One thing that we cannot escape in the tech world recently is the rebranding of the social media behemoth Facebook. With a new name, “Meta,” the conglomerate aims to explore and engage the next chapter in human-machine interaction: virtual reality.
The metaverse concept was first introduced in “Snow Crash,” a sci-fi novel by Neal Town Stephenson, who defines Metaverse as a virtual, alternative reality where people spend most of their time awake. In 2018, the Spielberg movie “Ready Player One” gave us a glimpse of his interpretation of the Metaverse, of the “OASIS”.
In March 2021, Roblox Corporation went public on NYSE with $41 billion in evaluation, and it was recognized as the world’s first Metaverse stock. According to Roblox, a virtual universe must possess eight elements.
First, is identity. A user should be able to create an alternative identity in the Metaverse, and such an identity can be completely unrelated to who he/she is in the real world.
Second, a user should be able to make friends in a metaverse.
Third, the Metaverse must be immersive enough and authentic enough.
Fourth, a metaverse must have dismissible latency, so everything happening must be spontaneous and without lag.
Number five, a metaverse should be diversified. A user needs to have access to every kind of tool, toy, even magic spell.
Number six, a user should be able to log in to the Metaverse anywhere and anytime.
Number seven, like all other complex games, a metaverse must have its economic structure such as currency or credit.
Number eight, a metaverse is a virtual civilization where people live, play, and even sleep.
