An interesting post on The Verge : The Big Future: Can we build a virtual world? The question may initially seem odd to those who have experienced virtual worlds such as Second Life, Kitely, OpenSim and are keeping their eyes on future virtual worlds such as High Fidelity and Linden Lab’s next generation platform. However the question is one that goes beyond the current generation of virtual worlds :
The web is fine, but how do we get the internet we always wanted — a “real” space you can walk around in, like the Metaverse from Snow Crash? It’s not a new question, but it’s one that’s being taken a little more seriously now that a huge company like Facebook is putting its weight (and its money) behind virtual reality. In this week’s Big Future, we look at what it takes to build a convincing virtual world, why we’re not there yet, and what we might do if we got one.
The Metaverse that exists in Snow Crash has long been the inspiration and dream of many a virtual world enthusiast, but will we ever get there? Indeed do we really want to get there? That level of immersion may well read well in a novel but can it ever really be a place that will happily co-exist with the physical world?
There will be no real answers to this until we have an answer to the question “Are we there yet?” As The Verge article states, it’s easy to trick the eyes, it’s a lot more difficult to trick our other senses and natural motion. For example The Verge talks about walking in a virtual world and how that’s far more of a challenge than tricking our eyes. I remain sceptical because of the sheer number of peripherals required at the moment to achieve greater immersion. However over time those peripherals will become less intrusive and more intuitive.
Obviously the full on immersion that some crave may not be the route to go. Whereas I fully expect greater immersion to open many a great door, I do feel that some doors may be better if they remain locked. The Verge article does mention the current virtual world scene :
We already have examples of “virtual worlds” like Second Life, and they’ll only get cooler with immersion. But some of the most exciting possibilities involve blending the physical world with VR. Sharing experiences will become more intense, and online research takes on a whole new meaning.
However one area that The Verge article doesn’t touch upon is who will be running the bold new worlds.
There are many candidates for the future of virtual worlds. I have a feeling that one candidate will end up dominating, I have no idea which one. However for the sort of metaverse to work for billions of people, there will be a need for certain standards and protocols to be agreed. Whereas many companies may well provide products linked to these services, I don’t think the current mish mash of different coding standards and protocols will work if we’re aiming for a world wide virtual world experience.
On that basis I feel that those virtual worlds who Open Source their projects may have an advantage because that puts the tools in the hands of people to develop products and experiences. There’s no point having all this funky immersion if there’s nothing to do when we get there.
However this is a long term project, in the short term, walled gardens can, and almost certainly will, prosper. This round of virtual reality is very much in its infancy, there’s a long journey ahead of us before we get there.
I’ll leave you with the accompanying video from The Verge article, it’s interesting and covers much of the ground in the article but it’s also short, so well worth a look.