Wagner James Au / New World Notes

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The Metaverse We Want Isn’t About Bridging 3D Content, But People

SL metaverse grid exploration

Really great comment from " irihapeti", responding to Jim Purbrick's thoughts on making a metaverse that operates like a system of links between different 3D platforms and experiences:

I think that we have to get away from stuff (rendered objects) as the driver of how we think about the metaverse. As while we do this then is a circular conversation about this render engine, that render engine, some other render engine, and how they can all be reconciled so that we can take our stuff with us where ever we go.

I don't think it is about this, because it is endlessly circular. New technologies come and old technologies go. Stuff gets obsoleted as new stuff is created/made.

So what remains constant in all of this ?

We do, the people.

Here's what irihapeti means:

The first constant thing about me (a person) is my username.

The 2nd constant thing is my list of friends/acquaintances/contacts.

The 3rd constant is my ability to communicate with them no matter what viewer/browser/device/platform I might be using at any given moment.

The 4th constant is my ability to deposit and withdraw my money safely and securely, so that I can buy stuff/experiences for any particular world/game/viewport of the metaverse and/or get paid for stuff/experiences that I provide in any of the different offerings/views.

That the triangles that compose my avatar and stuff may not be transferable between the different worlds/games/viewports when I portal between them is neither here nor there really. Stuff is stuff is stuff

The constant reinforcement is that when I portal between say Second Life and Fortnite or Eve or Rust or whichever, then when I friend somebody where ever I am then we are on each others lists no matter where ever else we may be thereafter. This is what binds us, as people, and it is this binding on which the metaverse can be founded. The relationships between ourselves and other people.

If we had the money to make this, then where would we start?

I would suggest to first buy/build a contacts messaging management app. Then buy/build something like Tilia and back this into the messaging app. Constants: Identity + Relationships + Money. Money induces trade. Trade provides earnings to pay the bills.

Then once we have this then make a robust API, and make this API available to organizations/companies/independents to hook in their view of the metaverse (whatever form of triangles they may be). And then within our constant app we create a 3D Google/Bing-like search facility and map, of all the offerings from those orgs.

From a new user's point of view:

Download the Constant Metaverse app. Create an account. Look in search. See say Second Life listed. Click the button. Says I need to download the SL viewer. Press Ok. It downloads and I am automagically on the Starter Island in my SL newbie outfit.

Pick Rust, download, auto logged in and I am naked. Same with any other world/game/experience/concert venue/etc that I haven't been too before.

And over time as I travel all the different places then I will create/buy/acquire stuff for each of the different views of the metaverse as I go.

Like 2D websites, all the different worlds/games/viewports will rise and fall, but the constant metaverse, the binding, remains. Always there, always on.

This sounds largely right — notwithstanding Adeon Writer's snarky reply, "You have just described Steam." I'd flip that point around and say Valve should very much do something like what irihapeti describes, with an added shared social space (as opposed to a glorified Skype-for-games, which is what Steam feels like now). Discord is doing something like what irihapeti describes too, but succeeding far more than Steam.

Having said that, I guess a key problem with this metaphor is that only dynamic content the average user can create on Discord or Steam are words (in game reviews) or engagements (start ratings, etc.) And while irihapeti makes a really strong case, I don't think a metaverse worth the name will be worth the name until users can not only access all those worlds/games, but build upon them too.

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5 responses to “The Metaverse We Want Isn’t About Bridging 3D Content, But People”

  1. JK Avatar
    JK

    The 4th one is optional.
    Monetization can happen outside of it.

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  2. Joey1058 Avatar
    Joey1058

    Many years ago, when I had first learned of Google creating a wallet, I was mesmerized. This, I had innocently thought, was what would unite online and offline experiences. All my money, all my value, would be stored on a wallet. I could go shopping, anywhere, online or RL, and I could make purchases with a combination of L$, fiat, mfg. coupons, and gaming points. And the software would calculate the current value and deduct accordingly.
    I also dreamed of a master ID database that was operated by ICANN, and controlled by the users. This sadly got usurped by walled gardens. Same thing with a contact list. Microsoft was doing well on that front, then everyone wanted a piece of their own pie.
    We’re fast approaching the era of spacial computing. The elephant in the room is that we will never be rid of the walled gardens. But the dirty little secret is that open source is spacial computing’s champion. While wishing wont make it so, we are at least stumbling along in the right direction. We can still have all four of those bullet items, but it’s a LONG row to hoe.

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  3. irihapeti Avatar
    irihapeti

    @JK
    the money is quite important to stimulate User Generated Content. That people can make stuff/experiences for use by other people like themselves within the various views and get paid to do so
    i think that most people would quite like a single wallet (as Joey mentions) to connect their RL payment method too. And from the wallet buy the different tokens (in whatever form they are for each of the views) to buy the stuff within the different views
    buying different tokens is no different to buying USD, Euro, Pound, AUD, etc to buy stuff in each countries local shops
    and as I mentioned, the way I think to do is this is with a Tilia-like facility. It manages the trading of tokens between the users, and their conversion to to/from RL fiat currencies. We need only connect our RL payment method to this one point
    when we don’t have a wallet then we are stuck with connecting our RL payment method to each and every world/view

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  4. sirhc desantis Avatar
    sirhc desantis

    Very rare for me to disagree with Iri San in any of their forms but with this I have to, with respect. I value the disconnect across platforms and have deep misgivings on tying together the various personas/representations. Not for anything nefarious as I am far too old for all that nonsense =^^=
    It is not the anonymity. Those that know me – know who I am. And I already have the facility to tie together basic meatspace currency so do not feel the need to add another level.
    People come and go and change. I have no desire to drag the same around with me wherever I go. Strikes me as hubris almost. Such is life.
    SL taught me that. And also how to make sure my ‘stuff’ can go with me if I want it. And some of it does, hence the veneer of anonymity which is very thin.

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  5. irihapeti Avatar
    irihapeti

    @sirhc
    personally I am not emotionally bound to my SL avatar name/nick/handle identifier. I open and close SL accounts probably more than anyone – one main account at a time, time after time. I don’t have my irihapeti account in SL anymore. I just deleted it when I decided to not play on there for a while. I have always done that. When not using an account on any platform then I delete it
    my current SL account is about 2 years old now. Which is the 7th regeneration for me now in SL. People who know me from past SL accounts know me on my latest as well. I came back to SL when I read about Bellissaria. I thought that looks interesting so created a new account and logged in to have a look
    a thing is that I am an outlier in the great mass of humanity. Most people are not like me. They are bound to their identities – pseudo-anonymous or otherwise. And it is the great mass of people into identity who make up the very much larger numbers. While there are practical reasons for maintaining the same identifier, like venue/shop/blog owner, much of identity is tied up in id, which is emotional – who I am, where do I belong, who knows me, and other thoughts like this
    by identity I don’t necessarily mean RL identity, even tho some people are into showing/exposing this about themselves. Like Hamlet Au for example
    you are sirhc desantis and it is as this that you show yourself, as and where you choose. Which is fine and just as good as if you named yourself say sirhc santis or desantis sirhc. No more and no less good and fine
    no more than for example does deleting my irihapeti SL account make me not irihapeti. At least in the context of showing myself publicly in the comments section of this blog
    walled gardens and ad-hoc disjointed open efforts at the metaverse are actually suited for the fewer people like me. We don’t particularly care about identity – any name/nick/handle for us is as good as any other. Not so for the much larger group of people to whom the consistent constant is their identity in an ever changing world. And unless the metaverse organises itself on this constant then is going to forever be a playground for the fewer people like me

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