The metaverse is quite possibly the future of the Internet. To help our readers learn more about it, we've started this metaverse interview series.
These are the questions we've compiled to ask experts in blockchain, DAOs, NFTs, and game development, within the HackerNoon community. The series is intended for tech professionals to contribute their insights about the current state and the future of the metaverse.
If you also want to publish your thoughts about the metaverse, answer the template here.
HackerNoon Interviewer: So let's start! First, tell us a bit about yourself.
I'm Daniel Marcinkowski, and I'm a Marketing Manager at Wolf3D. We have 7+ years of experience in building 3D avatars for apps, games, and virtual worlds. As for me personally, I'm a big tech enthusiast and a specialty coffee nerd.
Please sum up what the metaverse is in one to two paragraphs.
The metaverse concept is often compared to the virtual worlds of Snow Crash or Ready Player One. In both, there's a single virtual world that everyone connects to as avatars. For something like that to work in real life, everyone would have to follow standards to ensure compatibility and a similar experience for all users. We did it in the past with the Internet and standards like TCP/IP. The intermediate technologies like blockchain, NFTs, high-speed networks, 3D game engines, or avatar customization platforms will be what will make the true metaverse experience a reality.
I don't think that the metaverse will be one virtual world. It will be thousands, if not millions of them, just like modern Internet and websites. Modern tech companies have more control than they did in the '90s and make more opinionated decisions. It's more likely that they would like to keep building buildings metaverse just to themselves rather than work together to create one unified experience.
Are you currently, directly or indirectly, working on building a metaverse?
Our goal at Wolf3D is to connect the growing number of virtual worlds and immersive experiences. We will do it with Ready Player Me, our cross-game avatar platform. It lets you create one or multiple 3D avatars, customize it to your liking, and connect to dozens of apps and games, like VRChat, Mozilla Hubs, and Somnium Space. We work with over 600 developers who integrate Ready Player Me avatars into their apps and games across all major platforms. We believe that this is going to help build the foundations for the metaverse.
In your opinion, is the metaverse inevitable, or is it just another passing trending tech topic that'll lose hype?
I think it's something inevitable. The Internet has never stayed the same for too long, and we keep on coming up with new use cases for it. We can see a glimpse of the metaverse that we know from books and movies in multiplayer games such as Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox. They all evolved past just gaming – they became social experiences, especially for the younger generation who grew up hanging out in banana suits instead of playing on a basketball court. Last year, more people than ever got to try these platforms in brand new contexts when they watched their first concert in Fortnite or attended a company team event in Minecraft.
Why is the metaverse such a revolutionary concept?
In a way, I think that metaverse is more of an evolution than a revolution. As mentioned before, we can see its foundations in modern multiplayer games built on social interactions between the players. The metaverse will be the next step for the Internet, where we will be able to play, socialize, and even work in virtual settings that will take a lot of inspiration from the games that we play today.
What can people build in the metaverse that we can't build on the Internet or in virtual reality today? What limitations of our current technology does the metaverse free us from?
The metaverse is our chance to rethink how we build and participate in immersive experiences. Up until now, they required us to download huge installers, sometimes larger than 100 GB. The metaverse will most likely rely on downloading assets in real-time, which shouldn't be a problem with 5G networks and faster Wi-Fi technologies. On the other hand, we can create more accessible experiences. Roblox is a great example of that, as it runs on pretty much any device from the last decade. I bet there's a fridge that can play it.
With new technology standards emerging, the metaverse could also let us travel between virtual worlds in a more unified way. Instead of relying on 2D dashboards of Xboxes or PlayStations, we will be able to jump into immersive experiences directly with our 3D avatars.
How are the metaverse and blockchain related? Can we build a metaverse without blockchain technology?
Since we are aiming for the metaverse to be one consistent experience for everyone, we will need new ways to prove ownership and value of digital assets, like avatar outfits, virtual parcels, and currency. Blockchain is one of the best solutions that we have for that, as every transaction is public and anonymous.
How quickly do you think the metaverse will be developed? How much can we expect metaverse tech to grow in the next 5 to 10 years?
I don't think that we will wake up one day and will be able to say, "the metaverse is now available to everyone". It will be a gradual process consisting of creating and setting new standards for the virtual worlds. But I think there's a high chance for it to happen in the next decade, especially with recent big investments from Facebook, Epic Games, and others.
What is your hope for the metaverse? Do you have any worries or does the concept pose any threats?
The Internet gave us opportunities that we couldn't have imagined three decades ago. I hope that the metaverse will be a life-changing thing for even more people. I also hope for it to bring us all closer together instead of creating artificial barriers.
Thanks for your time! Any final words?
If you want to get a glimpse of the metaverse today, check out Ready Player Me. It's an interoperable avatar platform connecting apps and games from over 600 developers. You can create your digital self and travel through all supported experiences. You can also use our avatar SDK to add 3D avatars to your own product.
This article is part of The Gaming Metaverse Writing Contest hosted by HackerNoon in partnership with The Sandbox.
Submit your #gaming-metaverse story today for your chance to win up to $2000.