The metaverse: the future of internet

Facebook changes name to Meta

On October 28, 2021 Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebranding of the Facebook group, which will now be called simply "Meta". This renaming allows the group to dissociate itself from this original name which has certainly made its reputation for almost 18 years but which has more recently accumulated bad buzz and which now carries a negative connotation and recalls the various scandals associated with it. But beyond updating and putting aside the name "Facebook", the change to Meta is presented as the announcement of the new direction of the group. In fact, its founder and CEO plans to focus the company's efforts on the development of metaverse technologies.

Facebook is not the only one to see the potential of metavers, many tech companies are investing to develop the technologies needed to realise these fictional universes. You may not have heard of this concept before (or only by having seen Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One movie released in 2018) and yet with this move, Mark Zuckerberg announces the beginning of the metaverse race!

What is the Metaverse?

The principle of "metavers", gathering the terms "meta" and "universe", is to imagine an entirely digital world possible thanks to future technologies and relying on the Internet in order to connect its various users. This concept of virtual and fictional universe is at first described by Daniel F. Galouye in 1968 in his novel Simulacron 3. It is only afterwards, in 1992, that the writer Neal Stephenson will invent the term of "Metavers" in his book The Virtual Samurai by explaining that this invention came to his mind when he realized "that the existing words were too clumsy to be used". Evolving in the "metaverse" implies the possibility to incarnate an avatar through different persistent and shared spaces. It also require an immersion in a connected, virtual and 3D world.

A mix between social network and video game

The metaverse is not yet possible as it was originally imagined. It is by relying on already existing technologies that it will be possible to develop a complete virtual world as time goes by. Nevertheless, virtual worlds have already existed for several years and some of them have already been very successful. These worlds have been created thanks to the video game industry.

Indeed the first game known to have imitated a sort of metaverse is called "Second life" and as its name indicates, the goal was to be able to live a second life fully online. By connecting to it, the user embodies a 3D avatar and has the possibility to interact with the other inhabitants of the world, with objects and can discover the world around him. Created in 2003, Second Life, which actuality is not considered a video game by its creators has convinced a large number of users despite the basic graphics of the early 2000s to reach the million active users in 2013.

This game is very similar to a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) and the latter are also great examples of social interaction within a 3D virtual world. There are many games that have in one way or another already imitated the principles of a metaverse: Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Roblox, to name only the most popular. Via Second Life users could imagine a whole world, live a second life, have social interactions in this virtual universe. The community and the exchanges are strong in the gaming industry, that's what allowed the success of this kind of games.

More recently, the development of virtual reality helmets has given a new dynamic to the idea of a virtual world in which the user is completely immersed. The helmet gives an impression of presence much more immersive within the virtual reality games: this one is plunged in the world and can look around him by his own movements without passing by a computer interface which it puts a barrier between reality and virtual. The development of helmets as well as equipments capturing the user's movements could improve in the future the sensation of immersion in a possible metavers.

The concept of metavers thus combines the principles of a video game because it calls upon the creation of a 3D virtual world and the technologies of massively multiplayer games while serving as a platform for exchange between people such as a more traditional social network.

The development of metaverse

There are many companies jumping into the metavers adventure. Facebook, now Meta, announces its project to develop a metaverse that will aim to reach more than a billion people, says its CEO. In order to implement this project, Mark Zuckerberg promises to create a large number of jobs over the next decade, including nearly 10,000 in Europe over the five next years. The group had already bought in 2014 the company Oculus VR continued to improve the virtual reality headset technologies on which this possible metavers would rely.

Microsoft has also announced its interest in this race by presenting a version of metavers for business via its new tool "Mesh for Teams" offering a virtual business environment that can display avatars instead of using the participants' cameras in a meeting.

Meanwhile, the video game industry is not sitting still. Game publisher Epic Games has also recently confirmed its ambition to turn its flagship game Fortnite into a complete ecosystem akin to a virtual universe. Life events have already taken place within the game encouraging virtual social interactions such as the various concerts organized in the game itself. Finally, Niantic, known for its technologies and games using augmented reality also wants to imagine its own version of the metaverse.

The future of Internet

Video games are at the heart of this future service, thanks to the technologies that have been put in place for years in order to give players an increasingly immersive experience in various universes.

As shown in this article on the relationship between communication and video games, the social part in the player's experience has become very important. The video game universe fulfils a role of social facilitator by allowing players to interact via the different game platforms and encourages exchanges. Always looking to develop immersive technologies such as VR headsets and complex virtual worlds, video games represent the ideal basis for developing a metaverse.

"I think we will effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company." - Mark Zukerberg

However, Mark Zukerberg's vision is much broader than just a large online game. Indeed, he imagines a whole new way of consuming and browsing the Internet. His vision is about an ecosystem in which playing, browsing, communicating and even working would be possible. He explains in this interview to The Verge that a metaverse could create jobs that do not yet exist and even a whole parallel fully-virtual market. The goal for this social networking giant is to become a metavers company.

We can therefore wonder if the Internet will be revolutionized by metaverses in a few years??Maybe indeed that the future will not be played out in a 2D internet with limited applications and services but through a three dimensional internet that will multiply social interactions and disrupt the web as we know it today.