“Metaverse” is currently a major slang word in the worlds of technology, creativity, business, finance….. its definition is of course still incoherent, and shaped by the ambitions of the people using it.
There is however a general agreement and this is that the term Metaverse was coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel Snow Crash. In his science-fiction novel Stephenson described the metaverse as virtual-reality world where virtual real estate could be bought and sold, and where VR goggle-wearing users inhabited 3D avatars whose form they had freedom to choose.
We can also say that the more archaic versions of what we now call the metaverse or metaverse-like virtual worlds have “existed” for as long as their fictional counterparts or for almost as long. One of the most famous of these vision was Second Life which appeared in the early 2000, or other games like Playstation Home.
Although the concept at its infant embryonal version was there from the very beginning, it is now that we are beginning to see the realty of its development.
Devices like Quest, Oculus and technology like the blockchain which has enabled NFTs and cryptocurrency, have together contributed to the creation of a very strong set foundations to what we call METAVESE which is now establishing itself not just as a video game but as the evolution of the internet.