WTF is the Metaverse #02: Infrastructure

Building for the virtual world is hard, but I think it should also be fun!

This is Week 02 of my newsletter where we talk about building the metaverse, together!

There’s Gold in them Hills!

It’s sometimes easy to forget that there were two internet technology booms.

The second boom of the early 2000’s, yielded the companies that we all now know (Facebook, Amazon). The first boom of the late 90’s, however, was driven by a speculative bubble of investment and overhyped insanity.

Check out this chart (from Wikipedia) on the venture capital spending on internet technology, and see how the boom peaked – and then crashed – all just before Zuckerberg launched his version 1.0 of Facebook in his Harvard dorm room.

Despite the fact that many lost their shirts, this wasn’t a waste of time or money.

The companies that did grow out of the internet would not have been able to gain the traction they did if there had not been the wiring, the servers, or the masses who understood it. The second wave only gained traction, because the first wave built INFRASTRUCTURE.

Today, take a moment to think a bit about this opportunistic time and how it is also happening in terms of the Metaverse we are building. We know we can build glorious 3d worlds, but we won’t be able to create those societal structures for commerce or governance, until that network infrastructure, and the masses who understand it, are there and in place.

It’s not here yet!

You may be seeing media posts from everywhere telling us about how we are going to be doing magical things in the metaverse. If you dig just a little bit, you will hear the cryptocurrency maximalists tell you how stable their networks are.I admit that I get on to twitter and feel that I’m behind. It’s easy to feel that the whole world has already figured the metaverse out, and that we are missing it.

Not quite.

So, take a beat and relax, (talking to myself here too) you still have time! Rome wasn’t built in a day, and despite what the news outlets or venture capitalists tell us, neither will the Metaverse.However, just because it’s early, doesn’t mean it’s not moving really really fast.

And that’s why in the next several posts, I’ll be talking about this infrastructure, these basic building blocks for a networked world, that will make up the structural components of the metaverse.

—That’s it for this time.

Remember, you can always reach out to me on @nyewarburton on twitter.

My DM’s are always open.And, hey, if this email inspires you to write or comment? Do it! I hope we can start a dialogue about what you think the metaverse is!

We’ll see you next week for: THE THREE TECHNOLOGIES

Building for the virtual world is hard, but I think that it should also be fun!

Welcome to Week 01 of my newsletter, where we discuss the fundamentals of the metaverse, together!

Meta-wha?

Everyone is using this word “metaverse.” It’s kind of weird, isn’t it?

It’s been used by Facebook, ha! – I’m sorry… Meta. And it’s used by brands from Budweiser, to Adidas to Gucci. But, what does it really mean? Why are brands flocking to it? Why are tech companies making it part of their core strategy? What’s going on?

Well, there is this concept that, because of our ever increasingly connected lifestyle, we are moving toward a persistent virtual world. We can imagine an infinitely extended version of the massive multiplayer games that overwhelmingly own our time. (Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft.)

But there is more to this concept than just that. Much, much more. And it’s in that “much much” part, that it’s easy to get lost.

Are you scared of the Metaverse?

Understanding this concept of the “metaverse” is hard, let alone figuring out how to build and participate in it. I think, regardless of what we call it, there is a great opportunity for artists to build for it. However, understanding it and the opportunity it presents, is not so clear.

For the last three years, I have been very deep in the research of it, and my take away?

1. Few people really understand it. (Even I struggle – So it’s ok if you don’t get it either!) There is a lot of guess work and hear-say out there. It’s sometimes impossible to gage what is truth and what is fantasy.
2. A lot of the “beginner” content, is not actually beginner. (I’ve read a lot of them!) And in some cases, the people who purport to help, are simply mean.
3. We need to be very careful. Scams and greedy people abound.

After 20 years in computer graphics, I wanted to understand this evolution. To do that, I need to think and write in public. I want to open other people’s mind to the concept, without the marketing, the anxiety or the capitalist agenda that is driving it. We need creators (artists, thinkers, developers) who are willing to build this persistent world. And build it for the right reasons.

So, this is it.

Each week, I’ll be doing little drawings and talking about concepts like game engines, virtual production, blockchains, AI, virtual characters – Man, the stuff is crazy! I’d love it if you signed up and came along.That’s it for this time.

Remember, you can always reach out to me on @nyewarburton on twitter.

My DM’s are always open.And, hey, if this email inspires you to write or comment?

Do it! I hope we can start a dialogue about what you think the metaverse is!

We’ll see you next week for: INFRASTRUCTURE

Nye Warburton

Category: Metaverse