They Can Have the ‘Metaverse’

It’s no use. The battles have been fought and the war has been lost. But amidst the slings slung and arrows arrowed over the term, ‘Metaverse’, we forgot what this technology is all about. Things are really just getting started and companies are already out here tripping over each other trying to own the words. “Metaverse? Metaverse is my first, middle, and last names!”

Let them have it. Like ‘Information Superhighway’ or ‘Internet of Things’ or ‘The Cloud’, words are cheaper by the marketing dozen. The best words probably haven’t been coined yet.

What do we really want? The good stuff, of course. New experiences and better + cheaper versions of things we already have like FaceTimeWithHugs. Maybe people being decent to each other online. Let’s let go of coopted terms like “Metaverse” and stop looking for someone else to tell us what Zion will be like and just create — perhaps a new virtual instrument or a Mars Landing. Let go of what companies like Unity are doing in their spare time. Let go of what the “experts” and “thought leaders” are tweeting and podcasting. Philip Rosedale is a cool guy but this is the final medium, yo. Even he’s on Twitter asking questions.

And you can create in a variety of ways. Create a World in Altspace or VRChat or Rec Room (hey look, these guys all converged on the word ‘World’), 3D model a donut, or make something to throw on Steam. Doesn’t have to be on a block of chains or NFT’d or even named.