Is Metaverse Doomed from the Beginning?

Ah, the Metaverse. The fabled virtual land of promise. You can temporarily throw away your worldly form to live a virtual life of your own choosing, interact with people a’la Accel World or Ready Player One, and let the Internet evolve to its following intended form.

Except that it’s still too far away from what Mark Zuckerberg tries so desperately to envision. And if you are looking for specific elements that make the Metaverse an appealing concept, we hate to break it to you. But, those ideas are already out there and can be enjoyed right now.

A Massive Community of Custom Characters? Sounds Like an MMORPG

The idea of a single virtual world that connects different platforms together is undoubtedly an adorable concept on paper. And by that, we don’t mean bringing up a virtual browser in front of you, like Tom Cruise did in the Minority Report, just so you can play some live casino online games with other players. No sir, it’s far more capable than that, and Metaverse’s marketing makes it seem like the concept hasn’t been tackled at length yet, and it doesn’t need to when there’s already this wonderful thing called MMORPGs.

MMORPGs deal with an online virtual community, interacting in real-time, supported by a plethora of entertainment and communication features, all the while designing their custom character to provide uniqueness to each member of this secret, digital society. Isn’t that already how the Metaverse works? This is not limited to the traditional combat MMOs since games such as Club Penguin can be just as popular with the more straightforward interaction and customization factors. 

And true, while the game itself is limited to the title platform, the community is hardly contained inside the game only. Offline (in-game) meetings can be set up in other “places” such as Discord. Guildmates that you’ve become close to can hang out on another part of the Internet. If you’re ready to move on and quit the game, you also have the option to invite your local community to join whichever game (platform) you are joining next.

Cost, and By Extension Society’s Level of Adoption

The year 2006 was a milestone era for consumer tech with the release of the very first iPhone. Yet, smartphones remained a niche product exclusively for the elite, privileged, or enthusiast until at least sometime after 2010. This was when the technology became affordable enough to transcend societal barriers, to the point that even a relatively poor person could own one. 

Even more relevant, MMORPGs, which is the prototype for the Metaverse’s interactive environment, is also generally available to everyone. Whether you’re a wealthy businessman, a regular salary employee, or a student just scrounging up spare change to play for a few hours.

Would this be something potentially possible for VR? Of course. Someday, the technology could eventually be cheap enough for everyone to enjoy. But with the current adoption level and exorbitant prices of even the most affordable of VR headsets with good tracking, that’s definitely not happening in just a few years, even less likely to occur this entire decade.

VR Headset Strapped on My Head All Day? No Thanks

Finally, while not heavily promoted, it is strongly hinted that the Metaverse would eventually be something that’s so idyllic that users would no longer want to go outside to the real world.

Yeah, probably not with a heavy and sweaty VR headset around. Suppose it is so advanced that it feels like you’re inside the virtual world like The Matrix or Sword Art Online. But right now, not even the most sophisticated of avatars would be enough to make anyone addicted to the concept.

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