2021 is the well-deserved first year of the Metaverse.
The "Metaverse" presents explosive power beyond imagination, behind which is the "crowd effect" (C) ritual mass of related "Metaverse" elements, similar to the "crowd effect" experienced by the Internet in 1995. —— Zhu Jiaming
This novel concept quickly became popular this year, triggering heated discussions in the technology circles, investment circles, and cultural circles. It has become the focus of market attention and is considered to be a revolution in the next generation of Internet interactive forms.
However, before starting the discussion, we have to clarify a question: What exactly is the Metaverse?
01. What is the Metaverse?
Metaverse, Metaverse, Meta means transcendence, and verse means universe: an artificial space that runs parallel to the real world.
According to the current general knowledge in the industry, the Metaverse is a virtual reality world built using blockchain, virtual space, AR/VR and other technologies. The Metaverse, where virtual and reality intersect, can be understood as an artificial virtual space that runs parallel to the real world. It replicates the underlying logic of the real world and provides users with rich content and an immersive interactive experience.
▲ "2020-2021 Metaverse Development Research Report - Tsinghua University"
To put it more simply, there is a virtual space where everyone has a virtual identity and can enter this space through technologies such as AR/VR. In this space that is infinitely close to the real world, we can do all the things in the real world, such as trading, socializing, learning, shopping, entertainment, games, work and so on.
Here, the only limit is your imagination.
02. Imagination and attempts on metaverse
The concept of the metaverse may be novel, but this is not the first time we have come into contact with such a setting about virtual space.
As early as 1981, the "cyberpunk genre" writer Feynor Vinci conceived a virtual world in the science fiction novel "True Name", in which people can enter through a brain-computer interface and have sensory experiences.
In 1992, the famous American science fiction writer Neil Stephenson further concretized this virtual world in the novel "Avalanche". The concept of "Metaverse" mentioned above was proposed by him.
In the book, Neil Stephenson constructs an online world parallel to the real world, calling it the "metaverse", in which everyone in reality has a "network avatar".
The protagonist sees the scene of the Metaverse through the eyepiece device, and is in a computer-generated virtual world with bright lights and millions of people walking on Central Avenue.
Going a little further, everyone is familiar with "Ready Player One", the "oasis" in it is a virtual world, as long as you bring a VR device, you can enter it.
▲ Science fiction movie "Ready Player One"
Of course, these are all at the level of imagination.
But actually, in reality, we've tried something like that.
There is such a game called "Minecraft". All the objects and creatures in the game are composed of small squares. Compared with other well-made masterpieces, this game is a bit rough. But players are never tired of it, where they can use small cubes to create buildings, works and artistic creations.
National Architect & Cthuwork studio head took the lead in building a Forbidden City in "Minecraft" with 100 million squares. Undergraduates from Fudan University built a computer in it. Players can even hold events in it, such as holding graduation ceremonies .
On June 16, 2020, graduates of the School of Animation and Digital Art of Communication University of China restored the scenes inside and outside the campus in "My World" and organized a "graduation ceremony". During the live broadcast of the "ceremony", the principal also reminded the students: "Don't fly around on the red carpet." Ah, it's too magical~
▲ "Communication University of China Creative "Cloud Graduation" Creates a Graduation Ceremony in the Game World"
03. Roblox is the first to extract the Metaverse
Speaking of the Metaverse, Roblox has to be mentioned. Roblox is the first company to include the "Metaverse" in its prospectus, and is known as "the first stock in the Metaverse".
Roblox provides both the game and the tools to create it (Roblox Studio, a creator development tool), and most of the content in the game is created by players. At the same time, it also has strong social attributes. If you have an interesting game idea, you can call other players to create it together. Players can not only freely output content and participate in real-time, but also have an independent closed-loop economic system.
Users can run Roblox on mobile phones, desktops, game consoles and VR headsets. First, you need to register an avatar, through which you can access most of the virtual world.
《Roblox》
In Roblox, Robux is the main currency in circulation. Players buy Robux and consume Robux. Developers and creators earn Robux by building games, and Robux can be reinvested in the game, used to continue investing, or exchanged for real-world currency. When users buy props or clothing, the Robux they pay is actually paid to the developer of the props, of course Roblox will charge a small commission.
In 2020, more than 1.2 million developers have earned Robux, of which more than 1,250 developers have earned up to $10,000, and more than 300 developers have earned up to $100,000. From January to September 2020, users accumulatively recharged USD 1.2 billion, of which consumption was USD 590 million.
Roblox is present in 180 countries, and the company hopes to penetrate other markets by investing in translation-assistive technology. In addition, Roblox is exploring the huge potential of the Chinese market through a joint venture with gaming and technology giant Tencent.
04. Eight characteristics of the metaverse
Roblox proposed eight key features leading to the "Metaverse": Identity (identity), Friends (friends), Immersive (immersion), Low Friction (low latency), Variety (diversity), Anywhere (anywhere), Economy (Economy), Civility (civilization).
Identity (identity): After everyone logs in to this game, they will get a corresponding virtual identity. This virtual identity has nothing to do with the identity in reality, and belongs to an "avatar" of us in the metaverse .
Friends: The metaverse has a built-in social network, and the activities and communication of each virtual identity are carried out in the metaverse.
Immersive: When we read books, watch movies or TV shows, we also have such an immersive experience. However, the feeling of being immersed in a book or movie is different from the feeling of being immersed in a game. In the game, players can easily ignore external influences and feelings, and be completely in the game situation.
Low Friction: Game latency is the speed at which data travels from the game client to the server and back again. In the Metaverse, everything happens synchronously, there is no asynchronicity or delay, and the experience is flawless.
Variety: The virtual world has freedom and diversity beyond reality, and can provide rich and differentiated content.
Anywhere (anywhere): Not limited by space, you can enter and exit the game anytime, anywhere.
Economy: Like Roblox, the Metaverse has its own economy. It is possible to trade virtual goods, pay for virtual currencies, and even make investments.
Civilization (civilization): In the metaverse, we can live and form a community, and then gradually develop and grow into a big city, and form common rules for everyone, and evolve into a civilized society.
05. The economic system of the Metaverse
In the "metaverse", there is no farming society and industrial society experienced by human beings, nor does the traditional industrial structure of the real world exist. In the "metaverse", the "digital economy" will be the basic form of economic activities, and the natural form of financial currency can no longer be precious metals, but a virtual social currency.
The digital economy is an economic activity in which data is the main factor of production. It includes not only the production, circulation, and consumption of material products, but also the creation, exchange, and consumption of digital products. In other words, whether it is a material product or an immaterial product, as long as digital technology or data is used in any link of production, circulation, and consumption, it is within the scope of the digital economy. The metaverse economy strictly restricts all links of creation, exchange, and consumption of digital products to be completed in the digital world.
Elements of metaverse economy include digital creation, digital assets, digital market, digital currency, and digital consumption. Its characteristics are obviously different from the traditional economy, manifested in the unity of planning and market, the unity of production and consumption, the unity of supervision and freedom, and the unity of behavior and credit.
Metaverse economy is an inevitable choice for many platform companies. All platform companies more or less share some of the characteristics of being integrated into the metaverse economy, although their manifestations are slightly different. Table 1-2 gives a comparison of different types of metaverse economic systems.
▲ "Finally someone clarified the "Metaverse"! "
06. The technical basis of the Metaverse
1. Improve the immersion of the game through interactive technologies such as AR and VR
The improvement of immersion has always been one of the directions that game technology development needs to break through.
Extended reality includes VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), and MR (merged reality).
VR provides an immersive experience, and realizes information input and output in the metaverse by fully taking over human vision, hearing, touch and motion capture. AR superimposes a layer of virtual information on the basis of retaining the real world. MR can achieve partial retention and free switching between virtual and real by projecting a light field to the retina.
2. Improve the accessibility and accessibility of games through 5G and cloud computing technology
The user scale of Metaverse will reach the billion level, which means that it needs a strong communication foundation and computing foundation to support it.
At present, most large-scale games adopt the client + server mode, which has high requirements on the performance of the client device and the carrying capacity of the server, especially in the rendering of 3D graphics, which completely relies on terminal computing. In order to lower the threshold for users and expand the market, it is necessary to separate computing and display, and complete rendering on the cloud GPU. Therefore, the development of 5G and cloud computing technology will be the key to the accessibility of metaverse games in the future.
3. Reduce the threshold of content creation through blockchain and AI technology, and improve the scalability of the game
Content production: Intelligently generate massive, non-repetitive content to realize the spontaneous and organic growth of the Metaverse.
Content presentation: The AI-driven virtual digital human presents the contents of the Metaverse to users in an organized manner.
Content review: Review the massive content in the Metaverse that cannot be completed manually to ensure the safety and legality of the Metaverse.
The virtual currency based on the decentralized network makes the value attribution, circulation, realization and verification of virtual identity in the Metaverse possible. It has the advantages of stability, high efficiency, transparent rules and certainty. In addition, NFT (Non-Fungible Token) has a natural collection attribute due to its unique, non-replicable, and non-detachable characteristics, so it can be used to record and trade some digital assets, such as game props, artwork, etc.
07. Status Quo of Metaverse Industry
Overseas, in addition to Roblox, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft are also making high-profile deployments.
On July 27, 2021, Facebook announced that it will establish a Metaverse team and transform it into a Metaverse company within five years.
In China, major game manufacturers have also keenly observed the opportunities in the Metaverse.
At the end of 2020, Tencent proposed the concept of "True Internet", claiming that it can "transform reality into virtuality and help users achieve a more real experience".
ByteDance is also making frequent moves this year. In April, it invested in the game developer Code Qiankun. In August, it acquired the Chinese VR equipment company PICO.
MetaApp's company also received a US$100 million Series C round of financing led by SIG Haina Asia Capital, followed by founding partners CCV and Cloud Nine Capital.
