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Ever since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg changed his company name to “Meta”, the word Metaverse has been in everyone’s mouth. But what is a metaverse exactly? Quite simply, a metaverse can be described as an alternative virtual reality that can take the shape of a room, a street, a forest, a world or an entire universe, in which we can roam freely and interact with other individuals through our avatars – which can or cannot resemble ourselves. Whether it's for work, business or simply entertainment, the ultimate goal of the metaverse is to connect people by breaking down the barriers and the limits of the real world. Through the support of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) devices, the metaverse aspires to become a sort of propagation of reality: a virtual world closely connected to the real one that enriches and improves it by creating new opportunities. Matthew Ball, author of “Metaverse Primer”, probably gave the most exhaustive description of the characteristics that an ideal metaverse should possess. According to his view, a Metaverse should:
- Be durable: no interruptions, no resets, no end.
- Be of integration to reality: the metaverse is meant to improve real-life functionality in a virtual space.
- Do not place limits on the number of users: each individual must be able to take part in the Metaverse and participate in the activities at the same time.
- Having a fully functioning economy: people and companies must have the ability to buy, create, own and sell anything that is recognized as valuable.
- Offer complete interoperability: every element of any metaverse (data, assets, original content) should be shareable and usable on other metaverses.
- Be rich in contents and experiences created and lived by users: anyone must be able to contribute to the life, expansion and development of the Metaverse.
This, in a nutshell, is the vision we are striving for today. A vision that until some time ago seemed unattainable, but which, thanks to recent investments in the sector, is finally taking shape (in fact, it is estimated that in a few years the Metaverse market will reach a value of over 1,000 billion dollars!).
Dreaming of the metaverse: from the origins of the term to the first prototypes
Although it may seem fairly recent, the concept of “metaverse” has actually been around for a while – the term first appeared in "Snow Crash", a 1992 sci-fi novel by Neal Stephenson –, and over time it has been taken up and adapted into various science fiction works (eg. "Ready, Player, One" or "Sword Art Online") and videogames. Since the second half of the 90s, several videogame developers have been trying to create virtual world platforms resembling metaverses that would allow users to "live", interact and create exchangeable contents within the game. This is how "the ancestors" of the metaverses, or the "first generation of proto-metaverses", such as Active Worlds, Habbo and Second Life, were born. Video games like Minecraft, Roblox or Fortnite represent instead the second generation of proto-metaverses, or 2.0 proto-metaverses.
What makes these videogames proto-metaverses in all respects – thus distinguishing them from other online gaming titles such as the popular World of Warcraft (WOW) – is the freedom that is given to players within the game. While in a classic videogame the types of actions, interactions and customizations that users can perform are subject to pre-determined constraints, in metaverses these kinds of limitations are removed. In WOW, for instance, players can own a plot of land, but they have little to no influence on what it looks like or where it is placed; besides, players can only visit each other when invited. In videogames like Minecraft, by contrast, users can create entire worlds from scratch, and they can even buy and sell original in-game content, with the possibility to resell it for real money (eg. Roblox). Fortnite, in a way, has gone even further: not only does it allow its users to design entire game levels and to participate in exclusive in-game events such as concerts or movie previews, but it has also managed to combine the worlds of Marvel and DC within the same platform, thus laying the foundations for interoperability between opposite universes. In addition, Fortnite collaborates with various fashion brands, such as Balenciaga and Moncler, for the creation of exclusive skins that players can buy within the game, and it offers a complete cross-play gaming experience with exceptional graphics.
Given all this, Fortnite does seem to have the potential to become a true metaverse (as we ideally intend it), were it not for the fact that it does not yet offer its users the possibility to develop, in a simple and intuitive way, additional contents with Unreal Engine that can also be traded within and outside the game. Besides, similarly to all the other 2.0 proto-metaverses (like Minecraft or Roblox), it has the great limitation of being a private platform. Being owned by a private entity, it can in fact be “terminated” at any time, and everything that has been developed within the game – from the character, to the equipment, to the assets – ultimately belongs to the entity that owns it. It is precisely at this point that the blockchain technology intervenes and unleashes its full potential.
Blockchain, VR and 3.0 proto-metaverses
One of the most interesting areas of application of the blockchain technology is definitely that of gaming. This technology has in fact made it possible to create the first decentralized gaming universes. Thanks to decentralization, videogames like Decentraland, The Sandbox, Evolution Land or Lite Bringer make in fact possible, for the players, to be the only rightful owners of everything they have created or bought inside of the game. The fact that the metaverse is decentralized and not owed by a single entity also means that it cannot be taken down, sold, or destroyed overnight. In fact, decentralization involves contracts distributed to a network of users and a majority vote. Thus, unless the majority of the network votes to take the metaverse down, it should remain accessible to everyone (at least in theory). The most interesting thing is that, in addition to making metaverses truly "lasting", cryptocurrencies, NFTs and the blockchain technology make it possible to create true connections between the virtual world and the real one. What is purchased or owned in-game (lands, currency, works of art, skins), has a concrete and essential value even in real life.
The metaverses that incorporate some kind of blockchain-based element can be defined as 3.0 proto-metaverses. If experienced through the support of virtual or augmented reality, these virtual universes are even closer to the idealized concept of metaverse we are trying to reach. NFTs (non-replicable cryptographic assets that can be associated with real or virtual assets to certify their authenticity and ownership) could also represent the solution to achieve a total interoperability between the various metaverses. Currently, the fragmentation and the absence of a natural interoperability between the various blockchains represent a limit to this dream, however, there are already several projects – Evolution Land in the first place – which are trying to find a solution to this problem. Just think about how cool it would be to have the possibility to switch from one metaverse to another using the same account, to which our personal NFT and different avatars are associated!
The potentialities of NFTs in relation to the world of metaverses are so infinite that more and more companies – belonging both to the gaming world and not – are investing in this field. According to a report released by the Blockchain Gaming Alliance (BGA), the blockchain gaming sector is growing steadily and dominates the NFT market, with a share of around 22% (Q3 2021). The report highlights that NFT games amassed around $ 2.32 billion in revenue between July and September, and that, at the end of November 2021, the sales of virtual lands within metaverses reached $ 42.6 million. A recent study by Grayscale underlines instead how the sector of metaverses supported by an “interconnected cryptoeconomy” is destined to grow dramatically in the next few years, reaching a market value of over 1,000 billion dollars!
Gaming & Metaverses: a look into the near future
Beyond the current limitations, we have never been closer to the realization of the "ideal Metaverse", and the concrete commitment shown by Meta (formerly Facebook) in the recent months has undoubtedly contributed to giving a decisive boost in this direction. Besides, even Zuckerberg argues that the Metaverse must remain decentralized, and that it is required a collective effort to achieve the vision of a single and truly all-encompassing Metaverse. In the meantime, with the launch of Horizon Worlds, the CEO of Meta has tried to give shape to his personal idea of metaverse: a set of shared virtual spaces in which people from all over the world can interact, socialize, play, study and work together, with the goal of "making the time spent online more meaningful". It will certainly take some time before the metaverse will really be able to permeate our reality, but we are certainly on the right track for that. The great steps forward that have been made in the fields of VR and AR have already made the experience in virtual worlds more immersive and accessible, and there is no doubt that in the coming years these technologies will undergo an even greater evolution.
As for the world of gaming, the future of videogames is already in the metaverse. Thanks to VR, AR and the progressive integration of NFTs, the gaming experience will become more and more engaging. In the wake of pioneers such as The Sandbox, Axies Infinity, Lite Bringer and Playermon, we will be seeing the emergence of more and more video games that, thanks to NFT, blockchain and play-to-earn gaming modes, will allow players to derive concrete benefits from their participation, their creative contributions and their successes in the game. Some blockchain-based video games like Apex Legends and UFO Gaming have even made their way into e-sports! Thanks to metaverses, videogames will represent an extremely profitable opportunity also for fashion brands (which already collaborate with some important gaming platforms) and for companies in general, as they will be able to exploit new sales and communication channels while concurrently increasing their visibility and brand awareness.
In short, by now it is clear that the metaverse is no longer a vague concept taken out of a science fiction movie. The metaverse is already the reality, and in the next few years, we will be seeing it evolve in ways that right now we probably find hard to imagine. Geeks Academy, which has always been committed to anticipating trends and making real what is virtual, was among the first companies in Europe to understand the infinite potential offered by the metaverse. This is why it has created a set of special courses aimed at training the architects of tomorrow’s metaverses, making them experience the metaverse firsthand!
Discover Geeks Academy’s training offer in the Area of Gaming & Virtual Reality: