Some time ago, a colleague asked "What is the current use of graphene?" "Obviously, the answer to this question is to do PPT and accelerate IPOs." As the first major catalyst for marketing, graphene often appears on various marketing materials and becomes another technology label after "quantum" and "blockchain". However, in 2022, graphene ushered in its biggest turnaround: it is not that graphene technology has suddenly matured, but the technology circle has looked at a new marketing concept - metacosm.
Although Meta, Google and a number of domestic Internet companies all want to build themselves into a meta-universe company with advanced layout, the promotion of these companies is obviously not a success in terms of the public's perception of the meta-universe, but it also gives the Internet giants an opportunity to define the meta-universe, so that these companies can find the track they are most familiar with in the relatively uncertain field of the meta-universe.
For example, some time ago, Baidu announced that it would release the meta-universe product "Xi'an" on December 27, and also announced that it would hold the Baidu AI Developer Conference in the Xi'an App, so that developers could participate in the Baidu AI Developer Conference online in the meta-universe, so as to get a glimpse of the mystery of the meta-universe.
Well, here's the question: what's the difference between this and watching an online Blizzard Carnival at home?
Hiram experience
In Baidu Mobile Assistant, I downloaded the Xi'an app. To simplify the experience process, Baidu offers users an unregistered visitor experience feature where you can get a glimpse of The Future of the Metaverse in Greece. After landing, the originally empty login hall instantly became crowded, and as the first portal of the Xi'an Metacosm, you can see other users who have no clue like you. At the same time, the sound of the surrounding users' conversations also begins to play: in Hiram, the microphone will be turned on by default and play what you say to the surrounding users in real time.
In other words, your phone will also play the conversation of the crowd around the virtual character. If you don't want to listen to the people around you, you can also adjust the sound reception distance in the settings, but due to the lack of private channels, unless you can find a corner where no one is around, it is still a state of "loud conspiracy".
As the first demonstration of the online exhibition, Baidu made meticulous preparations in the Baidu World Congress area. Just out of the elevator, you will be greeted by a huge virtual exhibition hall and an equally huge "outdoor screen" that is playing promotional videos. Following the specified route, we can see the relevant technical demonstration in the form of 3D animation or video. However, unfortunately, due to the lack of user interaction tools, the interaction in Greem at this stage is still dominated by the interaction between "users and scenes", and the interaction between "users and users" still stays in the stage of public frequency chat. At the same time, due to the large number of people, the overall experience is still very stuttering. Coupled with the fact that Hiram currently has no mapping system, it is not known where to go from time to time. Finally, after seeing the big screen at the door again, my exploration of the Greek metaverse came to an end.
As far as the experience just now is concerned, although Xi'an is still a very simple and conceptual product at this stage, if you put the standards of the original universe wide enough, then Xi'an is indeed a product that conforms to the concept of meta-universe: Baidu has indeed built a digital world based on "characters", and users have their own "Avatar" (digital avatars, which are the characters you choose when you log in).
Although only voice communication is currently implemented, Greem has indeed created a "usable" voice interaction platform. The voice tuned based on the distance of the characters, while not original to Hiram, is a good idea. As a conceptual product used to seize the meta-universe market, Hiram can be said to be quite successful, and even has a certain degree of practicality. The current virtual exhibition provided by Greem and the follow-up AI conference to be held in Greem are the best examples.
Remote conferencing? No, it's called the metacosm
But then again, why are internet giants' current plans for metacosms inseparable from online conferences? Baidu Greem held the Baidu AI Developer Conference in Greece; NetEase held a virtual conference jointly with HUAWEI CLOUD in Yaotaizhong; Facebook launched the remote office software Horizon Workrooms after the renaming of Meta, allowing users to participate in VR conferences as avatars; Microsoft was even more "excessive", and even brought the Office suite to the metaverse, allowing users to write documents in the metaverse to make tables and speak PPT.
Is it possible that the game universe depicted in "Ready Player One" and "Runaway Player" has no shadow, and we have to work in the metaverse now? Since the role of the metacosm is to use it for meetings, why do we need to go to great lengths to develop metacosmological products? Zoom, Tencent Conference and even YY or TeamSpeak, are not all meta-universe products?
Obviously, such a statement is inaccurate. Although most of the products with the concept of metaverse at this stage cannot get rid of the shadow of online conferences, in fact, whether it is online games or remote conferences, these are just one of the application scenarios of the metaverse. In addition to the business scenario of conferences, the metacosm has its own application scenarios in the fields of education, real estate and even art. Educators can rely on the metaverse for cost-controllable teaching and training, real estate agents can rely on metacosmonic technology to achieve cloud selling, and artists can achieve artistic creation beyond the laws of physics in the metacosm.
But why do we all have to meet in the metaverse? This is both the cause of the times and the reason of the metaverse itself. From an environmental perspective, the quarantine has made telecommuting the new normal and providing an opportunity for metaversy-based online communication. On the other hand, online office, or "work", is actually the only way for the development of the meta-universe. Because long before the birth of the modern "metacosm", we experienced another "metacosm" in a broad sense.
That's right, we're talking about online games.
From the perspective of constituent elements, in addition to decentralization, online games actually fully meet the entry threshold of the metaverse: online games have an independent economic system; users have their own digital twins; and they also meet the requirements of digital persistence and synchronization. Even in many movies labeled metaverse, they depict the world of online video games. You can spend money on land in Minecraft, attend a friend's wedding in the Animal Forest Club, and exchange money between the virtual world and the material world in a game that recognizes RMT (real money trading). Those conceived metaverse concepts have long been realized in the game.
Although metaversic elements have become a reality in the game world at an incredible rate, on the other hand, games are still synonymous with "playthings" for most people, and it is difficult to become the core of the future online world. Just like the VR industry, if the metaverse wants to gain greater development prospects, it must break away from the original game label and promote it with the performance of so-called "business" and "productivity". Under the mature game development technology, the easy-to-achieve meta-universe online conference has become the breaking point of the meta-universe.
The metaverse is like the blockchain it once was
Truth be told, focusing on online conferencing is not the fault of the concept of metacosmities. The emergence of any new technology must go through military, civilian and commercial exploration. But the problem is that the original game-oriented technology is not necessarily suitable for building the metaverse. From a hardware point of view, whether it is graphics cards or VR peripherals, these devices for game development are more used to show the world preset by developers, and do not give users the freedom to compare with the real world in terms of input. In terms of software, the technology and algorithm of modern games suitable for small-scale interaction are also difficult to meet the needs of the metaverse for the three elements of multiplayer, real-time, and interaction.
More importantly, whether it is oasis in Ready Player One or Baidu's Xi'an, these "metaverse" century worlds based on game creation violate the requirements of the metacosm for "decentralization", and service providers are still the central authorities of these "metacosms". Using the game mode to carry the "metaverse" and let the user "send people under the fence" is obviously contrary to the core spirit of the metaverse. That's why I'm against peddling games with the concept of metaversity – the "metaverse label" of these projects, to put it bluntly, is like the "blockchain" of the past, and the marketing significance far outweighs the actual impact.
From the point of view of constituent elements, the metacosm must be a decentralized digital world with an independent economic system. However, as far as the current application of the metaverse is concerned, the development of the metaverse is contrary to the setting - almost all "metaverse" companies are seizing the outlet of the metaverse, preemptively completing their layout in the metaverse world, defining themselves as the forerunners of the metaverse, and gradually improving their influence in the metaverse world, so as to obtain the "dominance" of the metaverse. Baidu's Xi'aon is not the first, nor will it be, the last company to use gaming technology to explore the metaverse.
And before the advent of the truly decentralized metaverse, every attempt you make in the metaverse game is ultimately voting for the metaverse you want.