Metaverse Boot Camp

Words by Dylan Todd (he/him)

Pushing for the synchronisation of real life and the internet, online superpowers like Facebook are trying to do away with Zoom and replace it with more immersive formats, commonly referred to as ‘the Metaverse.’ To help you wrap your head around what exactly the future of the Metaverse holds, I’m going to point you towards some good starting points for preparing yourself for the digital dystopia that society’s embarking towards!

VRChat

VRChat is a free social program that allows you to enter and interact with a digital environment using a 3D avatar, with no limits to how you might represent yourself. Filled with bizarre roleplaying, socialising, and gaming experiences, VRChat is arguably the prototype for what a lot of these tech companies are pursuing. While you won’t be able to show yourself as a buxom anime girl or a dragon when you’re implanted into the capitalist hellscape of the Metaverse, VRChat still helps acquaint you with the format these Silicon Valley suits want us to operate within. Plus, going off the nightmarish video we’ve seen of the various Metaverse prototypes, it’s really just the corpse of a VRChat clone, lazily propped up in a soulless corporate environment. 

Minecraft

The Metaverse is all about enhancing productivity and co-operation as we begin translating workforces into a blended, digital landscape that better facilitates working from home. So, what better way to prepare yourself for trying to work together with your peers in a remote, online setting than with a classic game of Minecraft? I know, a lot of you reading probably remember playing it as a primary school kid, and don’t want to play a silly game like that again, but I’d argue there’s no better example of the trials and tribulations of trying to achieve a common goal in an online setting as a team. All the while you’ll be dealing with teammates who have their own ideas about what they wanna do and how they wanna do it. Might be worth the practice to build up some soon to be much-needed patience, right?

The Real World

The ambitious concept of the Metaverse extends further than just the workforce, however. Companies of all kinds are trying to cash in on this theoretical trend and integrate themselves into an online environment in a way they haven’t before. From shopping to socialising, corporations are betting big on the Metaverse. So how about you try and put a stop to their bizarre machinations by taking a step back from the realm of Wall Street and their attempt to hijack the internet, and instead get out and go for a walk. If you’re thinking of ordering delivery from a takeaway chain, or buying clothes online from a sweatshop retail front, why help fuel the impending Metaverse when you could go to any of the dozens and dozens of locally owned shops and eateries in town? You don’t need to invest in some uncanny valley digital avatar to do that!