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Here’s a Metaverse Protocol Proposal Linking Virtual Worlds – If We Need One?

Kim Nevelsteen Metaverse protocol

Metaverse technologist Kim Nevelsteen, who created that quite cool project which seamlessly connects different Minecraft servers to each other, has promoted an epic manifesto from the M3 group proposing Metaverse connectivity between a wide variety of virtual worlds, including WebVR,  VRChat, Minecraft and beyond:

"People are searching for a standardized Metaverse protocol," Kim says, summarizing his purpose. "Even if that's achieved, the overhead of updating the integrated systems will impair a Metaverse. An architecture with dynamic evolution is required and currently IPSME is the only one that satisfies all criteria, as far as I know." (That stands for Idempotent Publish/Subscribe Messaging Environment, on which he co-authored this academic paper .)

This is all admirably ambitious, but with self-described metaverses like ROBLOX and VRChat already quite massive, I'm starting to wonder if we need a single Metaverse protocol connecting them:

"What's the core advantage of creating portals to disparate virtual worlds?" as I put it to Kim on Twitter. "Other than it being kinda cool."

Which led to this ongoing conversation which I hope you join:

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

My sense is that there's more than enough room for many metaverses, and few people really care all that much about linking them in a more seamless way than what we already have. After all, you could call Steam a metaverse portal, taking you from VRChat to Rec Room and beyond with a few clicks and several minutes of wait time. Isn't that already good enough for most of us?

Update, May 10:  Per Kim Nevelsteen in Comments, corrected a couple mistaken attributions. Apologies for the confusion!

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7 responses to “Here’s a Metaverse Protocol Proposal Linking Virtual Worlds – If We Need One?”

  1. Animats Avatar
    Animats

    Going between systems is more valuable if you can move your stuff, too. If you can pack up and move, the landlords of VR worlds can’t get too uppity.

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  2. Niclas Johansson Avatar
    Niclas Johansson

    Are you serious when you’re suggesting to readers of this post that we should be content with “a few clicks and several minutes of wait time” for hopping between destinations in the “worlds-wide meta-metaverse”… rather than striving for the simplicity (and instant transportation) of links between websites? Just checking.

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  3. sirhc desantis Avatar
    sirhc desantis

    Had hoped we had seen the last of the tech evangelists. As for the ‘why do we need links’ angle – erm it was designed in from the start. That was the point.
    And nod to Animats – though some decided a while back to make sure the bits that in some way define ‘us’ are (totally revised to where possible or even if it makes sense) portable. Why yes I do have a minecraft av 🙂

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  4. knev Avatar
    knev

    I’m said technologist above. I would like to point out some inaccuracies in the post.
    In the original Tweet, the link pointing to the “manifesto” was from the m3 group; m3 is the group trying to find a common standard between their worlds.
    Also, Cornell is not a publisher, but a pre-print server for preliminary results. The actual publication will be published by ACM in the fall of 2021.
    As for the final question, I will take that on Twitter.

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  5. Fionalein Avatar
    Fionalein

    The Metaverse is a dream of a desusional few. The rest of us will just be happy opening 2 programs simultaniously. I can be in two places at once without people even knowing I am the ssame user behind both avatars… where exactley is the benefit in loosing that freedom?

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  6. Wagner James Au Avatar
    Wagner James Au

    Are you serious when you’re suggesting to readers of this post that we should be content with “a few clicks and several minutes of wait time” for hopping between destinations in the “worlds-wide meta-metaverse”.
    No, I suspect we’ll get to several seconds within the decade, even on Steam, that’s a solvable problem. But not the clicks. Metaverse or not, we’ll probably always need to go through some opt-in steps before going from one experience/IP realm to the next.

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  7. Adeon Writer Avatar
    Adeon Writer

    VRChat requires you opt-in to visiting any world it has not greenlit – so the idea of going from one experinces to about her without clicks is a pipe dream. Even websites warn you when you are about to leave.

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