{"id":5961,"date":"2022-01-28T12:36:40","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T10:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metacpc.org\/?p=5961"},"modified":"2022-01-28T12:37:01","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T10:37:01","slug":"metaverse-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metacpc.org\/en\/metaverse-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve seen the metaverse \u2013 and I don\u2019t want it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The tech world has been overtaken by the seductive idea of a virtual utopia, but what\u2019s on offer looks more like a late-capitalist technocratic nightmare.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Keza MacDonald | The Guardian<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have spent large portions of my life in virtual worlds. I\u2019ve played video games since I was six; as a millennial, I\u2019ve lived online since adolescence; and I\u2019ve been reporting on games and gaming culture for 16 years. I have been to Iceland for an annual gathering of the players of EVE Online, an online spaceship game whose virtual politics, friendships and rivalries are as real as anything that exists outside its digital universe. I\u2019ve seen companies make millions, then billions from selling virtual clothes and items to players eager to decorate their virtual selves. I\u2019ve encountered people who met in digital worlds and got married in the real one, who have formed some of their most significant relationships and had meaningful life experiences in, well \u2026 people used to call it cyberspace, but the current buzzword is \u201cthe metaverse\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ask 50 people what the metaverse means, right now, and you\u2019ll get 50 different answers. If a metaverse is where the real and virtual worlds collide, then Instagram is a metaverse: you create an avatar, curate your image, and use it to interact with other people. What everyone seems to agree on, however, is that it\u2019s worth money. Epic Games and the recently rebranded Facebook are investing billions a year in this idea. When Microsoft bought video game publisher Activision for $70bn<\/a> last week, it was described as \u201ca bet on the metaverse\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tech world seems to be leaning towards some kind of early 00s conception of wearing a VR headset and haptic suit and driving a flying car towards your perfect pretend mansion in a soothingly sanitised alternate reality, where you can have anything you want as long as you can pay for it. Look at Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s now-infamous presentation of the future of his company, with its bland cartoonish avatars and emptily pleasant environments. It is the future as envisioned by someone with precious little imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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