… Just wondered: Who’s still bullish about Teh Metaverse ..‽
And it was only a short while ago that e-ve-ry-one needed to move to the M, or would be derelict, out, over, forgotten. Whatever one’s personhood, according to the Usual Suspects in sich things, one Must (past tense – that is the same word yes why ..?) join in with the craze. Any company not moving to the ‘verse completely, would be derelict within five years, remember? But, since this bubble was from some good long time i.e., three years ago: what was it?
Just a ‘virtual world’ of sorts. Proclaimed to be the virtual world of the future, disconnected of the real one – apperently, in some weirdos’ minds – whereas those in the know both looked forward to profiting Big Time from it and knew this wasn’t the first or only of such systems by far. Castranova already discussed a lot of them, Second Life in particular. Mind you; 2006 and probably before, extensively, already – but too little purely-accidental ‘riches’ were thrown towards it, to have made it into the mainstream.
And aren’t all too many games (Minecraft, anyone ..?) not virtual worlds, including in-game purchasing et al. etc. et cetera? What more was the intention of the Metaverse? Nothing but an extension of such ideas, be it with unlimited (this is the Internet Age of mankind; ‘infinity is an abstract concept so don’t talk about natural limitations, very strict limitations, of ever coming near anything big let alone infinite’ of the stupid kind) ‘earnings’ potential. Which was, is, shorthand for fleecing you of everything you own and then, well, your avatar upgrade fits the squeezed-out lemon mould best #discard
For those that claim to be data driven (quod non; don’t get me started):
Demonstrating that some Mark Z affiliates and the ubiquitous McK are still pouring money into it. Which could also have been used to fight hunger, poverty and deprivation of tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of humans in a permanent and sustainable way.
Don’t they ever know when to stop? Isn’t it getting sad..? And where does the money go? W.C. Fields was always right. Still is.
OTOH, we(?)’re coaxed into developments that extend the idea(s). Think games, as said, that go further and further into the direction of virtual worlds.
[Intermission: Does anyone know how those actually operate? Do all taking part, know what a shard is? Do all know how the rules are insusceptibly changed to fit game (tactics) developments; who is in control over the rules? Is that humans or AI? What ‘purpose’ have the AI bots been instructed to pursue, in-game and over-game (overarching-control tightening)? If one doesn’t know the answers, or guesses them, correctly, one (the masses) is bound to be taken for a ride… end of intermission]
But what do players learn? They learn what ‘actions’ the games seem to award, mostly less-than-fully legal. Now that is quite some ethics reference for … life outside the games. The more game time, the less life time learning how to function in an actual society, get food (legally) through hard work and little pay – add food, shelter et al. that no game teaches how to ‘procure’ or manage, let alone supply to current game standards.
Though I suspect that in cross-over functionality one could easily order a pizza in-game, to be delivered physically. But is that Life?
Which brings us very close to the above forgotten world of Meta – but which will be extremely more binding down the ‘players’; with less and less options to escape, logically since more and more monay must be squeezed out of said sad subjects.
Oh well, me and my dystopian ethical angles again. Let’s discuss.
E.g., to what degree some European institutions try to pull all of real society into their system by abolishing cash so that only in-system ‘money’ remains. The very existence, let alone ownership, controlled by the system operators. Now that is something unseen in the history of mankind…
