Metaverse; The Game of Life
How
many of you grew up watching The Jetsons on weekdays after school? Created in
1962 by Hana-Barbara, the show was based on a futuristic family living in Orbit
City around the year of 2062. It opened our minds up to the possibility of
living in a world with flying cars, robots, face to face phone conversations
and much more. The Jetsons could have basically anything they wanted without
leaving their home with just a push of a button. In today’s world where the
pandemic has forced us into isolation more and more things can be done from the
comfort of your home. You can grocery shop from home, attend school from home
and even have a doctor’s appointment. The Metaverse took the concept of doing
things from home and gave it steroids. Today we will take a look at the
Metaverse and try to gain a better understanding of why it was created and
where it is headed.
First, we have to understand the term
“Metaverse”. Simply put, the Metaverse is a virtual reality world. A virtual
reality world where you can become whoever you want to be. It uses avatars that
you create yourself and with these avatars you can simulate real life
situations. With the help of a virtual reality headset you can get the real
life feeling of being transported to any place in the world without ever
leaving your home.
My first time in the Metaverse I was
prompted to select the environment that I wanted as my default home, a place
that I would enter first every time I visit this virtual reality world. I chose
a nicely decorated living room as my choice for entry. With joysticks in both
hands I was able to walk inside the living room to a door and once I went
through the door I was located inside what is called Horizon Venues. Here I was
greeted by other avatars that I could actually hear speaking to me. There was a
kid who proceeded to poke me in the eyes and yell fight and I had to leave the
room in order for him to leave me alone. I stumbled across a venue,
Snoopadelic, owned by Snoop Dog where he was giving a concert. So in my pajamas
I danced with other people and waved my hands in the air and waved them like I
just don’t care. It wasn’t too long before my move caught on to everyone else
in the room and we were all waving our hands in the air. Another venue
frequented by visitors are the basketball games. Here you can watch your
favorite NBA teams battle it out and feel like you have court side seats.
Now depending on what network you’re
using while in the metaverse will determine all that you can do. For example
while I attended the Snoop Dog concert I was using Facebook. There is another
network called Upland where you can purchase virtual real estate that exists in
the real world. For example, take your physical address, the house that you
own, someone can purchase your same home but in the virtual world. What was
truly amazing is Google Maps actually zooms in on the real property showing
what you will own but only virtually. The way to buy property is to link your
personal debit card to the game and with that you can purchase the currency
that is used in Upland called UPX. For $4.99 in real currency you can obtain
5000 in UPX currency. Do not ask me to explain the purpose of this but this is
what people are doing.
Some people feel that this virtual
reality world has certain health benefits. A person who suffers with social
anxiety can use these gaming platforms as a way to interact with others. It can
place people in certain situations where they can navigate through different
social settings and learn to control their feelings of anxiety at their own
pace but more importantly inside the comfort of their home.
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