Facebook’s Initial “Beyond” Concept is Virtual Reality and Other Beyond Stuff
Facebook sees the future, the beyond, as Virtual Reality (VR), where people communicate in virtual worlds for personal and business use. To that end, they are working on products outside the Facebook social apps, such as the rebranded Meta Quest, a VR immersive set of hardware and software to realize the experience. In this case, the technology is in line with the overall goal, and ties into the existing Facebook, social media platform. The new company Meta will allow for concentrated development outside social media, which is a smart move to allow for this concentration just like Alphabet/Google did. I’d imagine many of the technologies will have some tangibility to their social platform, but not necessarily so.
Meta Co., VR, and Metadata
Facebook changed its name to Meta as they build out its vision of a whole new world or multiple worlds. Within a constructed virtual world there will be “objects”, and those objects need descriptions and those descriptions should be portable beyond Meta’s Metaverse. Therefore it is essential to enhance data objects with more data, metadata. If you have a tree in the forest, what kind of a tree is it, what are all the “properties” of that tree? This exercise makes Meta worlds, our virtual world a bit more descriptive, in an organized, and portable fashion.
Portability In and Out of the Meta-verse
It’s important to be consistent in and outside [Facebook’s] Metaverse. As we define objects in the metaverse, e.g. people, trees, swords, etc. they must have consistent properties, and that’s where we apply taxonomies, The more comprehensive the metadata set, the whole universe expands. and we can also see gaps in the data as we virtually encounter them. We are experiencing Meta’s conception of a Metaverse, and if we’re not careful, it’s possible new social media platforms could be monopolized by [Facebook] Meta.
NFT Portability, and their Utility in the Metaverse
Gamers should be able to use their NFTs in virtual worlds throughout the internet. NFTs designed for online gaming use range from battle armor which integrates with the massively multiplayer online games (MMOG, or more commonly, MMO) and has utility to protect the character, for example. This type of utility NFT would require a high degree of integration, and comply with the standards of the MMO. Other NFT MMO game “objects” require less integration such as a tee-shirt, jewelry, a mug, and other non-utility items/objects.
NFT Standards Group for Gaming Consortium
Open standards are key, and industry standards committees should be formed for things like NFT properties, and other Metaverse interoperability. Meta objects from one “universe”, .e.g “Meta” should follow a convention to be passed around the “multiverse”, so to speak.
NFTs could be the transferrable objects from Avatars to Swords, what are the required NFT properties for each object type, and object type refers to any object real or factious. Information architecture (IA) focuses on organizing, structuring, and labeling content in an effective and sustainable way
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
So, a few years back, there was a really cool game called ToonTown (Disney), an MMO, massively multiplayer online game, and beyond interacting with other players, and taking on challenges, each player received their own house to decorate. Ergo, in our virtual worlds, I would like the opportunity to decorate my home with the NFT art I acquired in NFT marketplaces. Maybe even an art gallery in the city.