I’ve had this post titled (but unwritten) and sitting in my WordPress drafts since January of 2022.
You remember…it was the height of Metaverse fever. It was the Next Big Thing(tm) and you were a fool if you weren’t making some sort of play to build “a metaverse.” (have I mentioned I hate it when someone refers to A metaverse…there is only one, there cannot be many, it just…sigh.)
Of course the majority of Metaverse plays were secretly NFT plays as if a web of virtual worlds couldn’t possibly exist without web3 tech. Much of the hype came from the big social network with the big blue app and the guy who renamed his company because the Metaverse was inevitable. He then went on the spend billions trying to build a singular virtual world completely controlled by him. Not the Metaverse.
Meanwhile…real work is being done all over the web to build unique and interesting 3D spaces that will, hopefully, connect. I’ve gone on about this before but for the Metaverse to exist a few things have to happen.
- Open Avatar Standards
- Open and Accessible 3D worlds
- Self hosting
There must be an open avatar standard. We must have the ability to create a 3D representation of us that persists across worlds. You can decide if it looks like you or a giant pink raccoon but that version of you should be able to enter any 3D space without issue. ReadyPlayerMe was the closest but they were recently purchased by Netflix and their services shutdown soon (Jan 31st!). Fortunately, there’s work being done. See the Reference Canonical Skeletal Framework and the KHR Character and Avatar Extension Set.
Any world must be open and easily accessible. I was pretty excited by Mozilla Hubs because it was so easy to launch a world and get started all via the browser. Unfortunately Mozilla abandoned it BUT open sourced the technology so it lives on as the Hubs Foundation. I’m also excited by Arrival.space and what they’re doing with web based 3D spaces but also Gaussian splats all easily experienced, again, in your web browser (both on your computer/phone or in a headset). These spaces must remain accessible from a variety of devices.
Like the 2D web any of us should be able to host our own space. Many will opt to use a hosting service or a prebuilt world that they customize but the option to build it and host it yourself from the ground up must exist to create a vibrant community of virtual worlds.
I came back to this post with the recent announcements from the guy who renamed his company and the initial feeling that we were, once again, heading for a VR/Metaverse winter. We’re not. Valve has the Steam Frame coming soon. Google, for now (I know I know), is pushing ahead with AndroidXR. Open source tools and game engines are making it easier and easier to build things once and publish to multiple platforms (until standards unite them all!) allowing for rapid experimentation. Organizations like ImmersiveX and the Virtual Worlds Museum (2D site here) are actively building and evangelizing and engaging in multiple worlds.
While I feel for all of those who built something only to have it bought up and then killed and the numerous folks laid off this is likely all better for the greater ecosystem. The giant tech company was taking up a lot of space and now, perhaps, we can grow the Metaverse we want and deserve. There’s still a long road ahead of us but the foundation is being built now.