I don’t understand how it’s being presented as something new and interesting and nobody seems to notice/comment on this?
In: 2921
The term ‘metaverse’ was originally coined in the science fiction novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, published in 1992. In the novel, it’s essentially a virtual reality version of ‘Second Life’ – people (or corporations) can purchase virtual real estate in a virtual world, where people can shop in virtual stores, hang out in virtual bars, and so forth.
You see similar concepts in several other novels, notably the ‘Otherland’ series by Tad Williams and ‘Ready Player One’ by Ernest Cline. In Otherland, the metaverse is a very expansive series of virtual worlds, ranging from the ‘shop and hang out’ one we see in Snow Crash to mock-ups of Alice in Wonderland or Ancient Egypt, or just normal video games.
In Ready Player One, the metaverse is essentially an interconnection of virtual platforms that allow for more-or-less free travel between them. As an analogy, it would be like if you could play VR World of Warcraft, then go through a portal and be playing VR EVE Online, then travel via spaceship to VR Star Trek Online, all using the same log-in and character in a basically seamless experience.
I assume it’s this last one that people are mostly referring to when they talk about an upcoming ‘metaverse’ for VR. A way by which virtual spaces can be interconnected into a wider network. A seamless experience, instead of closing one game or app and then starting another.
Latest Answers