It wasn’t that long ago that Metaverse was being mentioned constantly. If an executive even tangentially linked to a video game company was asked about the future, there was mention of the Metaverse.
The Challenge of Defining the Metaverse
It’s the “next best thing”, and, like VR, companies are doing everything in their power to make sure it doesn’t take off. That’s if they can even really explain what it is and why anybody should care.
It has popped back up this week thanks to the mention of PlayStation Home, the game console social space fondly remembered by people blissfully unaware that it launched 15 years ago. Sorry to spoil your day. PlayStation chief Jim Ryan called it 10-15 years ahead of its time. Which would put us to now, and there’s still nothing really like it.
And as fondly remembered as it is, there’s a good reason for that. The concept just isn’t particularly appealing. It was cool, and people get very nostalgic about it, but what does it do that other, better options can’t beat out?
Look, we have chat rooms and video chat, and we have online games. We can play an endless selection of casinos. Some streaming platforms have group watch functionality. Can someone explain to me why creating an avatar adds anything to any of those activities? Does having it all in one place, held together via a clunky hub world, really help people connect?
Is the Metaverse Still Relevant in 2023?
Is the idea of having a second life from the comfort of your home really something anybody wants in 2023? I got it a few years ago, while we were in lockdown. But today?
And that’s presuming you want to connect digitally, which is fair enough. But watching a film in a digital realm will never feel as cool as sitting with friends and watching it in real life. Not always possible, I admit. But there is not a mass audience out there for people who want to watch movies with friends but can’t and will then choose a less cool digital alternative as a second option.
Now, I’m not saying the Metaverse can’t happen. Clearly, the success of PlayStation Home proves that, under the right circumstances, it absolutely can.
But those circumstances were ‘free to download on hugely popular consoles, containing mountains of cross-promotional content and with in-game prizes for those that play’.
The Metaverse’s Ambitious Goals
It didn’t involve the purchase of an expensive VR set. It didn’t require anything more than hitting download. And nobody suggested for even a second that it should replace your office space. However, if it had, I’d have been able to display my trophies, and my co-workers would undoubtedly be at best uninterested.
But that’s not what the Metaverse is all about. It’s about evolving social media. It’s about real life online. And despite evidence seemingly to the contrary, real life still happens in real life. And people like it that way. In the age of work from home, when all the best entertainment we used to enjoy is often now better from the comfort of our living room, sticking on a VR headset for socialising is neither practical nor healthy.
That is the challenge that all these companies talking about the Metaverse have to face. They’re trying to create a social space that is better than real life – that takes all of the entertainment and fun and digitises it, removing distance between people, friends and family. And in theory, that is fantastic. One of the few boons of social media is that it is easier than ever to stay connected with others.
But the bit they’re not announcing in keynote addresses is that they want you to do it on their platform and with their expensive headset. And that is the opposite of togetherness. It is the opposite of fun.
Maybe they do have things to learn from PlayStation Home after all.
Market Push for the Metaverse
Ultimately, the Metaverse doesn’t need to appeal to everybody. It just needs to appeal to enough people to make it successful. That’s a very different prospect, and it’s why I’m hesitant to dismiss it entirely. There are always enough people to make things successful if you can reach them.
And the push to market it is strong, even though sometimes it feels like all the big tech companies have fallen for some 4Chan prank. “Yeah, invest billions in this, it’ll totally pay off.”
As with VR, the key is saturation. The first to reach a tipping point of users will be the king of the Metaverse. And maybe it’ll happen sooner rather than later. Maybe in a few year’s time, you’ll be reading this on your digital computer in your own Metaverse home, and you’ll be laughing at how I failed to see the potential in something so ubiquitous.
I’m willing to believe it in theory. But someone somewhere is going to have to get their act together to make that happen. And what’s more likely? People holding onto their real life for a long time to come, or someone at Facebook getting their act together. Yeah, I thought so.
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