Hi! Well, let me explain my opinion about metaverse first. I’d like to share things already known and how it really works in minds of people who implemented metaverse a long time ago.

“A metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection” (2022, Wikipedia)

Alright, so the first idea of the metaverse is a network of people in virtual worlds. In other words — communication in the 3D world. We are all were in the metaverse playing different games providing the social connection. For example Second Life, Minecraft, Roblox, even Dota 2, Counter-Strike, GTA Online, Fortnite, etc. But really the idea is covered in Second Life, as it is what we are calling social network today (like Facebook), but in 3d world, like we used to speak in real life.

But as we’re diving into the virtual reality world, PC gaming turns into another perspective, into the reality of VR gaming. VR gaming should be different from PC gaming, at least another interaction system. Familiar interactions in PC games are looking like chatting with a keyboard, walking around with WASD buttons, purchasing with the mouse, listening with headphones, and talking to a microphone. In VR it should look different, a good example of such interaction similar to Second Life or VR Chat.

VR Chat is a good game where you can choose any location to appear, any skin and cloth to look like. It is still about social communication, doing things together, talking, but nothing (at least much) more, just chatting in VR (so how it is called).

Meta company has shown their futuristic vision on metaverse which is great and inspiring. They’re showing players’ ability to teleport to each other’s locations, playing in real-life games like tennis, traveling together across virtual worlds, etc.

With this deep imagination, we should agree that covering all things is a long-term process and it should take time to implement all complex features shown in this vision. A similar vision was shown previously by Microsoft and other tech companies.

One phrase was said by Mark in their promo. People can use NFT and digital currency to pay for goods and make a business in the metaverse. That’s it. One phrase. Why so much hype around it then? This is how the information field works.

NFT or non-refundable tokens exist for a long time, it’s based on Ethereum smart contracts and appeared in 2017 (NFT’s story begins many years before, but it hasn’t been so much hyped as now).

Cryptocurrency is a decentralized currency that prevents finding a real person behind it (it’s mainly the idea of it) and another idea is storing all transactions in a blockchain where you can see how digital information moves from one account to another.

Now, how would work NFT & crypto be in the metaverse, and how it should work in an idea of metaverse? Actually, as our real money, dollar, euro, yen, ruble, etc. But imagine one world sharing one currency, isn’t it cool? Joining a virtual reality mall with a lot of high-quality brand cloth made by Nike, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Massimo Dutti, etc., purchasing it, and it will appear in one global blockchain connected to your own account and you’ll share it between different games, different worlds! That’s amazing!

Something similar was prepared already by Spatial, a year ago they’ve positioned themselves as a communication network for businesses, but after the Meta presentation started positioning themselves as metaverse for everybody. Yeah, it could be that their idea behind communication and using NFT’s in one world is a good idea. Keep up the great work, it looks like a great example of VR Chat but more serious!

But what’s about so much-hyped “The Sandbox”, “Decentraland” and similar games? Actually, the same rebranding and usage of combination NFT’s hype itself, people’s needs for “free money” and Meta presentation. Actually, the first version of The Sandbox was published by Pixowl in 2012. But then was acquired by Animoca Brands in 2018 and started as a blockchain-based 3d game. (2022, Wikipedia)

But why it’s so much hyped now?

Because of Meta presentation and informational field. It’s easy to rebrand your game to the metaverse and wait for new people to come, but remember, they’ve positioned themselves as a blockchain-based game. So what’s the truth? The truth is money.

A lot of money people put into NFT’s of these games, actually, the gameplay is not necessary, an online percentage isn’t so high to bet AAA games or even be called a social network and no more idea is put under it.

It is mostly games about speculating on so-called “NFT lands” buying low selling high, and covering illegal funds. Do you know how to hide illegal money in the game? Put it into crypto, sell NFT and purchase NFT on another account, make it as receiving money from selling your own NFT, not from selling real drugs or darknet, it’s just simple.

I see the next era of our global existence is diving into VR and metaverse. Children throughout the world are already acknowledged of VR helmets, I see many of them playing so cool VR games like VR Chat, Rec Room, Population One when I’m joining online. This is showing how fast this industry is growing. The next step is to show that not only games in metaverses, as consoles for us are just only for fun and nothing more. Let’s show how we can make metaverses useful for business, everyday life, and solving global problems: from traveling to dangerous places with robots translating views to VR helmets showing everything around to teaching children in pandemic conditions in virtual spaces.

So as a fact, nothing similar between metaverse and today’s games. Perhaps a small number of projects are showing something similar, but not all. Be aware of projects that are called metaverse games, but showing only NFT’s and crypto speculations, metaverse gaming on PC is old-schooled, look at new startups for games in VR, cool projects expanding your reality and mind.

I hope soon we will see a great project with purchasing cool things between different game projects and worlds, using only one currency without the ability to speculate with it, closed economy, and well-designed gameplay with sweet graphics in VR/AR/XR.

Sooner I’ll share some ideas on how to build a real metaverse-like game VR Tamagotchi in Unity 3D, so stay tuned!

Feel free to write your questions and subscribe to my social media:Instagram: stan.kryvenkoLinkedIn: sgkryvenko

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