Make the METAVERSE Work For You

The metaverse is in the making—an exciting new universe that melds real and virtual worlds, opening up totally unexplored opportunities. Although it has its origins in gaming, it is going to be a gamechanger in fields ranging from education and fitness to marketing and healthcare. Here is a look at some of the impactful applications of the metaverse.

- Janani G. Vikram

Metaverse—you cannot escape the term—and surprisingly, you cannot define it either because it is evolving so rapidly, bringing more and more technologies and use-cases under its wing each day! Some call the metaverse a parallel universe, but it is not, because it is interleaved with the real one. Some call the metaverse a make-believe world, but in fact, it is not, because real people are doing real business and investing real money in it. So, let us just accept the fact that there is no single holistic definition for metaverse. It is an evolution that we have to understand component by component, and piece together the way we want it to work for us.

Although the term metaverse was coined three decades ago in a scifinovel, it gained recognition only recently, with the surge in popularity of massively multiplayer online (MMO) role-playing games like Second Life, Fortnite, Sandbox, Enjin, Decentraland, Minecraft, and Axie Infinity.

MMO games have evolved to a point where the boundaries between their virtual worlds and the real world are blurring. In fact, it is unfair to call them games anymore, because they have transformed into interoperable virtual platforms where millions of people interact with each other, play games or just chill with friends, own and sell properties, create and trade things, and even perform or attend concerts!