Will the metaverse be developed by incoming web3 natives, existing web2 powerhouses, gamers, NFT pioneers or someone else entirely? The answer is unlikely to be clear-cut, in the same way, that we cannot point to a single faction that built out the web as we already know it.
That said, we can still wonder which entities will develop products and tools that could, when networked together, form something that we might one day refer to as a metaverse. Or, at the very least, who will drive forwards, and push others to join and develop too.
Products Are Underwhelming So Far
Without users, any metaverse-oriented development will be inconsequential, and the reality is that metaversal teasers and works-in-progress have, so far, been distinctly underwhelming.
More histrionic critics of metaverse concepts draw over-wrought comparisons with films such as The Matrix, warning of a dystopian, VR-dipped future in which humanity forgets about the physical world altogether.
While it is diverting to think about such possibilities, along with philosophical curiosities such as Simulation Theory (maybe we are already in an artificial reality, but are not aware of it), when you actually dip into metaverse development up to now, the opposite of unknowing immersion seems more likely: that the experience will be so clunky and uninviting, no-one will use it at all.
In this regard, a risk is that we end up with a variety of virtual ghost towns, fully functioning and navigable, but with no-one there, because why trudge around a pixelated online landscape when there is an entire real world outside?
Game Developers Can Be Key
In order to gain and keep users, there must be a hook, and no one is more adept at building environments that connect with the imagination and activate mental reward circuits than game developers who fully comprehend the mechanics of an addictive digital experience.
For this reason, we should perhaps look to the games industry as a place from which compelling metaverse-type environments might emerge, appealing not only to a subsection of NFT and crypto enthusiasts but to the mainstream. What’s more, the games industry has deep pockets, and can build through every market cycle, including so-called crypto winters.
A criticism of blockchain/play-to-earn gaming has been that it…
