The metaverse is a term that has been gaining popularity in recent years as businesses begin to see its potential as the technology of the future economy. While the word is becoming more commonly used, its definition can still be quite vague. With the metaverse being dubbed the next “big thing,” it’s important to understand what it is and what it could mean for the future.
In the Metaverse, people can connect with each other in digital worlds that feel just like the real world. By combining the Greek word meta, meaning “beyond”, with the word universe, we get a pretty accurate picture of what the Metaverse is all about – an extension of reality where anything is possible.
In online games and apps, players enter virtual communities where they represent themselves as avatars. These 3D “worlds” simulate real life, with players engaging in activities such as creating and selling items, investing in others, and being rewarded for their efforts. Just like in the physical world, these digital communities require cooperation and offer opportunities for social interaction. In online games and apps, players enter virtual communities where they represent themselves as avatars. These 3D “worlds” simulate real life, with players engaging in activities such as creating and selling items, investing in others, and being rewarded for their efforts. Just like in the physical world, these digital communities require cooperation and offer opportunities for social interaction.
The Metaverse is a digital world that seamlessly blends games, virtual reality, live-streaming, cryptocurrencies, and social media. Players can move across an ecosystem of competing products, acquiring digital art pieces, currency, and other items that can be used in different games and virtual realities. The Metaverse provides a unique and immersive experience for all players.
The metaverse is the next wave of computing technology that will take us beyond mainframes and mobile devices. Some of the biggest names in tech and investing believe that the metaverse will change the way we interact with computers and the internet forever.
Some of the most influential people in the development of the metaverse are listed below.
When Facebook rebranded as Meta in 2021, they were not the only company to have been working on developing the metaverse. Here are some of the leading pioneers and early movers in this space:
Epic Games
Epic Games is the creator of a game that has taken the world by storm- Fortnite. This multiplayer shooting game has become much more than just a game in recent years. It has evolved into a digital events place where users can attend dance parties and virtual music concerts. Whether you’re looking for some light-hearted fun or want to be transported to another world, Fortnite has something for everyone.
Epic Games continues to provide end-to-end solutions for both developers and non-creatives to make, distribute, and operate games and other content. Its developers can move across brands and platforms, including Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, PC, iOS, and Android.
Microsoft
Microsoft, the leader in work-related software, acquired Minecraft in 2014. Created by Stockholm-based Mojang in 2009, Minecraft is a lego-like environment where players move, mine, and craft materials into tools they can use to build their own world and defend themselves against monsters.
Satya Nadella voiced the company’s intention to stay ahead of others in the virtual world when announcing the 2022 takeover of activision blizzard, which is the creator of call of duty, diablo, and overwatch.
Roblox
Roblox, which was originally released on PC in 2006 and is now also available on mobile and Xbox, hosts around 50 million user-created games. The cute and colorful appearance of the mini-games it offers has made Roblox a big hit among kids. Some popular examples of the kinds of games you can find on Roblox include Adopt Me, which simulates caring for pet animals, and Brookhaven, a role-playing game where players can style their homes and vehicles.
Developers can sell items, usually accessories for an avatar. Players can buy and resell them. Premium subscribers can convert the digital currency from this game called Robux into real money if they are at least 13 years old and have earnings of at least 100,000 Robux in their account.
Players can join forums on Roblox to meet new friends. They can also invite friends to play a game using Roblox’s messaging system.
NVidia
NVidia, one of the industry leaders in graphics processing units, is also deep into the metaverse. It has been working for years toward the launch of Omniverse™. With its beta version introduced in 2020, this simulation and collaboration platform can create tools with practical uses in the real world, such as 3d avatars with virtual assistant capabilities. Founder and CEO Jensen Huang said Omniverse will be available as an open-source tool to individual creators.
Niantic
Niantic is the software development company best known for making the 2016 augmented reality mobile game Pokemon Go. Founder and CEO John Hanke believes in bringing people closer to the real world than the other way around. The company conveyed this in its 2021 “Meet You Out There” campaign, emphasizing AR’s capability to enhance real-world experiences. Weeks before the campaign, it released the Lightship AR Developer Kit.
The company expects to fully roll out its bitcoin-collection AR game called Fold in 2020. The game will be available via app.
Metaverse Game Requirements:
Internet Connection
VR Headset from a budget Google Cardboard to more expensive ones from Valve, SONY, HTC, HP, or Oculus Quest.
PC or mobile device to connect to.
Blockchain wallet for cryptocurrency that each game uses.
10 Metaverse Games to Check Out:
Axie Infinity
A Vietnamese start-up called Sky Mavis released a game in 2018 called Axie Infinity. This game was inspired by Pokemon and features fantasy creatures called Axies. Players can breed, raise, collect, and trade these creatures. Each creature has over 500 body parts that can be customized. The offspring of Axies acquire new powers and characteristics, depending on their gene combination.
Axies can go on treasure hunts or battle against other Axies to earn rewards. You can buy land and homes for your Axies to live in and customize them according to the resources on the platform.
This game uses non-fungible tokens or digital certificates of ownership that are governed by blockchain technology in order to give value to virtual pets and other items. In addition, players can earn tokens by lending three of their axies to scholars or other people. The game’s main currency is called axie infinity shards or axs. Finally, players earn smooth love potion or slp tokens for beating opponents and completing in-game quests. Both axs and slp tokens are necessary for breeding new axies.
Decentraland
In 2020, Argentinian duo Ari Meilich and Esteban Ordano opened Decentraland to the public. Using the Mana cryptocurrency, you can create avatars, buy wearables, and acquire real estate in this virtual space consisting of over 90,000 land parcels. As a landowner, you can rent out lots—each measuring 16 virtual square meters—or whatever is on it: houses, hotels, parks, cinemas, casinos, and what have you. You can also earn income by organizing a concert and selling tickets, setting up an exhibit to show off your art, or simply by placing a virtual machine that generates Mana.
The Sandbox
The Sandbox was first launched in 2012 as a mobile game by Pixelowl co-founders Arthur Madrid and Sébastien Borget. The game is a user-generated platform where users, represented by customizable block avatars, become owners of what they create through blockchain and smart contracts.
Sandbox’s three main products are VoxEdit, the Marketplace, and the Game Maker. VoxEdit is a 3D modeling tool where users can create avatars, vehicles, plants, animals, tools, and other objects. These creations can be exported into Sandbox’s second product, the Marketplace, where they can be sold. The final product is the Game Maker, where users can develop 3D games without using code.
The main currency in the Sandbox is called SAND. You can acquire and trade land and estates a collection of lands, which you can select from the Sandbox map. There’s also an option for you to offer these properties in the open sea NFT marketplace.
Illuvium
People are talking excitedly about the upcoming release of Illuvium, which is being billed as a triple-A 3D blockchain game. In Illuvium, players hunt for powerful creatures known as Illuvials on a strange alien world, using shards to capture them or nursing them back to health. These creatures can then help players fight other players and monsters, of which there are over a hundred. If you have three of the same type of illuvial, you can merge them into one new creature, which will be more valuable than the three separate creatures.
Players earn rewards in the form of illuvium crypto or ilv after tournaments and quests, which they can then exchange on the illuvidex.
Chain of Alliance
Chain of Alliance is a role-playing game involving customizable monsters with NFT value. You have to field up to eight characters in your team per round. To raise your winning opportunity, you should determine the best players and arm them with the best weapons.
My Neighbor Alice
The game flow of My Neighbor Alice is similar to Farmville where players can cultivate virtual farming plots or even islands. Players can choose the crops to grow, the livestock to breed and interact with others. There are also other livelihood options like running an apiary or bee farm and selling honey. Alice’s NFTs, which include plants, animals, houses, clothes, and decor, can be traded on Alice’s marketplace and other blockchains.
Krystopia
Puzzle and maze lovers will enjoy Krystopia, an adventure game where you step into the shoes of Captain Nova Dune, a space explorer who heads to planet Krystopia after spotting a mysterious distress signal from it. Nova and her alien pet Skrii would encounter its inhabitants and get into escape room-type challenges in the process.
Alien Worlds
The game “Alien Worlds” was launched in 2020. In the game, you play as a space explorer who has to mine a currency called “trilium” from six different planets. Each planet in the game has its own government, and your “voting rights” in the game depend on how much of the in-game currency you have staked on that planet.
To get more powerful mining tools, it’s best to either buy your own land or pay a landowner to start excavating. You can also earn tokens by battling other explorers and going on mining missions.
Farmers World
In Farmers World, releasing in 2021, you’ll be able to buy land to mine gold, grow crops, breed livestock, catch fish, and build homes for your farm animals. You can buy tools on the AtomicHub market. Your entire virtual property and the goods that come out of it, including milk and eggs, are non-fungible tokens. You can sell or trade the produce you harvest to other players.
You need to protect your farm from raiders of the Red and White tribes, as well as other players who can steal your resources. You also need to be prepared to fight jungle monsters that come onto your farm property.
Prospectors
The creators of the prospectors game describe it as a 19th century Wild West themed economic strategy game. The objective of the game is to acquire gold which can be converted into the official game currency, known as prospectors gold.
At the beginning of the game, you have three workers that you can use for yourself or for other players. To begin with, your workers can build a mine for you and start mining. You can mine on unclaimed land, but you will have to pay rent to build structures on it. Unpaid rent will cause the land to be blocked and your belongings on it will be put up for auction.