Metaverse Standards

Headline:

Body:  OK, let’s close our eyes and imagine a scenario, both wonderful, and daunting.   Here we go.  You are running a very successful manufacturing plant in the U.S.   You make heavy pieces of railway infrastructure, and your business is booming.    On a vacation with your family, as you are desperately trying to remember their names, you are  taking in the sites of  Poland., and you see a manufacturing plant doing the same type of work, only better and it turns out cheaper.  You do some investigating with your legal team, and come to find out that there is a new owner, the grandson of the founder, and he wants OUT!!    So, he agrees to license to you for very little, the technology that made his family so fabulously wealthy, and you happily nap later, dreaming about the stacks of cash you will have to find homes for.   Only, there are 2 snags.   First, you forgot that European rails are of one gauge, and the U.S. rails are of a slightly different gauge.  You shrug, figure that your shop foreman can translate, and roll in your slumber.   But then the other shoe drops.   All of their apparatus, tools, procedures, protocols, everything are denoted in metric measurement,   Your people are all trained on U.S. measures.  Your  dreams of profitability might’ve been de-railed.

The different metaverses are somewhat similar.  The local currencies function differently, the character development is very different, and the ability to develop new items are at very different levels of difficulty.  This is why the question of interoperability is so important, so that the currency, characters and items can be ported from one metaverse to another.   But, to do this, there needs to be a common infrastructure underlying all of these items.  Developing this common infrastructure is why the Metaverse Standards Forum exists.  Let’s chug along and  perhaps see the end of the line.  (OK, I’ll stop with the train jokes, but, I really am rolling.)

So, OK, what IS the metaverse?

Simple answer is nobody can really define it: In point of fact, the members of MSF have a very active debate raging on this very elementary principle.  It should be a fully immersive space where one can see and hear (and eventually smell?) things that are not physically in the room with them.  Currently, the environments are not totally immersive but instead, are on a continuum, but each one is very siloed off from one another.   The Internet became so engrained in our lives because it was not walled off from one app to another, so to reach their imagined endpoint, the perfect world would all emanate from one point, and be freely navigated from world to world.  This runs counter to some visions of the future, so, we shall see  (and feel, and smell?)

What is the Metaverse Standards Forum?

OK, just a little reminder.  In this case, Metaverse Standards Forum (MSF) is what we’re talking about, not Medcins sans Frontiers (Translated Doctors Without Borders).   This is important to understand because this very generous organization is also abbreviated MSF.     Our MSF is an organization (of private companies, chiefly) that work together to institute a common infrastructure of code and  protocol, with the aim of accelerating the development of the whole gamut of metaverses.  Activities are sponsored by the Khronos Group.     I won’t bore you with the entire list of projects, but, when it becomes obvious that some standard has to be set for something, MSF starts a project on that area.  For example,  MSF might decide that common protocols have to be set up to take care of Digital Asset Management.    MSF puts together a Working Group to investigate that process, with the end result is a recommended common  protocol.    In their efforts to understand this process, the Working Group might sponsor hackathons to learn about what works and doesn’t work, on an accelerated timeline.  There are some truly HUGE companies supplying talent to MSF, but oddly, Apple has decided not to participate.  But, there must be a reason because, a few other suspects (Roblox and Decentraland among them) have made a similar decision.

All this sounds great!  Where’s the controversy?

Well, it does sound good, but there is politics to consider.   One of the companies to participate in MSF is Huweiwei, the Chinese company that makes 5G components for the Internet, probably really important to the future of metaverses.   But, some think that the company is part and parcel of the Communist government in China, and will not want to participate for that reason.

So, who’s getting the most right, right now?  Who is lagging, right now?

It would appear that, right now, the most immersive environment is the Omniverse, which is an environment designed by Nvidia.  Currently, it is being used to program autonomous vehicles, and will hopefully help to predict weather patterns, especially as they relate to global warming.     Meta, (f.k.a. Facebook)   has made a lot of vague promises, but not too much has come to fruition.

The Verdict

When we first got the “Internet” it was filtered thru the lens of an ISP, either AOL, or one of the other providers.  Unsurprisingly, some of the details of how things were presented were different from network to network, each one was its own “walled garden.”   As the Internet evolved, the different views of it began to be more uniform.  I think the metaverse will likely follow a similar model.   Right now, each one is a siloed area, which is somewhat OK (in many cases) presenting information to the user.   But, in the future, I think that all of these individual metaverses will begin to speak with each other, and the environment of the place will begin to be more and more immersive.  The question I think we have to ask is how immersive do we really want to have this metaverse?  Could it grow and develop to be so convincing ( and attractive) that people don’t want to leave, and eventually forget to eat, or drink water?  Sounds kind of ridiculous, but these are valid questions that we must ask ourselves.  The MSF will likely not approach these very difficult subjects, but they will hopefully, provide us with a language with which we can all better communicate during the intense debates.

REFERENCES

Microsoft, Meta, and others are founding a metaverse open standards group – The Verge

Meta and other tech giants form metaverse standards body, without Apple | Reuters

The Critical Importance of the Metaverse Standards Forum (technewsworld.com)

Editor’s Note: Please note that the information contained herein is meant only for general education: This should not be construed as Tax Advice.   Personal attributes could make a material difference in the advice given, so, before taking action, please consult your tax advisor or CPA.

Metaversus?

Competition is fierce.    In the natural world, the hyena clans clash with prides of lions, and only the strongest survive.   In a similar vein, the world of gaming has seen a lot of innovation and competitors have come on the scene to knock too-comfortable champions off of their thrones.   Atari competed with Colecovision, in the next generation, Nintendo is in an intense competition with Sony PlayStation.  So, we should probably not be surprised to see that when it comes to online social-gaming, the same competition would be keenly felt.  And, you would be right.

In the beginning, there was Second Life, owned by Linden Labs.  This was a rather clunky, though immersive platform, and it was only 2020 when Linden Labs sold this franchise to other investors.   Other newer, shinier toys beckon from the over-stuffed toy box.    I have done some research and these seem to the largest competitors to Second Life.  For fairness, I am presenting them in alphabetical order.

Avakin Life

Avakin Life is a social game after the example of Second Life, but with more complex functionality.  It was created by Lockwood Publishing (which has a large investment from Tencent.    There are over 200 million users of this platform.  Its success seems to stem largely from the developers’ focus on the phone and mobile computing.   This is the 4^th generation of games from the company, and this seems to be the biggest hit they have had.  It is written up in any variety of websites and other publications.

The game was launched in 2013 on Google Play  and was a hit because of the gameplay, but mostly as a result of the social interaction.  It seems that one of the largest hurdles was designing a system for people to pay for things that they could use in-game.    One of the unusual features of this game is that the designers provide everything: There is no user-generated content in the immersive Star Trek and Tron-inspired world.  And, the company seems to be in the space for the long term.   Said one of the co-founders:

We saw how long it takes to develop a world and for the community to form,” Bjornsson said. “We saw how important social is. But we fell into this. Our style has been steady organic growth.”

Club Cooee

Club Cooee was started by a German startup, and recently added a 3D instant messaging service that combines avatars (with changing facial expressions with the ability to send videos and pictures.  These 3D avatars can be highly specialized, and clothing and accessories can be purchased in-game for “Club Cooee credits.”   In addition to gameplay, they can now converse in duos or groups, selecting a venue using in-game items.  The person can pay extra, and get access to premium services.    The founder, Alexander Jorias hinted that the platform was looking to make money with B2B partners.   The advertising will be non-standard making me think that there will be signs up in the game or sponsored activities that occur in-game to promote these partners.

To monetize, the site will allow users to buy extra credits to purchase virtual goods, and will also offer premium services for a fee. Founder Alexander Jorias says that the service is also planning to generate revenue with a number of B2B partners, and that little, if any money will come from standard advertising.

Garry’s Mod

Garry’s Mod (GMod) is a program made by Garry Newman that allows you to change the game of Half Life to your specifications . If you’ve ever searched “Half-Life” on YouTube, you probably have seen a Garry’s mod video, and many people seem quite excited by both the videos and the gameplay.  Besides being a social game, Garry’s Mod also appears to be a wonderful “sandbox” which allows players to create tools that will build spaceships.   There is also a “tool gun” which can help one manufacture vehicles or change the facial expressions of your avatar

Just to be fair, I should warn you that Garry’s Mod (GMod) does contain some blood and gore, so, be mindful.  It does require download of a Source engine game first, but this doesn’t seem like an onerous task.

GoJiyo

GoJiyo was developed by an Indian firm, and the idea is that you (either solo or with a group) can go on quests.  At the completion of these quests, you get points that can be used to buy in-game merchandise or real-world items.   You can do an awful lot, (e.g. greatly customize your character and meet new friends), but there is an impressive list of things that you cannot.  Interestingly, this game too strictly does  not allow for user-generated content.

Jios and Mios are the currencies of this system, and if you collect enough of them, you can earn a real-world trip to Mt. Kilimanjaro.   Users agree, though, that to earn these real-world inducements takes a very long time.

IMVU

This application does a lot of different things.   It has a 3D chat feature where you can have your avatar chatting with friends, and allows the person to shop at many different vendors.  It also allows you to have your own website and customize it to a very high degree.  Credits are the coin of the realm and you can use them to customize the appearance of your avatar.  There are a lot of ways to get credits including getting your friends to sign up for IMVU.  The truly unique thing about this program is the content is 100% user-created.  For an additional fee, you can be in the VIP club which gives you a special badge and removes third party ads.  There is also an Access Pass that is used to ensure that only adults are granted access to the areas that are geared toward adults.

Also unusual among these sites, there is a variety of ways to earn credits while contributing to the community.   There is a peer review function and these people perform a quality control function.   There is also a group for creators, who design new functions and products for the community.

The Sims 4

For 20 years now, we have had multiple editions of The Sims, wherein you create characters with their own life stories, and control them as they interact with your environment.   Up to now, this as been a single-player game.   But, with Sims 4, there seems to be an expansion module that will allow you to in some ways interact with a group of friends.  This is not really meant as an immersive social game, and seems to be a way for the manufacturer to dip their toes into the waters of social play.   But, there are rumors that The Sims 5 will be coming out soon, and combine the ability to control multiple characters and still interact with others.    Currently, this platform does not really fit with the others, but the title is well-known and came up in research again and again.

Twinity

Twinity was developed by Metaversum and run by ExitReality since 2012, and allows its citizens to run around 3-D renderings of historical versions of real-world cities.  Recently, Twinity has been introducing more fantasy-related worlds, probably thanks to its large amount of user-created content.  Twinity allows users to upload pictures of their own face, which is used to create a personalized, identifiable avatar.  (If a different avatar is desired, this is easy to accomplish too.)

The currency of the world is the Global, which can be used to pay for apartments and accessories for their avatar.   Globals can be purchased on their homepage with any major credit card or PayPal.   Globals can be earned by attending virtual events or completing the post-registration “welcome tour.”

Twinity has an interesting mix of professional and user-generated content.  Once a user creates a new piece of content, they can sell this content to other users and earn Globals in this way.  Though the citizens are given a starter apartment, there is a real estate agent who can be used to find other possible real estate for their avatar.   With some noteworthy in-game accomplishments, there are badges that people can display on their profile.

The Verdict

Each game mentioned has its good points and bad.   The point being that there are a plethora of possibilities.   Plus, in the future, I think there will be multiple ways to make these games interoperable.  Said another way, you could build a character in one metaverse and port it to another.  This has the potential to be very exciting