This is a guest column from Alien Worlds.
In the digital age, the concept of a metaverse has gradually emerged as a revolutionary idea, one that represents a vast amalgamation of technologies and activities that transcend traditional boundaries.
Games are games, books are books, and movies are movies. But the metaverse is different: it isn’t just one thing, it’s everything, a GADA (Go Anywhere, Do Anything) realm where virtual and augmented reality combine with cryptocurrencies, NFTs, play-to-earn games, community governance models, and social media.
Thanks to wearable technology, you can even exercise in the metaverse – though the idea of quitting your morning run to stay indoors and strap on a headset doesn’t appeal to everyone. Nonetheless, the possibility emphasizes just how multifaceted the metaverse can be.
Beyond spatial limitations: the omni-channel hub
An artificial environment with no spatial limitations, the metaverse is nothing less than an omni-channel hub for countless forms of virtual interaction. Cross-media in its essence, it houses various worlds, mythologies, communities and stories that extend beyond video games – a broad church featuring comics, books and other forms of media.
In this arena where communications, content and culture collide in novel ways, the dream is that users will benefit from a more immersive and enjoyable UX than what was previously possible in web2.
In the multi-sensory metaverse, users can engage in a plethora of activities from watching concerts and buying virtual land to setting up commercial enterprises, socializing with friends and creating/playing games. It represents a Brave New World where the physical and digital worlds collapse into one.
The metaverse beyond virtual reality
A common misconception about the metaverse is that it is predominantly a virtual reality (VR) environment. Although the vision of a spatially built-out 3D metaverse is extremely appealing, VR technology needs to catch up while the cost of VR equipment needs to fall.
Moreover, the practical limitations of VR – such as the need for substantial physical space and the potential for motion sickness – pose major barriers to widespread adoption. Like it or not, the vast majority of today’s metaverse users access digital spaces using traditional means: web browsers, tablets and smartphones. They access the web3 world using a web2 key, in other words.
While VR will inevitably play a significant role in the future development of the metaverse, in its existing form, the metaverse is much more than a VR experience. It is a confluence of technologies and mediums, accessible via multiple channels, and open to everyone.
A cross-media metaverse in the wild
A prime example of the cross-media metaverse is Alien Worlds. With its sci-fi setting, player-controlled DAO governance models and native token Trilium (TLM), Alien Worlds cannot easily be pigeonholed: is it a game? An economic simulation? A fantasy franchise?
In truth, Alien Worlds is all of these things – which is why it’s referred to as a metaverse in the first place. Its ecosystem features non-fungible tokens that players use to ‘mine’ Trilium from the Planetary Syndicates, each of whom controls a treasury of TLM, in addition to staking, weekly community elections and a rich, evolving lore.
Alien Worlds made headlines last year by partnering with celebrated sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson, the man behind spin-off novels for Star Wars, The X-Files and Dune. The fruit of the collaboration was the launch of an AI-driven, community-governed sci-fi franchise.
Effectively, this new model – known as Tokenized Lore – incentivizes Alien Worlds players to build upon Anderson’s creative foundations and expand the mythology of the game through stories, art, games, comics and more. All contributions are governed by decentralized on-chain mechanisms, with only the most popular passing into official canon.
Because AI is invariably leveraged to generate creative work, Tokenized Lore is set to become the largest AI system governed by DAOs at scale: lore built by the community, for the community, with a little assistance from AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney.
Alien World’s proposed AI-driven Large Lore Model will be central to this vision: the LLM is trained on community-approved lore, encompassing games, art, videos and other media. With this approach, Alien Worlds’ lead contributor Dacoco intends to democratize content creation but also open up new avenues for storytelling, where the narrative is not just a product of a single mind but a hive mind, ensuring the stories go where the community takes them.
If the metaverse represents the next step in the evolution of digital interaction, cross-media platforms prove that we are coming closer to realizing that grand vision. Advances in generative AI will surely expedite that momentum further, though it will take time for the metaverse to reach critical mass.
Find out more at the Alien Worlds’ website.
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