Metaverse has opened up a world of possibilities that felt theoretical and straight out of a fantasy world even a decade ago. There’s a reason mega-companies are betting big on metaverse.
A goliath like Facebook rebranding itself as Meta is a clear indication that the metaverse is in fact real. Microsoft’s acquisition of the gaming company Activision Blizzard and a variety of metaverse games popping up every month shows the speed with which this new universe is developing.
So if the hype around the metaverse is real, what’s in it for you? How will the metaverse transform how you interact with the surroundings around you? What are the things you can do in the metaverse? Read on to find answers to these questions.
Here are 7 fascinating ways to explore the metaverse:
- Games: Gaming is at the heart of the metaverse revolution. We have been playing immersive videogames for decades now, but metaverse promises to revolutionize the gaming industry like you never thought would be possible. The technological advancements in VR headsets such as Oculus are making the metaverse dream reality faster than we thought could be possible. When the metaverse matures, it promises to transport you to the gaming environment where you won’t be able to figure out if you are inside a virtual game or the real world. But even in its current state metaverse transports you to gaming universes and allows you to play while interacting with the surroundings around you. While most metaverse games currently provide you with a 2D environment, many games like Among Us, Cities VR, Ghost Busters, etc, are popping up which will use VR headsets and immerse you in the gaming universes like never before.
- Socialize: The way we interact with each other and socialize is also going to change radically with the metaverse and we can already see the signs of it. Facebook is at the forefront of the metaverse revolution and thus you can bet that one of the first things to gain traction in the metaverse is going to be socializing. Metaverse will replicate in-person socialization in a virtual world where you can meet anyone you want in any environment. You’ll be able to customize your avatar just in infinite ways and do everything from chatting to playing games with your friends in person in the virtual worlds of your choice.
- Shop: The way we shop is going to change as well once the metaverse becomes more mainstream. Right now most of us do online shopping but that happens in a non-interactive way. We visit a 3D website and scroll through the images of the products we like and then place orders. Online shopping has become prominent because it’s convenient but it still lacks the feel of visiting an actual store and trying out products such as clothes or shoes before buying them. In the metaverse, you will be able to visit a virtual store and check out its various products. If you want to buy an Apple iPhone you’ll simply visit the Apple virtual store and hold the latest iPhone in your hand. Then you will place an order for it using cryptocurrency and your phone will get delivered to your house within a few days or hours. The transactions will be faster and much more secure and your shopping experience will be much more interactive and close to the real-life shopping experience if not better.
- Buying Real Estate: While others things in the metaverse might still take a few more years to become real, buying virtual real estate is something that people are already doing in the metaverse. Games like Decentraland and Sandbox offer people to buy virtual plots of land inside the metaverse and these plots are already selling at high prices. A person only recently bought a plot of land for $450,000 in metaverse because he wanted to be a neighbor of Snoop Dogg. While real-estate transactions are already happening they are going to increase at lightning speed as different universes in the metaverse keep on developing and the metaverse becomes more mainstream.
- Work: Covid-19 pandemic has already changed the way people work bringing work-from-home and hybrid remote working systems into the mainstream. While this pandemic has made people experts in Zoom calls and Google Meet, work-from-home still lacks the feel of working with your colleagues. In Zoom calls and Google Meet, you see the stakes of boxes on a 2D screen and you can watch your colleagues live but on screen. In the metaverse, you will be able to sit side by side with your colleagues and interact with them as you do in the real world. This will bring the promise of work-from-home and hybrid work systems to their fruition. The engagement quotient that work-from-home lacks will not be an issue in the metaverse and the fun of sitting with your team physically will be restored in the comfort of your home.
- Travel: Metaverse will disrupt the travel industry as well in ways we simply cannot fathom right now. In the metaverse, you can travel from anywhere to anywhere instantly. You won’t need to sit on a 24-hour long flight and feel jetlagged because you want to see the Inca Citadel in Machu Picchu. You can instantly get teleported there and see and feel everything around you in all its beauty. You will save on the travel expenses and visit as many cities as you want in a month or even a day. How will this come to life and will there be costs involved is something that we will find out together but the idea in itself and the possibilities it opens is tantalizing.
- Education: Just like work, education has also been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and as a result, we have seen a rise in virtual classrooms and a booming EdTech sector. Education too suffers from the same constraints right now as work-from-home. There simply isn’t a real immersive classroom environment in a virtual video class. In the metaverse, students will be able to engage with teachers and fellow students much like they do in the real world. You can study in Cambridge while sitting in your room in Thailand and immerse yourself in campus and classrooms. This will revolutionize the education industry like nothing we have ever seen before.
The applications of metaverse are possibly endless and we are only scratching the tip of the iceberg right now. As technology matures and the metaverse starts becoming more mainstream, it will impact every aspect of our life.
The Future is here and we are already seeing people gaming to earn money and immersing themselves in the metaverse. Within a few years from now, the boundaries between the real world and the virtual world will start to diminish and we will truly enter a world straight out of a science fiction novel. Before that time comes though, we already have a lot to explore and do in the metaverse in its current state.
