, and culture.

These advances in technology shape our social relations, power relations, and culture. It leaves out the fact that in a democratic society we have a say in how all this plays out.

Microsoft and other large organizations embrace the “next big thing” before their competitors. The metaverse is exciting as it presents an opportunity for new markets, social networks, consumer electronics, and patents.

What a time to be alive. The tech world is rising larger than ever, and the environment around us is changing with it, and at lightning speed. New inventions break the market by the minute but society may not yet be prepared to take on yet another challenge – the metaverse. 

The metaverse has first been presented to the world as an immense and outworldly concept that will change the course of the internet as we know it. Sooner or later, the whole new metaverse realm will break the barriers of what we so far knew as the plain internet, whilst aiding humanity at the same time. 

The metaverse has been envisioned as a digital space where people can interact with each other through virtual reality tools. This virtual world will enforce the overall experience of using the internet and close down the physical distance between societies and communities worldwide by rounding the world into one virtual setting.

Read more about why everyone is ultra hyped for the rise of the metaverse – and how its existence will change ours.

Where Was the Metaverse Idea Born?

Some say that the metaverse is going to be the next real-life Oasis. Many people believe that the main idea initially came from ‘Ready Player One’ as it hit the theaters in 2018. It is a Sci-Fi setting, where characters enter the virtual reality space – called Oasis – and interact with the world as avatars of their choice.

As time moves on, Sci-Fi is not as fictional as it once seemed to be. Every advancement in technology has led us to the point where we can now basically put on our virtual goggles and watch holograms come to life before our eyes. But, the metaverse’s real origin had come way earlier than the movie idea, as many already dedicated themselves to creating a parallel world that offers a higher quality of life than our current society. 

Why are Companies Becoming Infested with the Metaverse Craze?


Thousands of companies play in favor of the metaverse idea as a way to keep a step ahead of their competition. It’s important for them to follow the trends and keep up with the neverending race of satisfying their customers. 

Since the pandemic started, the world had a hard time keeping up appearances as well as friendships. Of course, social media could only do part of the job in bringing people close, but failed to maintain that real bond. As a result, many’s mental health suffered during these trying times and companies noticed the need to step up to the plate and take matters into their own hands.

One among the biggest names in this business, Zuckerberg, alongside his mogul company, Facebook, are one of the first to attempt to create and integrate the metaverse. Zuckerberg stated that the metaverse was his company’s natural evolution and the main mission is to allow people to experience a better time with their loved ones through VR.

Why Has No One Thought of This Before? 


In part, the gaming industry had their take on creating the metaverse to a degree. 

Among the first huge caliber brands, Minecraft from Mojang Studios invented the survival sandbox game and thus allowed its players to create and build their own worlds. It is still one of the most popular sandbox games to this date, but the idea behind it moved on to motivate other companies to take the same leap of courage. 

 

Time passed by, and along came yet another titan in the industry, Garry’s Mod from Valve. With it, players can express creativity and do whatever they want with the various mods available. The era for youngsters broke open when Roblox got created and it was a true boom on the market, offering different mods and styles that gamers can play even via browsers, and for free. 

 

On February 1st 2017, VRChat came the closest to implementing the metaverse idea. This platform was made in Unity and on it, players can join completely for free, whether with their VR headset or through the big screen. 

 

Challenges to Create the Metaverse


Behind something as grandiose as the metaverse is a bridge – or one too many – to cross, and a lot of innovative minds aiming to break their creative limits. The concept of the metaverse is created so it is steady and runs smoothly for everyone using it, regardless of their device. It is also crucial to know which engine should be used to create such a massive world, whilst also ensuring that the same engine can support the natural use of VR gear.

 

Another challenge the metaverse concept may face along the way concerns system updates and cost. Considering the majestic use, complexity and purpose of the metaverse, it is only natural to suppose that a service that grand will come at a cost. 

 

Even so, the metaverse is still a work in progress, and its functionality and implementation will ultimately depend on the way companies use it – to their and their users’ advantage.  

Create the Metaverse

 

Wrapping up:

The idea is to shift even more of our lives onto a universal platform, extend this problem to a deeper level. It offers a limitless possibility to overcome the constraints of the physical world. But by doing so, it only replaces them with constraints imposed by what the metaverse will allow.

Though its future users might know it as the internet. At no point will a flip switched to turn on the Metaverse. The Metaverse comes with cultural changes and technological upgrades. This gives internet users the ability to create and share bespoke content on the web.

Lara Raven
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