Hello, and welcome to our new series of blog posts on the Metaverse. Over the next couple of months, we’ll explore what you might expect from a business perspective, a user perspective, and a creator perspective. Please keep in mind there will be a lot of links for you to explore related to the articles we’ll be discussing, but by the time we’re finished, you should have a pretty good grasp of what to expect and how to leverage it for your business.
Today, we’ll dig into what the Metaverse is, how you’re able to interact with it now, and what it may be in the future. Please note this will require a bit of imagination. Grab your coffee or tea, get comfortable and ready to read, and let’s get going!
What is the Metaverse?
Imagine your world but with an alternate reality superimposed on top of it, and you’ll have an idea of what the Augmented Reality (AR) portion of the Metaverse is. If you’ve seen the movie Free Guy, you’ll understand that these superimpositions can range from people to visual effects.
For example:
You’d like to have a face-to-face chat with several of your friends, but the problem lies in that they all live in different states. You set a date and time, and you all put on your AR glasses, get a cup of coffee, and sit at your respective tables. You can see and speak to one another, as though you were all there, but you’re all thousands of miles apart, giving you that coffee meetup you wanted. When you’re done, you remove the glasses, and everyone disappears.
This is already in the earliest phases, and the glasses that just went on sale from Meta and Ray Ban allow the user to interact with their social accounts while on the go. Those other options are coming, and they’re not as far off as you may think.
A second part of the Metaverse deals with Virtual Reality (VR). This is where you’d put on a full headset and be fully immersed in a world beyond the one you’re in now. Anything is possible in this world, but you’re limited in your visual capabilities because of the headset. You’ll also have handles or gloves to help you navigate this world, and you’ll have created an avatar (a digital representation of yourself) that moves and interacts with others.
For example:
You want to take a tour of The Smithsonian, but you live somewhere far away. You put on your headset and gloves (or pick up your handles), and navigate to the app that gives you access to the museum. Once there, you purchase a ticket (probably with some kind of digital currency—more on that in a later post), and you get access to all they have to offer. Not only can you walk around, but you’ll be able to interact with the exhibits in a whole new way. Right now, you can’t touch certain things in reality, but in the future, in the Metaverse, you may be able to book a flying lesson from someone like Amelia Earhart and listen while she tells you her own history.
Anything your imagination can come up with, you’ll be able to either construct or participate in once you’re in the Metaverse. There are limitless possibilities, and how you interact with this new slice of your reality will be up to you.
As of now, you can already do some pretty awesome things in a VR world. There are games, tours of foreign countries, and even social chat ability. If you’re going to get your feet wet, now is the time to dip in that first toe.
Now that you know what the Metaverse is and how you might interact with it, you may be more eager for our future posts about this alternate reality. As I said above, we have a ton of great topics planned. I’m even going to go into the potential pitfalls, the darker side of the Metaverse, to what we may need to watch out for.
From education to gaming to new museums stuffed with NFTs, we’ll touch on things you probably never even considered. We hope to see you back soon as we dive into Metaverse influencers and how businesses might leverage those people to drive sales. Let your mind’s limitations go, and join us on this journey.
Contributor
