For Mark Zuckerberg, Metaverse is the future. But hardly anyone can say where this new world is and how to enter it. One of the few is Thomas Riedel. He is a Metaverse expert and explains in the podcast “So techt Deutschland” what to expect from it.
By Andreas Laukat
Many companies are already cavorting in the Metaverse. Celebrities also use the hype topic to draw attention to themselves. Soccer player Kevin Prince Boateng got married in real life in Italy a few days ago, at the same time the wedding also took place on the moon. Virtual viewers could even be there for 50 euros. This is made possible by the metaverse.
When Zuckerberg announced the Metaverse as the next big goal in October 2021, Thomas Riedel is “just in”. There was no podcast on the subject in Germany and he didn’t really have a clue. But then he went to work as a journalist and got the information he needed. At the same time, he wanted to “take his listeners with him on this journey,” says Riedel in the ntv podcast “So techt Deutschland”.
The subject of the metaverse is not new. As early as 2006, 55 researchers developed a 75-page “Metaverse Roadmap” at a conference. The growth of the Metaverse, once it has reached a critical threshold, will follow the spread of the Internet – only faster, according to the researchers’ thesis. More than 15 years later, we are hardly any smarter. For some people it’s the big hype, for others it’s just “big marketing” and the majority of people seem to have never heard of it.
Metaverse: based on science fiction novels
The image of Metaverse is primarily shaped by science fiction. Books like “Snow Crash” or “Neuromancer” are the best examples for Riedel. “You swim in the code. The Internet is a kind of code flow. You navigate and flow through it,” the podcaster describes the authors’ visions. Films from this period also express it, such as “The Lawnmower Man”, and later the blockbuster series “Matrix”.
The word metaverse appears for the first time in the science fiction novel “Snow Crash” (1992 Neal Stephenson). The word avatar is also written down in this book for the first time. The easiest way to approach the topic of the metaverse is to use the concept “by the book”, i.e. on the basis of novels. There isn’t anything else yet. No one really knows where the Metaverse is, what it is, or what it will look like. “What the author is describing is actually poetry and not the metaverse, but a metaphor,” explains Riedel.
In the book, a road runs around the globe. There are many properties along this road that you can “walk on”. In the novel, you enter the Metaverse by putting on a headset – i.e. VR glasses and can walk virtually from property to property. “The street is a metaphor for the connection of the individual buildings. Today one would say experiences,” explains the Metaverse expert. Basically, the Metaverse is something like the Internet, except that instead of connecting different websites, it’s “individual VR experiences,” explains Riedel. VR stands for virtual reality, and experiences can be games, educational content or even concerts that are held virtually.
“Even in 1992 nobody knew what the internet would become”
Access portals such as “Decentraland” are not the metaverse for Riedel. Far too many are now jumping on the Metaverse hype and want to make money from it. “These are all agencies, companies and corporations trying to make money in some way,” Riedel claims. The employees of Mark Zuckerberg’s company Meta don’t seem to really know where to go either. Some media reports that Zuckerberg is obsessed with the Metaverse, citing testimonies from former employees. It is said that he drives some employees up the wall.
Zuckerberg wants to turn an old idea into reality, or rather virtuality. Thomas Riedel also refers to the beginnings of the Internet: “Back then, the Internet consisted of many protocols. The web protocol was just one of them and nobody knew what the Internet would look like in 2022,” says the Metaverse expert. It’s not much different with the Metaverse. No one can predict what that will look like one day.
Metaverse: Right in the middle and always with everything
Immersive and interoperability – two terms that could be basic principles of the Metaverse, says Riedel. Immersive means that the user is right in the middle, i.e. the metaverse or the experience surrounds the user. Anyone who has ever used VR glasses knows this: “You have the feeling that you are in a different world with your own rules,” explains Riedel. Today, this effect is mainly known in computer games. The “immersion” in the game is particularly intense when playing with AR glasses.
The word interoperability describes the possibility of taking things, clothing and names with you to other worlds of experience. “It would be like if I could go from Facebook to Twitter and I’d look the same,” says Riedel. Simply uploading the same picture is not enough. In the Metaverse, everyone would create their own personal avatar once and use it everywhere – freedom of movement for avatars, so to speak. In the online game Fortnite, players sometimes spend a lot of money on the appearance of their avatar. So why shouldn’t gamers transfer this to other experience universes? Or maybe even into reality.
Some think it is conceivable that the appearance from the metaverse can be displayed using augmented reality glasses. So if one user met another on the street in the real world and both were wearing AR glasses, they could both see each other in the Metaverse guise. It’s not just science fiction anymore. Something like this already exists in a rudimentary form in the digital world. Apps that find friends and represent them visually. The path to virtual reality is now just a question of technical implementation using glasses.
Metaverse doesn’t take a break
There is also consensus on other principles of the Metaverse: its own economy, constant presence and live experiences offered by various actors. Even if the users are not in the Metaverse, life goes on there, just like in real life. The rapper Travis Scott gathered more than twelve million people in the online game at a live concert in Fortnite in 2020. Surely the issue of paying in the Metaverse shouldn’t pose a problem for companies. Digital payment systems already exist, the only question is which one will prevail.
The question of all questions is now who builds the bridges between the different worlds and experiences. How does a Fortnite player get into the next shopping experience, for example buying clothing from Zalando? He wants to take his looks, his money, his belongings with him. The user should not leave the metaverse to participate in another experience. If Mark Zuckerberg has his way, his platforms would be the go-betweens. However, most players such as game providers or fashion providers have not yet shown any ambition to open the way to other experiences for their users.
Conclusion: There are still many question marks around the Metaverse
There are still many question marks when it comes to metaverse. Mark Zuckerberg makes a huge bet on the future. He invests a lot of money and resources in the Metaverse theme. Why did the Meta Group take this risk? Facebook has just shown that interoperability is not a strength of the platform. The basic technology for the metaverse is there, but still insufficient and not user-friendly. Many people also end up paying attention to how they look with VR glasses.
Appearance and operation should also play an important role in augmented reality glasses, as they are intended to be worn in the real world. Hardly anyone, apart from a few nerds, would like to sit alone on the sofa and stare into heavy VR glasses. Also, some important questions are still unanswered: Does the Metaverse make economic sense and what do we want with the Metaverse?
There is more about the Metaverse in the current podcast episode of “So techt Germany”. In it, Metaverse expert Thomas Riedel also talks about paying in the Metaverse and why cryptocurrencies are not a good choice for him.