WoW and the Metaverse

[Caprias]

Aren't second life games kind of a "metaverse"? That's nothing new then, right?

This just sounds like a weird buzzword to try and sell something, in a way mmorpgs have been metaverses for decades.
Or is it about the cultural aspect? Like Riot games for example bringing more and more big guns with their League universe?

[Surfd]

The metaverse is just a precursor to a fully simulated reality where people are initially plugged into computers Matrix style, while subsequent implementations will see humans become fully digital entities. Although, I'm not sure if any of this will become reality. More likely, it will go the way of 3D TVs. Tech entrepreneurs are infamous for jumping the gun on radical new technologies that people aren't ready for or don't want. Steve Jobs was one of the few who knew what people wanted: simple and easy. That's why the smartphone became the new pen and paper. If the metaverse companies can emulate that, we may see it become a reality. Although, current metaverse implementations are little more than novelties at this point. And that's not how revolutionary technologies start. They usually start by being introduced and then adopted practically overnight. That's why I'm not hopeful for any of this metaverse hype. It just seems like people don't really want it.

Unfortunately, we are a LONG way off from anything even vaguely approaching "Plug In" Matrix style virtual world interactions. Like, unless there are some insanely major breakthroughs in tech, don't expect to see it in our lifetime. At best, something closer to the "full body VR" setup used in Ready Player 1 is much more likely, but again, don't expect the top end of that (the full body haptic suit + omnidirectional treadmill) to be even vaguely "commercially viable" in any realistic timeframe.