What is the Metaverse and what does it mean for architects in 2022?

Sep 30

While the Metaverse is still a concept, it can be defined as user-centric cyberspace. A Metaverse should be controlled and owned by users, with a player-centric economic model. The look and feel of the Metaverse are where architects can bring the most value, creating unique and exciting spaces that bring people in and keep them engaged.

Right now, the metaverse is mostly a highly conceptual topic that is only very broadly defined, with no one single definition or interpretation.
At its core, the metaverse is a interconnected cyberspace, where users can interact both with the world and between themselves in a meaningful way.
A Metaverse should have 3 main characteristics: it should be controlled by the players (it is the players that decide how they interact with the world), user-owned (players own the cyberspace and how it evolves) and has a user-centric economy (players can both spend money and earn money)
Unlike a video game, which is built around gameplay loops, a Metaverse is built around the player.
While VR has been advertised as the main differentiation between traditional video games and the Metaverse, the majority of current Metaverses are still 3D.
The vagueness of the concept and the general look and feel of the Metaverse is the main challenges to wider adoption.
Most Metaverses go for a world design that is mostly inspired by real-life, rather than exploring the possibilities that the medium can offer.
Architects can play a fundamental role, by creating unique worlds and designs in the Metaverse that inspire and pique the curiosity of players.

What is the Metaverse in 2022?

Keep in mind that there is no real definition at the moment but in order to differentiate from video games, we need to establish what is a Metaverse in 2022.

The Metaverse is a cyberspace created from the ground up to be player-driven. It needs to have 3 main characteristics to be considered a Metaverse: user-controlled, user-owned, and a user-centric economy. This is what puts it in stark contrast to a video game like an MMO (massively multiplayer online) video game which is designed around certain gameplay loops, that funnel and direct the way that players interact with the world. A metaverse is designed to let the user or player create these systems.

User-controlled means that it is the players that decide how they interact with the world, not a developer. This means that the cyberspace should not have gameplay loops that control interaction, but instead let users decide how to interact with the game world.

User-owned means that players own the cyberspace and how it evolves, becoming the key decision makers. Unlike a traditional video game where the developer owns everything and molds the game as they see fit, in a Metaverse users are the ones that vote on how the space will shape up.

User-centric economy means that players can both spend money and earn money, which is facilitated by the cyberspace. The entire economy is powered by users and how they are willing to invest, not the developer.

What role does VR play in the Metaverse?

Facebook has pushed the concept that a Metaverse needs to be in VR in order to be considered a Metaverse, but there is no real correlation. Any virtual space can become a Metaverse, with or without VR. While we can make the argument that VR makes everything more immersive, it is still quite niche.

VR adoption, although much wider in recent years, is still quite niche and because of this, linking the success of the Metaverse to the success of VR is not really feasible. While Meta has designed its own project, Horizon Worlds as VR only initially, it is currently working on a web version.

How is a Metaverse different from a video game?

A video game is designed around a gameplay loop system, which is made of a problem and a series of tools given to players to overcome that problem. A gameplay loop controls the interaction that players have with the game world. A Metaverse does not have this, it is designed with tools first and lets players create and see what problems they want to tackle.

There are examples of video games that come very close to being Metaverses, namely Second Life and EVE Online. These are both still video games, but their gameplay systems are so vast and the world so open-ended, that they do come close to being considered player-driven. For example, EVE Online has a strong economical component that is heavily centered around the player base. But even then, it is still owned by its developers, CCP Interactive, and users have no real say on what updates get implemented and what is the direction of the game world.

A Metaverse is not built around a game, it’s built around the player, which ultimately sets it apart from video games.

Is Meta’s (formerly known as Facebook) Horizon Worlds a Metaverse?

No, not really. Horizon Worlds is mostly a social app that has more in common with an MMO rather than a Metaverse. It’s still a product built and owned by a company that players can enjoy. But it doesn’t really have any of the necessary characteristics that a Metaverse should have.

However, keep in mind that Horizon Worlds is really just the first step of a large multitiered project that Meta has for the Metaverse.

What are the main challenges that Metaverses face toward wide adoption?

Similar to crypto-currency, the Metaverse is a solution without a problem at the moment. Video games rely on gameplay to bring players in, but the Metaverse does not have something like this. When a player asks a game developer ‘‘What can we do in the game?’’ they receive a clear answer that is also very easy to showcase in media. When a player asks the same question regarding the Metaverse, they usually receive an answer like ‘‘Anything you want’’ which doesn’t really peak a lot of interest.

There is a niche of games out there that rely on very complex sandbox-style systems to give players a lot of freedom in how to pursue their own objectives. Games like Terra Invicta and Crusader Kings 3 are designed to let players do what they want and approach the game any way they like (within the reasonable confines of the gameplay system). These games are simply not even nearly as popular as the much more streamlined blockbuster games like Call of Duty which are far more linear in scope, they are very niche products that only appeal to certain categories of players. While this is not a problem in of itself, the amount of money required to build a Metaverse demands wide adoption to make a profit. Meta estimates that their Metaverse will end up costing 10 billion USD in 2021.

The Metaverse has the same problem that niche video games have, it is far too undefined in its systems and too open-ended, and it has major difficulties in attracting a stable user base. Many companies are extremely busy showcasing what players can do in the Metaverse, but they don’t give a clear answer to the most fundamental question: ‘‘Why should players do all those things in the Metaverse.’’

Video games don’t need to answer that, because they are simple entertainment, players want to play the game and have fun. But the Metaverse needs to answer that question and the current design of most Metaverses simply doesn’t help.

Why is the design of the Metaverse important?

In 2022 most Metaverses simply don’t look interesting or exciting compared to their video game counterparts. Most Metaverses, including Descentraland and The Sandbox, look quite dull. Take any screenshot from Descentraland and compare it with a screenshot from, let’s say Deus Ex Human Revolution (a game from 2013), and the differences become stark.

Descentraland looks like a downgraded version of Minecraft, while Deus Ex has a strong art direction that mixes influences from Art Deco, Reinnasance, and corporate culture. Which one looks more interesting out of the 2, which would you rather experience? And there lies the problem.

Video games are titanic in scope now, with complex stories that feature whole casts of characters, that are bigger than movies. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey tells a large interconnected storyline about family, politics, and secret societies and takes place on a map that is such an accurate reproduction of Ancient Greece that it is used by historians. And all this was done on a fraction of the budget Meta requires for Horizon Worlds.

It is accurate to say that Metaverses are not video games, but they look and feel like one, and that puts them in direct competition. And this is where architects come in.

How can architects impact the Metaverse?

The Metaverse has a strong design problem and architects could be the answer to that. Because a Metaverse does not have a gameplay loop, then it can use the world design and visual storytelling components to create and pique interest, bringing players in.

Telling stories through the visual medium is a common concept in movies that has started to appear in video games as well. The logic is to show the audience, rather than telling them, what is the state of the world and what is going on. Dennis Villeneuve's Dune is an excellent example of this, using the architecture, uniforms, and mannerisms of the characters to tell the story about the world. We find out that this world is a feudal one not by being told, but by the titles Duke and Baron. The architecture is also spartan in design, to show that this is not an age of enlightenment but rather of decay.

Video games use this too, the Bioshock games use the design of the world to tell the story of that world, giving players a simple narrative to follow and letting the piece everything together. Immersive sim video games, in particular, rely almost exclusively on visual storytelling, like Prey or Deus Ex. And this is exactly what the Metaverse can use to create player interest.

Architects use the visual and build environment to tell stories. The way societies think is reflected in their architecture, making it built storytelling. Architects can use these same skills, that they have spent years honing, to create exciting and visually striking Metaverse worlds that can intrigue players to take ownership and develop them.

Andrei Vasilief https://animoregis.com