How will metaverse, digital technology change the future of our world?

The future of digital technology will be three-dimensional, with virtual reality and augmented reality serving as building blocks, reports Neha Alawadhi

Ever since Facebook and its companies embraced a new brand identity called “Meta” last month, there has been a slew of opinions on what a connected digital world means, what it is going to look like, and who will build it.

The concept seems similar to Second Life, a virtual world that allows people to create an online version of themselves and have a second life in the online space. Launched in 2003, Second Life is still around and claims to have about a million users. For a closer reference, it is like the ideal virtual universe set out at the end of the recent Ryan Reynolds starrer, Free Guy.

But, what sets the metaverse apart? While Facebook has rebranded itself around it, other technology giants like Microsoft, Google and Amazon have a virtual reality (VR) or gaming play, an essential component of the metaverse that is envisaged for the future.

“The entire community of devices is much stronger now (compared to the early 2000s). The smartphones that we have now can do a lot more things than they could earlier, including the sensors and memory. The second factor is better connectivity,” says Jaipal Singh, research manager, client devices, at research firm IDC India.

For fans or users of Second Life, the idea of the metaverse is not novel. However, creators and players of Second Life have expressed concerns about the proposed metaverse being a more controlled, advertisement-supported environment.

Second Life does not have games or points to play. It is a universe and community built by users.

“Activities that may seem odd or frowned upon by mainstream culture are often embraced in the infinite expanse of the internet and its metaverse,” explains Doug Antin in a Medium post on Super Jump, which celebrates video games and their creators. “Events, art, interactions, and unique forms of self-expression are common elements of the Metaverse and are unique within Second Life. This plays into the themes of the modern internet. It also creates a mode for commerce to exist between users and captured by the platform organisation.”

With cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens gaining wider acceptance, the time may be right for better commercial opportunities in the metaverse.

Second Life still has a dedicated fan/user base, and one of the reasons it never became mainstream, according to fan threads on Reddit, was the lack of a proper mobile app, even as smartphones added more functionality. The game requires it to be run on a personal computer or laptop, one of the reasons fans say it never became mainstream.

However, while Second Life is a two-dimensional experience because it is best experienced on a desktop or laptop, the future of digital technology will be three-dimensional, and make use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) as building blocks.

An iOS app was approved by Apple earlier this year, but will initially offer limited functionality. There are apps that offer a conduit to the Second Life to be played on your mobile device, but these are not built by the parent firm, Linden Labs.

Second Life is like an “ultimate escapism” scenario, and players have been known to get so addicted to the game that they forget their family and social lives. Players can build deep social and virtual sexual connections. This is a concern that has been voiced by many experts after Facebook’s rebranding, and other big technology firms that are vying for a metaverse.

IDC’s Singh says there are concerns around privacy and acceptance of such user-generated content within the cultural context of a given geography, but the time is right for the start of a much more widely accepted metaverse.

Facebook, or Meta, has described the metaverse as “a social, 3D virtual space where you can share immersive experiences with other people, even when you can’t be together in person, and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world”.

“The defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence -- like you are right there with another person or in another place. Feeling truly present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology. That is why we are focused on building this,” Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg said in his letter announcing the rebranding.

Arguably, a glimpse of how immersive the metaverse will be can be found in the gamification of every trend that has been catching on, even in India.

According to the report, India’s Media & Entertainment Sector Reboots in 2020, by Ficci and EY, gaming was the fastest-growing segment of the media and entertainment sector for the fourth year in a row, growing 18 per cent, “helped by work from home, school from home and increased trial of online multi-player games during the lockdown.” Online gamers grew 20 per cent to reach 360 million in 2020, while transaction-based game revenues grew 21 per cent, despite adverse regulation in certain states, and casual gaming revenues grew 7 per cent.

The report also found that VR was the favourite gaming technology in the last year, followed by AR and wearable gaming. 

“The way Mark Zuckerberg has articulated the concept of the metaverse, the vision is going to be much larger, merging virtual reality with reality, and so on. It is going to be beyond gaming, though we do not have too many details right now,” says Siddharth Devnani, co-founder and partner at digital marketing agency SoCheers.

The advances made in AR by companies like TikTok and Snapchat, he adds, have enabled users with even low form factor smartphones to create “magical” content in the last five years. On the VR side, there is a need for more accessible devices, which should be in the offing soon, Devnani says.

Agrees IDC’s Singh: “In AR or VR devices, India currently has a negligible presence. There are just a few thousand units that ship and we have seen higher commercial adoption than consumer adoption. Generally, enterprises use AR and VR for training, initial beta testing, and so on. With Facebook and Microsoft (and others) putting in a lot of effort in making social media more real, in a hybrid environment, it is going to play a critical role in the acceptance of consumer devices among the masses.”

There is, of course, the issue of how Facebook and others would look to monetise the metaverse. Second Life found some traction among businesses, with big names like IBM, BMW, and General Motors creating virtual stores to showcase their products. However, that fizzled out.

In a piece titled “How business can make the most of the metaverse”, Financial Times said: “Eventually, though, it could be a good niche for companies. To profit from it, they need to see virtual worlds less as a channel for aggressive marketing than as rich places to experiment, to collaborate, and to develop leadership and management skills.”