How to Embrace The Metaverse

If you could be anyone you wanted to be, who would you be? How exciting is it to think that you could start a new chapter in your life in a whole new world? Without the limitations of the physical world and human constructs that have been created around you?

Well that’s where the Metaverse comes in. There are whole new worlds being created out there that will remove the physical limitations of life and allow you to chase your dreams and be who you want to be.

Sounds pretty exciting right? Let’s dig in a little more to understand what this might look like.

SO, WHAT IS THE METAVERSE?

Simply put, the Metaverse is the convergence of all the digital things you do online into one virtual experience.

In a sense, it already exists. We sit on Zoom calls, research on the web, talk on social media, buy things on Amazon, watch streaming events and online video, and play games. The Metaverse is already here.

But think of tying all of it together and removing some of the limitations that still exist in your physical life when you access the web.

But how is this all of the sudden now possible?

HOW WILL THE METAVERSE BE POSSIBLE?

The Metaverse will be possible because of Web 3.0 technologies. I’m going to keep this high level because it gets technical pretty quick.

Web 3.0 is based on Blockchain technology. This is allowing the digital tracking and digital exchange of value through crypto currencies like Euthereum. And on some of these blockchains, they have what are called smart contracts, the ability to track transactions digitally to enable purchasing products which you probably know as NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

Another key component is called decentralized computing. Think of it as leveraging everyone’s personal computers all over the world to power apps on the Internet. Take all the idle time of your computers and put that to good use while removing the control from central authorities. Yeah freedom!

Then think if you could access data and functionality from any company or app all over the world and pull that into your app real time. This is becoming possible with what is called an API. You can build a super app out of everyone else's app - pretty cool! This allows Metaverse experiences to replicate the functionality of any app and create new services that were never thought possible before.

This is all now coming together as you increase the ability of distribution and computing power, remove current monetary policies, integrate other applications, and develop new ways to facilitate transactions. It’s a whole new world. It’s only up to your imagination as to what can be possible in the Metaverse of the future.

It’s going to be up to the users to create their own new worlds, similar to games like Minecraft or Roblox, which are hugely popular with younger generations and have existed for some time. So if you’re wondering where this is going, just ask your kids, that’s what I do.

Ok, so now that we melted your brain with tech buzzwords, how will you simply access the Metaverse?

HOW DO YOU ACCESS THE METAVERSE?

As I said before, in some ways, you’re already accessing the Metaverse. If you are sitting home, attending Zooms calls, researching and purchasing things online, or playing online games, you are technically already in the Metaverse.  

The thing that is going to start changing is the interface and how tightly woven together the experience will be.  You won’t need to visit a bunch of different websites or apps to live in the Metaverse – it will be all in one virtual experience.

You will end up creating an online avatar, who you want to be seen as in the Metaverse. Since you can dream here, get creative, you can be whoever you want to be here.

You’ll have to get up to speed on crypto and set up a wallet, because many of these virtual worlds won’t let you in if you don’t have one, because they all want you to buy stuff. Metamask is a popular one, check it out. And many game players are already doing this in games like Fortnight, attending events and making in-game purchases to customize their experience.

Then you can start to visit online virtual worlds that bring this all together. Two popular Metaverses right now that you could start to poke around on are Decentraland and Sandbox. You can visit Snoop Dog’s land in Sandbox, or Samsung just opened a big retail store in Decentraland you can check out.

Ok, for businesses like Samsung that are moving into the Metaverse how will they market themselves?

WHAT WILL MARKETING LOOK LIKE IN THE METAVERSE?

Since we are a marketing agency, we start to dream about what the marketing opportunities will be in the Metaverse. Pretty limitless.

• You won’t be confined to billboards or banners for marketing, even experiential events
• Maybe, you could paint the sky with your creative message with little effort
• You might be able to get rewarded with crypto for just getting someone to smile who watches your creative advertising.
• You know how everyone is buying sports clips now in the real world like on Fanfare? You might be able to buy virtual game experiences as NFTs of a bunch of bots playing a virtual game in the Metaverse.
• Then you’ll have to manage your marketing avatar bots that man your virtual store.

For the creative folks out there, it’s going to be a dreamland of the creative ideas you could implement to persuade and entertain a whole new world of open-minded folks. Some companies are betting their business on it like Facebook renaming to Meta, and others like Microsoft expanding further into gaming with the largest business gaming acquisition ever of Activision Blizzard.  Who is going to actually win the race into this new frontier and own the Metaverse? How is it going to unfold? It's really hard to know at this point, but it’s certainly going to be exciting to watch.

HOW DO I LEARN MORE ABOUT THE METAVERSE?

I could keep writing about all the possibilities of the Metaverse, but this would take much more than a blog article. It would be more like a book, or several books.

And I could link to a bunch of articles here to burn some more of your time, but the thing to do is start experiencing it. Get a crypto wallet, join dencentraland and start watching it happen for real.  

Also, watch some movies.  All of the world’s problems are solved in movies at some point. Check out Free Guy, or Ready Player One, or if you want to go to the dark side, watch Mr. Robot. If you pay attention, these can give you a glimpse into what the Metaverse is going to start to look like.

Like all transitions in technology, this will take some time, but the cycles of technology adoption are happening faster and faster, so this may be upon you before you know it.

So, what are you waiting for? Get out there, dream a little, and be part of the future.