The metaverse can be described as an environment parallel to the physical world where people spend their digital life. It is a shared visual space with a large quantity of interconnected and immersive virtual environments where people can interact with each other and objects similar to doing so in the real world. This is a collective space that seamlessly blends physical and digital reality, providing a novel social and gaming experience.
What can you Play in the Metaverse?
There are a multitude of games which are considered to be part of the metaverse, with one of which being Pokémon GO. This is an interactive videogame which uses augmented reality to blur the lines between the physical world and digital reality. Additionally one of the most successful online games ever created, Fortnite, is also considered to be included in this metaverse. This is because the platform hosts live music concerts with big name artists, such as Billie Eilish. Additionally, major brands use Fortnite’s creative mode in order to create content and experiment with the possibilities the metaverse can provide. Expanding upon the topic of major brands, brands such as Vans and Nike, have used the game Roblox to create virtual world in order to allow users to interact with their products.
What are the most Popular Games in the Metaverse?
Currently within the metaverse, the top three most popular games in 2022 were:
- Fortnite – 350 million players
- Roblox – 230 million players
- Minecraft – 141 million players
However, there are recommendations and player bases concerning these less popular games:
- RecRoom
- Axie Infinity
- Illuvium
- Decentraland
- Somnium Space
- The Sandbox
- My Neighbor Alice
- Bloktopia
- Alien Worlds
- Splinterlands
- Star Atlas
- Gods Unchained
- DeFi Kingdoms
Overall, it can be illustrated that games considered to be within the metaverse are extremely popular, with Fortnite being ranked number 1 on the Top Ten Most Played Games of 2022 according to Newzoon.
How can we Access the Metaverse?
Currently, the metaverse is centred on the use of virtual and augmented reality, avatars, and digital ownership, where you are represented by a customizable avatar that interacts with other avatars in an online community. You can access this virtual universe using a range of means, such as a smartphone, Windows PC, gaming PC’s and virtual reality headsets. Additionally, there are metaverse platforms which require a specific platform, such as Meta’s Horizon series which requires individuals to use a virtual reality headset. Using virtual reality in order to access the metaverse created the most immersive experience, but a gaming laptop can allow access to some of these worlds too. For example, RecRoom allows users to enter using a virtual reality headset, PC, smartphone, or tablet, which allows for flexibility. However, it can be noted that participating using a PC or a virtual reality headset allows for the most optimum experience for the user.
What are the Benefits?
There are a huge variety of benefits the metaverse has to offer, with a primary benefit being that it allows an immersive type of digital interaction and communication with other players. This has allowed for platforms, such as RecRoom, to be used within companies to provide opportunities for their employees to connect with each other around the world. Additionally, this had allowed for enterprises to create an immersive means for presenting their services and products through interactive means and engagement. Furthering this, an additional feature of the metaverse is the focus on learning and training, as e-learning through virtual reality, and the metaverse, has created more immersive, interactive, and engaging environments. Research has shown that learning through virtual reality is significantly more effective than traditional face to face learning (PWC, 2020; Zhao et al., 2021).
Are there any Dangers?
As with all other online platforms, there are some dangers such as cyberbullying which can occur in the metaverse. This can be primarily due to the Online Disinhibition effect, which causes people to act differently in the virtual world compared to the real world due to this layer of invisibility and anonymity all virtual worlds have to offer. However, measures across all online platforms are being put in place to help decrease this, such as two-factor authentication, mandatory links to a phone number, as well as links to social media platform accounts. This aids in decreasing the high levels of invisibility and anonymity that can become apparent within the online world.
How can the Metaverse Aid Organizations?
The metaverse can help to increase team work and collaboration due to not requiring the employees to be in the same physical environment. This means that companies who have teams across the globe can “meet up” in virtual reality, with the high levels of immersion leaving the individuals feeling that they have physically spent time with their team. Expanding upon this, the virtual reality collaboration platform, Morpheus, has announced that it has launched its virtual reality remote platform in order to increase engagement across enterprises. This aims to create an environment in which firms can use to help create healthier corporate culture, reduce Zoom fatigue, and help to bring the company into the ever developing future of technology. This platform not only provides a means to which employees can engage with each other, but also allows for custom consulting and stake holder engagement services to build virtual meeting services. This advancement in virtual reality allowed Morpheus to facilitate virtual reality collaboration sessions for large technological companies, such as Google, Adobe, and Biogen. This highlights the advancement in technology and how virtual reality can aid in making these technological changes.
Overall Conclusions
From the above, it is evident that the metaverse is a popular and rapidly growing virtual world which creates highly immersive environments for its players. Additionally, this can not just be used within the gaming context but has practical and educational benefits for organizations of all types. Even though there may be the danger of cyberbullying, which is an issue all online platforms face, the benefits and innovative opportunities the metaverse has to offer are without question invaluable.
VRE offers a range of services supporting organisations with broad needs
- VR Team Building – reconnect your remote teams with incredibly engaging virtual face to face activities
- VR Leadership Assessment and Development – using the latest VR assessment technology we can tell you if your team is a real team and how they can change their behaviour to be a high performing team
- VR Hire – we have hire hubs all over the world to help deliver our VR services, so you can use our VR hire to support your own VR training projects and pilots
- VR Management and Leadership training – we offer a wide range of training across these topics, from half day courses down to 90 min high impact sessions, the beauty of VR is you can now offer much more flexible programme design because there is no travel involved
- VR Soft Skills training – we offer a wide range of soft skills training for all levels in an organisation, covering the key skills and behaviours essential for productive working in a modern organisation
Sources
PWC. (2020). The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Soft Skills Training in the Enterprise Public Report The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Soft Skills Training in the Enterprise.
Zhao, G., Fan, M., Yuan, Y., Zhao, F., & Huang, H. (2021). The comparison of teaching efficiency between virtual reality and traditional education in medical education: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Annals of Translational Medicine, 9(3), 252–252. https://doi.org/10.21037/ATM-20-2785
