Everyone knows the Metaverse is coming, but no one knows what it will be like.<\/strong><\/p>\n At present, people say it\u2019s clunky and difficult to use and are waiting for further development. Are brands just jumping on a PR bandwagon in hyperspeed? Is this the future? Is it a place or a time that is coming? And how soon?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n So, I packed my virtual bags and took a trip to find out.<\/strong><\/p>\n Most of you have probably entered or seen images of the Metaverse, maybe somewhere like The Sandbox or Decentraland. But unless you\u2019re a gamer or a devotee, visiting it may still be a little underwhelming, at least for now \u2014 and especially for gamers.<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019ve seen Second Life (circa 2006) or even Golden Eye 007 from the late 1990s, it\u2019ll be familiar, as the Metaverse\u2019s graphics haven\u2019t advanced that far forward from those pixelated images.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, now we have virtual reality headsets to put you right in among those pixelated images. Shared virtual worlds created in part by users already exist elsewhere. Roblox has 43 million daily active users and 202 million monthly active users, half of whom <\/span>are under 12<\/span>. You make friends online these days \u2014 if you\u2019re 12. So, the investment thesis is clear: These kids will not feel so strange in the Metaverse. And adults still feel the need to escape to different realities. Escapism is ageless. Pokemon Go was a global phenomenon accelerated by a nostalgia that made sense to everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n Here are two things I learned from my trips to the Metaverse over the past few weeks:<\/span><\/p>\n First, the Metaverse works well for virtual events.<\/span><\/p>\n Second, the Metaverse only<\/em> works well for virtual events.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m not a gamer. I like ocean sports and the outdoors. I\u2019m a believer in decentralized tech and all that it may or may not offer, but I\u2019m not sure the current version of the Metaverse is the place I\u2019d like to hang.<\/span><\/p>\n I enter Decentraland, and <\/span>I soon face choices: Should I select a cartoonish or realistic avatar?<\/span><\/p>\n This first part makes sense. Who should I be in Decentraland? <\/span>People\u2019s images of themselves never correlate with other people\u2019s images of them.<\/span><\/p>\n I decide to choose a woman. I feel obliged to choose the Sailor Moon<\/em> Japanese schoolgirl outfit, as that\u2019s the image of Comic-Con seared into my brain.<\/span><\/p>\n The avatar helps you choose by grunting at the outfit selections, more approvingly for some choices. You can select a bald woman or buy banana \u201cskins\u201d in the gift shop. In the end, my desire to do something different is undercut by impatience, so I click \u201crandomize\u201d to keep the story moving \u2014 and get a man dressed in something I might actually wear.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Loading\u2026 Then I jump off a diving board into a wormhole, which I initially thought was a stripper pole.<\/span><\/p>\n I spawn in \u201cGenesis Plaza,\u201d a<\/span> bar in a shopping mall plaza for avatars \u2014 a bar without alcohol.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n There are numerous avatars everywhere. Most people look remarkably human, aside from a dogeman (Shiba Inu, not Chewbacca) and a purple octopus woman. We can speak in real time, so I try to strike up a few conversations. \u201cYo,\u201d I offer, which is met with \u201cHi.\u201d Good chat. (I thought \u201cDo you come here often?\u201d might come off wrong.) \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m struck by the thought that, maybe, most people do select lifelike avatars? Except for dogeman. Things do get a little interesting. There is one chat discussing crypto market prices and altcoins, and I see the Shiba Inu dogeman avatar strutting around like he owns the place. Is this an omen? Or a paid ad?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n More crypto market conversations happen. Then a cigarette or marijuana sale URL \u2014 \u201cVisit [insert name].com\u201d \u2014 pops up in the chat. Clever guerilla marketing, I think, though perhaps not at scale, considering there are only three people in the room.<\/span><\/p>\n New avatars spawn next to me. A young white man morphs graphically into a white-haired black man, and then they split left and right. Weird.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I click \u201cescape\u201d to leave the page, and suddenly, I\u2019m in a disorienting fantasy land. I teleport from place to place. I instantly recognize the Twitter and Discord logos on street signs, jolting me from the noise. Brand recognition in the Metaverse distorts my escapism, thanks to every brand trying to be there. Virtual Times Square is coming soon, I think.<\/span><\/p>\n Press \u201cM\u201d and you teleport to another room. It\u2019s all a bit confusing and disorienting.<\/span><\/p>\n So, I wander around aimlessly. There are only a few other people around, and I feel like a lost tourist without a Lonely Planet or Google Maps who cannot speak the local language. And there\u2019s no street food online. I give up and decide to hire a tour guide.<\/span><\/p>\n The next time, I get a tour from Adam De Cata, head of partnerships at Decentraland.<\/span><\/p>\n We enter Vice Media Group\u2019s building, which is not as edgy as I expected for Vice. It has a strange post-modern architecture. I would\u2019ve thought warehouse industrial for that once-grungy mag, perhaps.<\/span><\/p>\n De Cata explains the ethos of Decentraland as we wander around. The DAO was set up in 2019, and it has sold 90,000 parcels of land, which are community-owned and managed. The experiences are mostly gated, so you need a particular NFT to enter a particular building. So, it\u2019s just like being on a Hollywood bus tour and not being able to see inside the celebrity-owned houses.<\/span><\/p>\n The \u201ctech has its challenges, but the fundamentals are truly intriguing,\u201d says De Cata. \u201cIt\u2019s still in an entrepreneurial testing stage and financially driven by the degens driving it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He says that \u201cBuilding in real time is the true challenge, but companies are willing to build experimental case studies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He invites me back in a few days for Metaverse Fashion Week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou need to see an event,\u201d he proclaims.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I return to meet De Cata for Decentraland\u2019s Metaverse Fashion Week, but he ghosts me. To be fair to him, it was not a calendar invite but a tentative virtual meet-up.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m in. The elevator music suddenly starts randomly as I move around. The music changes from dead silence to up-tempo to heavy guitars as I battle with the keyboard, as to be expected.<\/span><\/p>\n I try to click on a blackjack competition but end up teleporting outside The Aquarium.<\/span><\/p>\n I then find an empty building telling me that \u201cNFTWeek\u201d has been held. I think. So, I press escape and keep looking for \u201cMetaverse Fashion Week.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I battle with the keys to move around and wonder if I\u2019m uncoordinated cos I ain\u2019t no gamer.<\/em> I feel a little dizzy.<\/span><\/p>\n I get lost and find myself running aimlessly, but it\u2019s freeing, like when you go for a jog in a new city as soon as you land and end up finding some cool local fare. You see the architecture differently than if you were riding a bus or taking an Uber.<\/span><\/p>\n I feel like a Smurf running from Gargamel and his cat.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The landscapes change quickly, making me feel like I\u2019m a pioneer before the hotel developers build skyscraper accommodations. I find some \u201cancient\u201d ruins \u2014 broken Greek columns in a garden somewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n I look at the map and jump to the \u201cMuslim Quarter,\u201d thinking it\u2019s like a Metaverse version of the Old City of Jerusalem. After teleporting there, I realize nothing has been built yet, but the call to prayer rings out as I raise my volume. It truly makes me feel like a tourist somewhere exotic but familiar. However, there is no hummus.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n You want to pray🙏 but there is no mosque🕌 available ? Visit the “Muslim Quarter Project” in @Decentraland<\/a> 📡🌍! Happy to have built this mosque for Deem ! And many thanks to my 3D-artist @horstremote for his fantastic work ! #mosque<\/a> #islam<\/a> #shahda<\/a> #turnthemusicon<\/a> #decentraland<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/3a507JrBhc<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 acl_crypto (@acl_crypto) September 13, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Imagine if all the 90,000 plots of land get filled. How will we navigate the sites?<\/span><\/p>\n I spy \u201cJammin\u2019Land\u201d and think I\u2019m heading to Jamaica. The place is deserted, with a frozen bartender image behind the bar. There is no Bob Marley avatar asking me if \u201cI like jammin\u2019 too.\u201d With outdoor markets, out the windows, I still get a sense of how music events in this place could pop.<\/span><\/p>\n I then teleport to the Ukraine War Protest Gallery. It looks like an art gallery. All the buildings seem to have that smooth virtual concrete aesthetic. The Metaverse doesn\u2019t do rustic well. It also reminds me again that this is not Disneyland. Anyone can build anything quickly \u2014 this is decentralized land.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I spend two hours wandering around before<\/span> I decide to actually head to Fashion Week. Somehow, I click on an event taking place live in my time zone. Time is actually a massive problem. Even in the Metaverse, we still live in different time zones. Being based in Australia, I already hate scheduling international meetings for work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s colorful and vibrant, and avatars abound. The proof-of-attendance tokens are all gone from the vending machine by the time I get there. I realize that this is avatar fashion week. It\u2019s a little bit like the bar scene in Mos Eisley in Star Wars<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n Avatars are able to strut remarkably well. They also tend to jump a lot as they enter the runway. The poses are less Blue Steel and more Sonic the Hedgehog.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Two things: One, I made it to Fashion Week, finally. Maybe WAGMI is a prophecy? And second, only pictures can do it justice.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I begin to understand that Metaverse events tourism has already become a thing \u2014 if you like events like avatar fashion shows and prerecorded computerized concerts, that is. Milli Vanilli<\/span>, unfortunately, missed their chance for a comeback show. May Rob Pilatus rest in peace. Sorry, degens, if you\u2019re too young for the reference.<\/span><\/p>\n Otherwise, the Metaverse is a bit like Adelaide in South Australia. It\u2019s a lovely place without much to do.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Let\u2019s just say it: For art NFTs, a Metaverse museum makes a lot of sense. It\u2019s just the vibe.<\/span><\/p>\n The Museum of Crypto Art<\/span> is not subject to the laws of gravity, physics or modern engineering. Staircases can be majestic, even if not mathematically load-bearing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of art on each wall.<\/span><\/p>\n The museum uses a token to give its community members a say in the project\u2019s direction as part-owners and co-curators. It declares on its website that its earliest acquisitions will \u201crepresent the earliest etchings on the blockchain, and will come to be regarded as the digital cave paintings of our transhumanist narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n As an art fan, it\u2019s hard to find a context for art NFTs. There\u2019s no time period or a genre to use as a reference point. Luckily, I\u2019m given a guided tour by its co-founder Colborn Bell. He explains each piece and why he is documenting NFT history.<\/p>\n Bell first sought to build a collection in 2017 and is now the largest collector on the NFT sales platform SuperRare. He was an investor in Decentraland\u2019s 2017 ICO, but his gallery was built on Somnium Space, which has \u201cnice light and shadows and is not as cartoony as its competitors Cryptovoxels and Decentraland.\u201d Bell can configure an exhibition in a couple of hours, for free.<\/p>\n Having a tour guide in the NFT space right now helps. Bell is a patron documenting crypto history. Without his curation, I would be lost as to why one piece is valued over another.<\/p>\n Cryptoland loves a meme, and some works relate to the earliest history in the space, like the Bitcoin volatility clock piece. There are 350 pieces in total, going for an average price of $300, but only 50 pieces are on display.<\/p>\n
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<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Metaverse](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/magazine-Visiting-the-Metaverse-1024x576.jpg\")
Ready Player One\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"My](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-11-at-11.11-576x1024.jpeg\")
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Trip 2: Reentry with a tour guide<\/h4>\n
Metaverse Fashion Week and other adventures<\/h4>\n
![\"Ukraine](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-18-at-14.28-e1648773697224-1024x802.jpeg\")
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Next stop: The Museum of Crypto Art<\/h4>\n
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