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Activision Blizzard, the video gaming behemoth behind the iconic match-three puzzle game Candy Crush and the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) World of Warcraft, was recently acquired by Microsoft. Activision Blizzard serves approximately 400 million gamers each month! Microsoft justified the purchase, which cost just under 70 billion US dollars, by claiming that gaming would provide the foundation for the future metaverse, dubbed the "next Internet generation," i.e. a single, universal virtual world accessible via virtual and augmented reality technology. Looking at Microsoft, it's easy to imagine the metaverse as a game. However, Mark Zuckerberg has stated unequivocally that the metaverse will be used for more than just entertainment. Indeed, Facebook's earlier announcement that it would rebrand as Meta has generated a lot of buzz around this portmanteau, which consists of "meta" which means "beyond" and "universe".
Some virtual worlds, such as Second Life, have always been more than just games. Several users have claimed that Second Life is an extension of their real lives, as my research with fellow ESCP Prof. Michael Haenlein demonstrated as early as 2009. A plethora of brands and companies have established virtual islands and stores on Second Life, primarily for public relations purposes, but not exclusively: Deutsche Post, for example, offered virtual cards to Second Life residents, which were then delivered as real postcards all over the world. Of course, this was back when postcards were still popular. Another example is the Crowne Plaza hotel chain, which allowed businesses to book virtual meeting rooms in its Second Life simulated hotels in the same way that they could in physical locations. The excitement surrounding Second Life, however, quickly faded for various reasons, with many brands either exiting the virtual world or simply leaving their online premises unattended.
People are more familiar with virtual worlds now than they were previously. Teenagers, young adults, and gamers of all ages frequently become avatars in virtual environments, socializing with other players in games like Fortnite, Roblox, and World of Warcraft. These gaming worlds, like Second Life, have become places to meet, chat, and make friends. Consider Fortnite, which hosted live concerts by Ariana Grande and Travis Scott, obviously in the form of avatars, and was visited by millions of people! Because of Covid-19, a sizable portion of the population is now accustomed to working in online environments. Many of them have used virtual worlds as part of their jobs, to attend professional meetings, or to complete a course at their (virtual) university or school; these solutions are already available and are increasingly being used.
Virtual worlds also overcome some of the drawbacks of traditional video conferencing. One of the drawbacks that virtualization overcomes is so-called Zoom fatigue, which is tiredness caused by excessive close-up eye contact, difficulty identifying and sending nonverbal cues, or simply constantly seeing oneself, which is also more demanding than what would happen in traditional face-to-face meetings. Technology has advanced significantly. While navigating virtual worlds was initially difficult and slow, especially as the number of avatars in space increased, such flaws no longer exist in today's virtual environments. Furthermore, today's users are frequently completely immersed in such worlds by wearing headsets, whereas previously they simply stared at their screens.
Avatars will become increasingly realistic representations of oneself in the future, even authentically mimicking facial expressions. People may one day be transported into virtual worlds as fully-fledged holograms of their actual appearance. Such technology would essentially be similar to Star Trek's "beaming," or the dematerialization of a human into constituent particles and immediate reconstitution at the destination. What was once considered a pipe dream may one day become a reality, at least digitally? Although it is unclear what the precise nature of the metaverse will be and when we will be able to say "beam me up, Scotty," one thing is certain: the metaverse will be much more than a game, with a massive, possibly limitless, impact on economies and societies around the world. As a result, in the upcoming era of the more-than-just-a-game metaverse, one should not only play but also work hard to prepare for unavoidable economic, legal, and societal challenges.
