The Metaverse Myth Decrypted: What's Really Behind It? And which platforms come closest to the Metaverse?

The term “Metaverse” has been floating around the media landscape for some time and is often touted as the next big revolution of the Internet. After an initial, almost euphoric hype, the excitement has subsided somewhat, but the question remains: What exactly is behind this often used vocabulary? And which of the currently existing platforms such as Roblox, Minecraft or Fortnite can actually be considered manifestations of a metaverse? This article provides a detailed analysis of these popular platforms in the context of existing definitions. The goal is to identify the fundamental attributes that characterize a metaverse while highlighting the current limitations and challenges in developing a comprehensive metaverse. It is crucial to understand that there is no “one” metaverse, but rather a multitude of different platforms and concepts, all of which claim to be part of this emerging digital world.

Defining the Metaverse: A Multifaceted View

In order to answer the question of the extent to which the platforms mentioned can be considered a metaverse, a precise definition of the term is first required. There are different perspectives and insights that need to be taken into account.

The term's origins can be traced back to 1992, when Neal Stephenson coined the word "metaverse" in his groundbreaking science fiction novel Snow Crash. In Stephenson's visionary narrative, the Metaverse is described as an immersive virtual reality that acts as a successor to the Internet. It is a digital space where people interact, transact, and maintain social relationships through avatars.

A common definition, as found in online encyclopedias, describes the metaverse as a loosely defined term that refers to virtual worlds. In these worlds, users, represented by individually customizable avatars, usually interact in a three-dimensional environment. The focus is on establishing social and economic connections. So it's not just about entertainment, but also about the possibility of making friends, forming communities and even pursuing economic activities.

Tech blogs and industry experts often define the metaverse as a holistic virtual world that exists parallel to the real world. This digital parallel world is characterized by ensuring digital ownership rights, enabling unique online identities, connecting different environments and providing immersive experiences. Many see it as the next evolutionary stage of the Internet, the “Internet in 3D”, so to speak. A fascinating aspect in this context is the creation of “digital twins”. These are digital copies of real objects, processes or environments that can be simulated and analyzed in the Metaverse. This opens up completely new possibilities in areas such as product development, urban planning or the simulation of complex systems.

Scientific publications often approach the topic of metaverses with a focus on the technological foundations and the potential social impacts. Here, the Metaverse is defined as a complex and interconnected network of ubiquitous virtual worlds that partially overlap with and extend the physical world. Users, embodied by their avatars, can interact, experience and consume diverse content in these immersive, scalable, synchronous and persistent environments. An integrated economic system provides incentives for active participation and value creation within the metaverse. Decentralized technologies, especially blockchains, play a crucial role in ensuring the security and transparency of economic activities in the metaverse. For example, they enable proof of digital ownership and the secure execution of transactions.

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Analysis of current platforms in the context of the Metaverse definition

Against the background of these diverse definitions, the aforementioned and other relevant platforms can now be examined more closely in order to evaluate their metaverse character.

Roblox

This platform offers a persistent virtual world in which users are represented by avatars and can maintain social interactions. A key feature is the integrated economic system with its own virtual currency, the “Robux”. Roblox therefore meets many of the criteria of a metaverse, with the primary focus being on gaming. Users have the opportunity to create their own games and experiences and explore worlds created by other users. The platform enables extensive social interactions and trading of virtual goods, which goes beyond just gaming.

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Minecraft

Minecraft also enables persistent worlds, interaction through avatars and diverse social interactions. Like Roblox, Minecraft also meets many of the criteria of a metaverse, although the focus here is more on creative building and exploring the virtual environment. The open world of Minecraft offers users almost unlimited opportunities for free design and collaborative creation of buildings and complex systems.

Fortnite

While Fortnite offers avatars, strong social interaction options, and regular virtual events, it tends to be viewed more as an online game with metaverse elements. The core of the experience lies in the action-packed gameplay, but the integration of social areas and the holding of virtual concerts or film screenings give the platform quite metaverse characteristics. It's an example of how traditional games are increasingly incorporating elements that go beyond just playing.

The Sandbox

Unlike gaming-focused platforms, The Sandbox places a strong focus on digital property rights and the trading of virtual goods stored on the blockchain as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). This alignment highlights the economic component of the Metaverse. Users can purchase and build virtual land as well as create and monetize their own games and interactive experiences.

Decentraland

Decentraland goes one step further and presents itself as a decidedly decentralized platform with a clear focus on digital ownership and community building. This platform meets many of the criteria of a comprehensive metaverse. Users can own virtual land, develop it according to their ideas and interact with other users, hold events and run virtual businesses.

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Horizon Worlds

The social VR platform from Meta, Facebook's parent company, focuses on interaction through avatars in immersive virtual environments. It is noteworthy that in 2021, Meta invested immense sums, over $10 billion, in the development of the Metaverse, but incurred heavy operational losses. More recently, as of 2023, Meta has shifted its strategic focus somewhat from pure Metaverse development to artificial intelligence. Horizon Worlds aims to enable social interaction in the Metaverse by allowing users to meet in virtual worlds, play games and create content together.

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Somnium Space

This VR platform places particular emphasis on a persistent world and ensuring digital ownership rights. Somnium Space already meets many of the criteria of a metaverse, but is still in ongoing development. The platform offers an open world where users can purchase virtual land and design it according to their wishes.

Cryptovoxels

Cryptovoxels is another blockchain-based platform that focuses on digital property rights and virtual land ownership. The economic component of the Metaverse is clearly in the foreground here. Users have the ability to buy, sell and develop virtual land, providing a foundation for virtual business models.

Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity is primarily a blockchain-based game that features trading in NFTs. It can be considered more of a play-to-earn game with metaverse elements. Users can collect digital creatures, breed them and compete against each other in battles, with trading the creatures being an essential part of the game.

VR Chat

VRChat is a social VR platform characterized by a wide variety of avatars and a strong focus on community building. This platform meets many of the criteria of a metaverse. Users can create their own avatars or choose from a huge library and interact with others in countless user-created virtual worlds.

Other relevant platforms

In addition to those already mentioned, there are a number of other platforms that can be viewed as a metaverse or at least as a proto-metaverse.

Second Life

Often referred to as the “first metaverse,” Second Life early on integrated many aspects of social media into a three-dimensional world with avatars. It offers a persistent virtual world where users can interact, create their own content and even conduct business.

IMVU

IMVU is a social platform focused on avatars and virtual goods trading. Users can customize their avatars and purchase virtual clothing and accessories.

Sansar

Sansar is a platform that allows users to create their own virtual worlds and visit the worlds of others. It offers tools for creating immersive experiences.

High fidelity

High Fidelity is an open source platform for creating virtual worlds. The openness of the platform allows for a high level of flexibility and adaptability.

Uplands

Upland is a metaverse platform focused on virtual land coupled to real-world geographic locations. Users can buy, sell and develop virtual properties.

Essential Attributes of a Metaverse: A Comprehensive Look

From the different definitions and analysis of the different platforms, essential attributes can be derived that make up a metaverse at its core. These attributes can be divided into different categories.

Technical aspects

Persistent virtual world: A fundamental property is persistence. The virtual world exists continuously, independent of the presence of individual users. The state of objects and environments is saved and remains intact even when users leave the world.

Immersive Experience: A key goal of the Metaverse is to give users a sense of presence and immersion in the virtual world. Ideally, this is achieved through the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies, which enhance sensory perception and enable a more intense experience.

Interoperability: An ideal metaverse is characterized by interoperability. This means that, ideally, users will be able to seamlessly move their avatar and digital assets between different Metaverse platforms. This requires uniform standards and protocols.

Scalability: The Metaverse must be able to support a very large number of users and an immense amount of content simultaneously without suffering a performance penalty. This represents a significant technical challenge.

User Experience

Avatar-based interaction: In the Metaverse, users are represented by customizable avatars. These avatars enable users to act, communicate and express themselves in the virtual world.

accessibility

An inclusive metaverse should be accessible to users of varying technical abilities and across devices, from high-end VR headsets to traditional computers and smartphones.

Social and economic factors

Social Interaction: The Metaverse enables diverse forms of communication, collaboration and community building. Users can make friends, participate in group activities and share virtual experiences together.

Economic activity: A functioning metaverse provides opportunities for trade, investment and the acquisition of digital goods and services. This can include trading virtual clothing, artwork, land or even access to exclusive experiences.

Digital property rights: A crucial feature is the guarantee of digital property rights. Users can own, buy, sell and trade virtual goods and virtual land, ideally using technologies such as blockchain to securely and transparently document ownership.

Governance and standardization: the course for the future

In addition to the technical, social and economic aspects, governance and standardization also play a crucial role in the development of an open and functioning metaverse. Two competing visions can currently be identified with regard to governance:

• Open Metaverse: This vision envisions a decentralized, user-centered metaverse focused on interoperability and open standards. Control over the metaverse should not lie with individual companies, but should be distributed as broadly as possible.
• Closed Metaverse: In contrast to this is the vision of a centralized metaverse controlled by individual companies and based on proprietary technologies. Interoperability with other platforms is often limited in this model.

An open metaverse requires certain “ingredients” to realize its principles:

• Decentralization: Power and control over the metaverse should not be concentrated in single organizations.
• User control over their own identity: Users should have control over their digital identities and data.
• Enforcement of property rights: Digital property rights must be able to be reliably enforced.
• Aligning incentives for users and developers: The system should be designed so that both users and developers benefit from their participation and contributions.
• Increased value for users, not just for the platforms: The added value of the Metaverse should primarily benefit the users and not just the platform operators.
• Transparency: The functioning of the Metaverse and the rules that apply there should be transparent.
• Interoperability and Compatibility: Different Metaverse platforms should be compatible with each other to enable a seamless transition between them.

An interesting approach to defining the Metaverse is the so-called “Metaverse Code”, which formulates seven basic rules:

1. There is only one Metaverse: This rule implies the vision of a single, interconnected digital space.
2. The Metaverse is accessible to everyone: Access to the Metaverse should not be restricted.
3. No one controls the metaverse: This rule highlights the ideal of decentralization.
4. The Metaverse is open: The platform should be open to new ideas and developments.
5. The Metaverse is hardware independent: access should not be limited to specific devices.
6. The Metaverse is a network: it is an interconnected system that connects different elements.
7. The Metaverse is the Internet: This rule suggests that the Metaverse can be viewed as an evolution of the Internet.

The development of consistent standards and protocols is essential to ensure interoperability between different Metaverse platforms. However, there are numerous challenges, such as naming objects and attributes consistently or ensuring unique attribute values ​​across different systems.

Limits and Challenges: The Path to the Complete Metaverse

Although many of the platforms analyzed already have notable metaverse elements, there are still significant limitations and challenges on the path to developing a fully realized metaverse.

• Technological hurdles: The development of immersive and interoperable VR/AR technologies is not yet at the end of its development. Further advances are needed in areas such as computing power, bandwidth and hardware usability.
• Standardization: The lack of uniform standards and protocols for interoperability between different platforms is a major obstacle. Without these standards, the metaverse remains fragmented and not very user-friendly.
• Scalability: Supporting potentially huge numbers of users and complex interactions simultaneously represents a huge technical challenge, particularly in terms of network infrastructure and server capacities.
• Ethical and social questions: The rapid development of the Metaverse raises important ethical and social questions. This includes protecting privacy, keeping users safe from abuse and harassment, and combating disinformation and harmful content. The increasing fusion of the physical and virtual worlds also raises fundamental questions about identity, social behavior and responsibility in the metaverse.
• Accessibility: The cost of VR/AR hardware and access to a fast and stable internet connection can limit participation in the metaverse and increase a digital divide.
• Social acceptance: The broad acceptance of the Metaverse in society is not yet assured. It takes convincing value creation and positive usage scenarios to get a broad section of the population excited about the concept.
• Impact on the world of work: The Metaverse has the potential to fundamentally change the world of work by enabling new forms of collaboration, learning and communication. At the same time, however, new challenges arise with regard to data protection, occupational safety and the possible displacement of jobs through automation and virtual alternatives.
• Role of the public sector: The public sector is also playing an increasingly important role in shaping the metaverse. For example, the city of Seoul is developing its own Metaverse platform to provide citizens with virtual services in the areas of business, education, culture and tourism.
• Market penetration: Studies show that the market penetration of the Metaverse is still in an early phase in many industries. Many companies are only gaining initial experience with the possibilities and challenges of this technology.

A look into the future of the Internet

The analysis clearly shows that some of the platforms examined, such as Decentraland and VRChat, already meet many of the essential criteria of a metaverse. Other platforms, such as Roblox and Minecraft, have significant metaverse elements, but focus primarily on gaming and creative building.

However, developing a complete metaverse that combines all of the above attributes and offers a seamless, interoperable and immersive experience is undoubtedly a long-term goal. The existing platforms offer valuable insight into the diverse possibilities of the Metaverse and at the same time drive the development of the necessary technologies and standards. It remains to be seen which platforms will prevail in the long term and how the metaverse will have a lasting impact on the future of the Internet and society as a whole.

Numerous questions remain unanswered, the answers to which will have a significant impact on the further development of the Metaverse. What will the economic, social and cultural impact of the Metaverse be? What ethical and social challenges must be overcome to ensure a fair and safe environment? And how can we ensure that the Metaverse becomes an open, safe and inclusive space for all people? The answers to these questions will largely determine the contours of the digital future.

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