Master VR podcaster Kent Bye has a valuable Twitter thread on a SIGGRAPH 2019 talk by Epic's Tim Sweeney, who just laid out his vision for an open metaverse. (No surprise Epic has plans to build one, as that was evident when the company rolled out user-creation tools for Fortnite last year.) In opposition to say, Facebook, Sweeney's metaverse is admirably open and not a walled garden:
.@TimSweeneyEpic
— Kent Bye VoicesOfVR (@kentbye) July 30, 2019
What is the Metaverse?
Real-time social medium to share experiences & ceators need to be able to create their own stuff.
Needs to have an open economy that participants can participate & survive w free market economics without corporate dystopian control.
As with any other metaverse framework, however, two basic questions (far as I can tell) remain unaddressed:
Two questions metaverse advocates still haven't addressed:
— Wagner James Au (@slhamlet) July 30, 2019
Why exactly do we need a unified 3D platform when we can already easily access near-infinite interactive content across many 2D/3D platforms?
Where's evidence a mass market even WANTS a metaverse?
No answers here.
Who really needs this? Who actually wants this? I've yet to see a succinct, compelling answer to either question beyond the implicit one: Because it'll be really cool.
I'm certainly in that camp, but then again, I'm a gamer/science fiction fan. So yes, I've loved the idea of a unified 3D Internet where gaming is significant and meaningful for decades. But I've become convinced that metaverse advocates are mistaking their personal preference for a market need -- a desire to institutionalize gaming culture as the fundamental, universal culture of the Internet.
Describing the open web as the "2D Metaverse" fudges categories, IMO, because it was never conceived as and doesn't resemble the Metaverse. At the same time, the web's massive install base & ability to seamlessly integrate content of all kind obviates any need for a Metaverse.
— Wagner James Au (@slhamlet) July 30, 2019
And the thing is, that goal has basically already been achieved -- Fortnite is massive, Pokemon Go is (still) massive, as is Discord, Twitch, Steam, etc. etc. They're not unified on a single 3D platform -- but then again, they don't need to be, because they're already all accessible on the same devices. Or to put it another way: Anything we'd want from a metaverse is already on our iPhone.
The Metaverse was first conceived in science fiction before the modern explosion of 3D gaming & immersive & interactive environments. It was an active feedback loop between game dev architects, but the Metaverse today is going to be more of a blend of Fortnite and the open web.
— Kent Bye VoicesOfVR (@kentbye) July 30, 2019
... yet despite many failed attempts, the desire to instantiate sci-fi dreams -- literally and perhaps solely because they're sci-fi dreams -- refuses to go away.
Bring on Oasis.... you know you want to! and not the Lame oasis from the movie, but the one from the book!
Posted by: Todd | Tuesday, July 30, 2019 at 07:27 PM
The Internet is anonymous, or seems so to me. I mean its like a field that no one owns and anyone can use in any way they wish, a blank sheet of paper, a lump of clay etc, etc, and that is what makes it the great thing it is. I find it very hard to believe anyone in these restricted times would create, or be allowed to create, something that the first principal of must be that they cannot control it. If it is not out of control then it will not be a Metaverse. These gaming people operate in intensely restricted worlds of rules and censorship. I doubt they have ever experienced a virtual world without boundaries. Or a world that does not need games in order to have a purpose. Its a bit like that free speech saying “I disagree with what you say but I will defend your right to say it". The moment you think, now what should or should not be in a Metaverse you destroy it. All you can do is open the free space and provide the tools for creation. Anything past that must be in the hands of the user, and the user must not be restricted in any way.
A true metaverse will have as much , maybe more, bad, sick, even illegal, content as good. Everything you hate about the Metaverse would be the things that make it what it is and keeps it free. And of course it must be free to use for everyone forever. It seems to me that the true Metaverse would more likely be created by someone who remains anonymous, they create it in a spirit of rebellion against all restriction, and release in secret to the disgust of authorities. But as you say, who wants this Metaverse, apart from the games companies, who think they know what a Metaverse is already, just one big wall to wall game, or a flowery art space where everyone is nice to each other and create nice things.
Posted by: JohnC | Wednesday, July 31, 2019 at 05:35 AM
Fortnite? Why not League of Legends? Or World of Warcraft? The examples he chooses are silly, at best. I have due respect for Kent Bye, but drawing the WWW into the equation is equally silly.These people don't follow history. I submit for consideration John P. Barlow's "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace". This has all been debated before, with many of the same results.
Posted by: Joey1058 | Friday, August 02, 2019 at 12:24 PM