By Misty Barron
Over a year after billionaire Mark Zuckerberg rebranded his Facebook empire Meta Platforms, the company is reporting record losses. They’ve also admitted that the metaverse hasn’t caught on with its user base and seems confused about why it’s failing. Perhaps they’ve asked the wrong people.
The biggest problem with the metaverse is that there needs to be a clear consensus on what it actually is. Meta has yet to do much to help people understand their goals. Rather than providing well-defined explanations of what users can expect, the general public needs to be given more to work with.
In a recent interview with computer scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman, Zuckerberg explained the concept of his virtual world. “A lot of people think that the metaverse is about a place, but one definition of this is it’s about a time when basically immersive digital worlds become the primary way that we live our lives and spend our time,” Zuckerberg told Fridman. “I think that’s a reasonable construct.”
It might be a reasonable construct in Zuckerberg’s mind, but it does little to explain the metaverse. Attempts to define that it’s a virtual world where people socialize, buy and sell digital items, or build their own world are often met with pointing out those things already exist.
Not only do other metaverse-type worlds already exist, but many have become quite popular. World of Warcraft, Fortnite, and Second Life has a thriving digital economy, and users are already devoted to each platform.
When asked if she would try Meta Platforms, Kerrigan Reeve, an avid video gamer, responded, “Ew, no! Have you seen it? They just got legs for their avatars.”
Reeve, 33, from New Jersey, also owns a successful virtual store on Second Life’s online platform. She believes her store would not be as lucrative if hosted in the metaverse. She said, “It’s obvious from the start they’re going to cater to corporations and not private content creators.”
Second Life is a vast 3D-generated virtual world and platform filled with user-generated content where people can interact with each other in real time. It also hosts a thriving in-world economy that can be converted back to real-life funds.
Second Life’s users, or ‘residents,’ don’t have a designated goal, and there are no traditional gameplay mechanics. The platform focuses on social interaction, user-generated content, and freedom. Essentially, Second Life is more akin to original Meta Platforms than a video game. Linden Lab officially launched the platform in 2003, before Facebook became public.
Heather Belov, who uses Second Life as a creative writing outlet, says its appeal lies in the world’s customization. “Players don’t have to wait around for those in charge to fix things; they literally have the power to create what they want, when they want.”
Belov also believes that community-based optimization is unmatched. “The only limitation in Second Life is your imagination, whereas Metaverse is comparatively basic and limited.”
The issues with Zuckerberg’s metaverse go beyond unappealing avatars and dull landscapes. Their promise of a utopia where companies replace the office within a virtual setting isn’t as popular with workers as it is with their employers. According to a study, 77% of employers expressed an interest in immersive work environments like the metaverse, but only 57% of employees felt the same.
Lisa Bose, 31, who first started dabbling in virtual worlds for a psychology class in college, says, “Having a class virtually was fun back then because it was new. But who wants to go to work in a virtual setting? Everyone wants to work remote to get away from the office, they’re trying to recreate it in our homes.”
Unprompted, Bose went on to speculate. “First, they made Facebook, which is a rip-off of MySpace. Now they’re trying to pretend the metaverse is a new idea. It’s been around forever. I don’t think Zuckerburg has any original ideas.”
The failure of Metaverse is, ultimately, that it is attempting to address a non-existent problem. Facebook achieved popularity by providing a straightforward solution to staying connected. However, those who praise Metaverse are committing to innovations that either already exists, are vaguely defined, or that no one desires.