Everyone is talking about the Metaverse. So we’re doing it too. But we’re not just talking about it, we’re also trying it out concretely. I spare no expense or effort to clarify the most important question about the Metaverse with you: Do we have to go there?
Do I Have to Go there?
Let’s put it this way: I myself am curious, but also skeptical!
Curious because I like to try new technologies and I like to consider how they can enrich my and your everyday life. I do attribute a certain potential to the Metaverse – or let’s say it brand-neutrally – to VR applications.
Skeptical because I was already there with the predecessors of the Metaverse and I’m not there anymore today. Neither ‘Second Life’ nor other avatar applications have convinced me so far and I’ve never gotten beyond trying them out.
I’m also not a gamer; if I were, virtual worlds and communities would already be familiar to me today. I wouldn’t need Mark Zuckerberg to sell me the Metaverse as new and unique.
Speaking of Selling
Currently, the Metaverse seems to me primarily a marketing topic. The aforementioned Mark Zuckerberg brought it up in autumn ’21 with a longer keynote that was unbeatable in buzzwords and (literally) bloodless phrases. For him, the Metaverse is the next big thing. No wonder, because it’s the logical continuation of the Facebook success story. A separate world where you can virtually befriend and meet, and which gradually takes over real everyday life: with events, media, shopping, and all sorts of other virtual interactions. And of course with lots of advertising, because that’s what companies like Meta / Facebook live on. The Metaverse à la Zuckerberg promises even more of all this and takes another big step away from the real world.
But Meta isn’t the only company that wants to conquer this new land. Microsoft, for example, was somewhat surprised by Meta’s move. The company from Redmond hurried to describe their vision of the Metaverse, called Mesh, in the days after Zuckerberg’s speech. With just as many buzzwords, but with a focus on the working world. Microsoft Teams will one day be the portal to Microsoft’s VR universe: In the future, we will work together with avatars. This, after we have not quite survived the step into video calls with real people in recent months unscathed. Well, thanks to the Hololens, all this will be technically no problem – at least according to Microsoft.
Apple has also been apparently working on VR and Augmented Reality for months. Of course, nothing specific is known, but after Tim Cook has repeatedly emphasized the importance of VR in almost every context, there must be quite a lot cooking. Mac devices, especially iPhones and iPads, are already equipped with important basic technologies today. Sensors, Lidar scanners, but also comprehensive software components are already a reality. In addition, you can already create virtual avatars for yourself with Apple’s Memojis. The only thing missing is actually the hardware with which you enter the virtual universe – whether that will be glasses like with Facebook and Microsoft, we don’t know yet today.
And then there’s Google. Things are a bit quieter there at the moment. There’s a new version of Google Glasses, which are probably already in use in industry. But it’s not really clear if and how Google will jump on the Metaverse bandwagon.
Besides the big tech companies, there are of course countless other small and large outfits that are getting started with VR environments. If you then pair the whole story with the crypto bubble and throw some hyped NFTs into the (virtual) space, you definitely have a great story that can be spread in the media.
Virtual Journey of Discovery
Now I want to form my own opinion. I’ve acquired an Oculus Quest 2 and I’m embarking on a journey of discovery. What can this Metaverse already do today? What’s just gimmickry? What are genuine applications? How does one move in the Metaverse, how does one work there? How does one publish in the Metaverse?
I’d like to take you along on this journey. In the coming weeks, I’ll be putting on the VR headset from time to time and reporting to you here in the publishing blog about this wondrous world.
So that you can decide for yourself whether YOU need to go there!
