Will the Metaverse be in Your Future?

By Bushra Hage

Metaverse is a buzzword we hear so often these days. Does the verse suffix imply harmony and rhyme, or is it some metahuman universe? Let’s look at the facts to truly understand the metaverse.

Zoom, Adobe Connect, Microsoft teams, and other software allow users to meet together virtually with cameras and mics. But in the metaverse, instead of little card-like boxes having a camera shot of each person’s face, people will be in a 3D environment together where they can interact. Experiences will be more immersive and realistic.

Metaverse in the News

Most big company in the technology arena are embracing the metaverse. Microsoft acquired the game developer Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, saying the deal would provide “building blocks for the metaverse.” Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, renamed his social networking company Meta. He even calls his employees meta mates. Google has worked on metaverse-related technology for years; and Apple has its own meta related devices in the works.

What Does the Metaverse Really Mean Anyway?

The metaverse is the convergence of two ideas: virtual reality and a digital second life.

The term first appeared in the 1992 novel Snow Crash by author Neil Stevenson. The concept was relatively the same as it is in our perception today.

The technologies that make up the metaverse can include virtual reality. The virtual worlds inhabited continue to exist even when you’re not playing. To a certain extent, augmented reality can combine aspects of the digital and physical worlds combined.

Many have dreamed of an era when our virtual lives play as important a role as our physical realities. We would spend so much time interacting with our friends and colleagues in virtual space. This may reach to the extent that we would spend money there, too, on outfits and objects for our digital avatars.

The way it works is pretty straight forward. You wear a headset that immerses you in a 3-D environment. You carry motion-sensing controllers to interact with virtual objects and use a microphone to communicate with others. You’ll be the same you whenever you enter, or step out of, the worlds of the metaverse.

Does the Metaverse Already Exist in Gaming?

To some extent, there is already a smaller version metaverse in games. Some social elements of the metaverse can already be found in video games. Consider Fortnite for example. Fortnite is an online shooter game played on computers, game consoles and mobile devices. The average Fortnite player spends hundreds of hours in the game with a personal avatar, fighting with and interacting with the avatars of other players. Players also accrue virtual currency that unlocks outfits and other goodies to customize their avatars.

But those were only steppingstones toward the complete metaverse, which is still taking shape until today. Technologists say that thanks to factors like fast internet connections, powerful virtual reality headsets and a large audience of gamers — it is now making it more and more possible to live in a richly animated, lifelike 3-D simulated world.

Challenges of the Metaverse

Here are some of the challenges that the metaverse and its users are expected to face:

• The need to wear a 3D headset for prolonged hours
• No physical Movement
• Battery Life Limitations
• Privacy issues
• High Cost of equipment

Show Me the Money!

Fiscally speaking, the metaverse translates to a digital economy, where users can create, buy, and sell goods. It might allow you to take virtual items like clothes or cars from one platform to another. In the real world, you can buy a jacket from the mall and then wear it to a movie theater, or to work. Right now, most platforms have virtual identities, avatars, and inventories that are tied to just one platform, but a metaverse might allow you to create a persona that you can take anywhere throughout those worlds.

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