How do you navigate an immersive virtual world thatâs still mostly conceptual yet manages to generate billions of visits and even more dollars? Buckle up, because the deeper you go, the weirder it gets.
One of the most buzzed-about destinations of 2022 is barely developed and widely misunderstood, starting with the fact that it isnât, strictly speaking, real. And yet despite that existential disadvantage, the metaverse has managed to attract some of the worldâs biggest brands, from Sothebyâs to the NFL, whoâve set up shop in the virtual universe to drop capsule collections, mint NFTs and auction off multimillion-dollar digital artworks. Along the way, the metaverse also became the hottest concert venue of pandemic-struck 2021, with A-list performances by Ariana Grande, Lil Nas X and Justin Bieber, all in avatar form.
Which is all fine, but what is it? The term itself, coined in Neal Stephensonâs 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash, is already headed for middle age, while the technological capability to actually create a fully immersive, interconnected virtual world remains a dream locked inside the mind of a yet-to-be-imagined super-computer. Still, the headlines keep coming, from Ralph Laurenâs winter-themed virtual fashion retail village to the hyper-realistic âmeta-humanâ avatars that are being generated by Epic Gamesâ Unreal Engine digital creation studio. For a universe that doesnât yet exist, the metaverse is surprisingly, if intangibly, real.
By Josh Condon â 2/19/2022