“What is the metaverse,” is one of the more difficult questions of our time to answer. The definition of the metaverse has been shaped by video games, virtual reality, modern technology, and so much more, and seemingly means different things to different people. But, according to an article from PC Gamer, the metaverse “is a big fat steaming load of billionaire pablum.” Yikes. The author cites vagaries and people spending millions of dollars on jpegs as part of the reason why the metaverse exists really just in people’s minds, but is that true? And how can we really delve deep enough to figure out what the metaverse is and if it does exist?
“We’ve had a perfectly functional version of Gibson’s cyberspace since the popularization of the World Wide Web in the mid-’90s (or earlier if you were into BBSes),” writes Wes Fenlon, Writer at PC Gamer and author of this piece. “We created the metaverse when millions (now billions!) of devices became connected simultaneously, able to access information from anywhere, linking people across continents in mere seconds…The internet as we know it is so much bigger than Stephen’s metaverse because it’s not just one shared environment. It’s vastly more flexible, a connecting medium for whatever broad or niche virtual worlds we want to create.”
The internet is certainly the foundation for the metaverse, but is it the metaverse? It’s hard to say. The author moves on to the point of whether the metaverse is actually “better” than real-life as it’s advertised to be. “In an hour-and-a-half keynote, the only real ideas Facebook presented for living in the metaverse were having a virtual version of your house (made up of crappy 3D rendered objects), attending virtual meetings (so you can’t even turn off your camera if you’re feeling Zoom fatigue) and having a virtual workspace instead of a physical one (never mind how clunky and awkward a virtual desktop is compared to a real one). So much development on the metaverse is focusing on recreating worse versions of things we already have in the real world. This metaverse pitch, seemingly, is just another avenue for selling people the same crap.”
That’s a harsh assessment, and hard to argue because the metaverse is constantly trying to sell you stuff. But, still, does that make the whole concept BS? The metaverse is still developing and changing, and the jury’s still out on how it will look in ten years and how investors and companies will capitalize on it. But is it BS? I don’t know if anyone can really, effectively make that claim.
The Profit‘s Take:
Are we surprised that a journalist lacks vision to see beyond the hype? PC Gamer is wrong on this one, and time won’t be kind to this article.
(All information was provided by PC Gamer)
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