What is Metaverse?
Metaverse is a new-age technology designed to connect users across the globe, accessible through a headset or browser. Metaverse is known for giving real-time close-to-reality experience when played on Metaverse platforms. The gaming industry has acquired this technology way before any other industry to unlock its full benefits. Competitive players have started shifting their focus to Metaverse and seeing it as a bigger opportunity. Companies that are building their multiverse projects are also paying attention to technologies such as 3D reconstruction, Augmented Reality (AR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual Reality (VR), and of course, Blockchain to develop a powerful Metaverse universe.
How can Metaverse transform the gaming industry?
Gaming before and after Metaverse has changed DRASTICALLY. Blockchain is the driving force that changed the face of online games. It used real money, NFTs, and cryptos to amaze players, and they could either sell their assets or collect them until they yield rewards from the gaming platform. The recent revolution of the extreme potential gaming industry is boomed up by Metaverse technology. Players can now enter the game in real-time, giving them the best experience.
In the past, the gaming company set the characters by default, but the growth of Metaverse made it even possible to customize your characters. Now, these characters live in Metaverse exactly how people live in the real world. It has also given you a chance to socialize with your pals by sending them social media invites, and you can also interact with the other players in-game and enjoy it to the fullest!
The Metaverse has already started to settle its foot in the gaming community, starting right from the top; world-famous YouTuber and gamer PewDiePie recently got involved with a blockchain project called Wallem, and now players can buy his skins and other items in exchange for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). [1]
Now, let's glance at the technologies used in this Metaverse Universe.
Internet of Things (IoT) - IoT helps Metaverse to gather and utilize data from the physical world. It is responsible for connecting the virtual world to real-life appliances. IoT and Metaverse go hand in hand; they both have some effects on each other. [2]
Blockchain and crypto - Blockchain is a structurally distributed database shared among computer networks. Blockchains are known for their crucial role in cryptosystems, such as Bitcoin. On the other hand, Cryptocurrency is the globally accepted real-world currency that allows players/users to transfer money in the Metaverse Universe.
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) - Are often confusing. AR and VR create an exciting and immersive gaming atmosphere giving an all-around experience to them and hence leveling up the gaming standards. AR and VR will probably play the most important role in the Metaverse Universe.[3]
3D reconstruction - 3D technology is nearly à decade old, but 3D reconstruction has recently increased. Many Universities have used this technology to showcase their campus when life was not on track, and there existed Covid Virus. Many real estate companies have also used it to take their potential buyers on a virtual property tour.
Challenges of the Metaverse:
Privacy and Data Security - Metaverse is very different from our daily life basic apps that just require your phone number, email id, and passwords. Metaverse will also record your behavior, how you react to a particular situation, and your avatar. So, with so much data, it is very important to know how they'll maintain the data security of millions of users.
Mental Health - It is proven from scientific studies that living in the virtual world might lead to addiction, gradually leading to mental health problems like depression and anxiety [4]. This will give rise to the mental un-wellness of numerous people across the globe hence deteriorating their health and causing severe issues such as heart attack.
Hardware - As we already know, Metaverse depends on Augmented Reality(AR) and Virtual Reality(VR) that aren't lightweight and affordable, which might lead to the restriction of Metaverse to a very small section of society. Apart from that, it also requires high-end devices, which are quite expensive in the market and can hinder the expansion of Metaverse.
Future Opportunities in Metaverse-
The future of Metaverse looks very bright if everything is handled with extreme care. The future Metaverse would be similar to our real lives in various aspects. Metaverse will also be creating employment shortly, giving birth to job roles like Avatar clothing designers, Data bounty hunters, Metahuman doctors, Metaverse construct architects, Metaverse event directors, Metaverse research scientists, Ecosystem developers, Metaverse safety managers, Metaverse hardware creators, World builder, and Ad-blockers. There are ample opportunities to look forward to in the coming future.
What has happened, and What to expect?
Metaverse is still a very new technology. We have to skill work upon this technology day in and day out. This is a long-term investment. If we get a few of the issues fixed and regularly update this technology over a while, it will bring revolution in the gaming industry and other industries. Many companies are running behind this and have already launched next-gen gaming platforms. "THE BIGGIES" such as Microsoft and Facebook (now Meta) have realized this as a potential technology and hence come up with their exciting Metaverse projects [5]. The interference of tech giants would be much better for the world, and soon we will have an even better gaming experience.
