How much do we need the metaverse now?

23

September

2025

4/5 (2)

How real can the metaverse be when there is nobody who will use it? In the movie ‘ready player one’ the metaverse is a crowded place, almost everybody lived in the digital world and not in the physical world. Most importantly, because the depiction of earth in the movie is a garbage dump with containers layered on top of each other which serve as homes for people. It makes sense that people would want to escape to a more aesthetic place and in addition, been given the opportunity to become any appearance you prefer. So, why aren’t we all living in the metaverse yet?

The metaverse that I will describe is the one presented by Mark Zuckerberg. His idea is to provide a virtual world for people to connect, work, play and shop with each other. A place for social interaction. But the most important characteristic of the meta verse is the feeling of being truly present with another person. If the metaverse would feel as real as our physical world, the barriers to join would collapse and people would move to a virtual world. So, why hasn’t that happened yet. According to K.Baker (2025) the metaverse failed because of technology limitations, bad user experience, high cost of entry and the rise of generative AI. There were also privacy concerns. Users described the verse as unfinished and poor visuals. The VR glasses are also very expensive and require a powerful computer. Although it’s failed expectations, the technology is not dead yet and probably waiting for collaborations between retail companies to join the verse and pull in users.

In my opinion, the meta verse is not a direct need for consumers in this time period. But, if Mark Zuckerberg were to collaborate with amazon and other big retailers. People would maybe start to be curious about this new path to their products and slowly start to enter this virtual world. The first people ready to join the virtual world; have to be able to afford the Hardware and not be bothered by the visuals. They would use the world purely to acquire their products for games and other information goods related platforms. If the metaverse is able to give consumers an experience of being truly present, that would mean the beginning of a completely new world.

References:

Baker, K. (2025, 17 juli). What Happened to the Metaverse? How Zuck’s VR Dream Died. Enterprise Tech News EM360Tech. https://em360tech.com/tech-articles/what-happened-metaverse-how-zucks-vr-dream-died

Clayton, B. J. (2023, 25 september). Metaverse: What happened to Mark Zuckerberg’s next big thing? https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66913551

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Virtual Reality and Theatre: A New Immersive Experience

6

October

2019

5/5 (1) Imagine you sitting in a theatre, waiting for the performance. All of a sudden, a performer ask you to wear a visor virtual reality. The curtain rises and you are dancing with your favourite ballet dancer. The reality becomes clear a few minutes later, when the performance is finished and you are encouraged to remove the VR headset.

Virtual reality is a three-dimensional, computer generated environment which can be explored and interacted with by a person (Gigante M.A., 1993). Nowadays virtual reality technology is used in a broad range of situations, from videogames to training pilots, going through visualizing and modifying prototypes ( Reaney M., 1999). It is quite interesting also to notice that the traditional theatre industry is moving towards new technologies, such as virtual reality (Dickson A., 2019).

In theatre the goal is to immerse spectators in the performance through a right mix of engaging storytelling, soundtracks, talented actors etc.. Theoretically, if the show is successful the spectator should escape from reality, feeling part of the performance ( Reaney M., 1999). Virtual reality could help in further enhancing and improving the audience engagement. Virtual reality is able to remove the separation betweeen actors and spectators. People have no longer a passive role, they participate firstend to the performance, this can further increase the emotions and the feelings of the plot ( Moneta A., 2017).

Virtual reality does not only improve customer’s experience but it also enlarges the screenwriter capabilities. Indeed, virtual reality allows to visualize endless combinations of environments and sets, actors can immerse themselves in the reality that spectators will experience later on, trying to understand how it can be improved ( Moneta A., 2017).  This VR implementation is also showed in the following video presentation of the Microsoft HoloLens, a state of the art VR visor launched in February 2019.

Virtual Reality has already been implemented by some theather companies in limited situations such as film festivals and other pop-ups events ( Yu K., 2019). However, considering the fast pace of VR’s technology development, new possibilities and potential for virtual theatre performances will further increase in the next year (Moneta A., 2017) and the next video is a clear example of the VR potentiality (Damiani J., 2019).

 

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=zF-focK30WE

 

Reference:

Damiani, J. (2019). ‘Chained’ Is A Groundbreaking Exploration Of Immersive Intimacy — And Now It’s Expanding. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2019/03/11/chained-is-a-groundbreaking-exploration-of-immersive-intimacy-and-now-its-expanding/#11001ced42a7 [Accessed 6 Oct. 2019].

Dickson, A. (2019). Will virtual reality change theatre?. [online] Financial Times. Available at: https://www-ft-com.eur.idm.oclc.org/content/0b25319e-f7cd-11e8-a154-2b65ddf314e9 [Accessed 6 Oct. 2019].

Gigante, M. A. (1993). Virtual reality: definitions, history and applications. In Virtual reality systems (pp. 3-14). Academic Press.

Mark Reaney (1999) Virtual Reality and the Theatre: Immersion in Virtual Worlds, Digital Creativity, 10:3, 183-188, DOI: 10.1076/digc.10.3.183.3244

Moneta, A. (2017). How virtual reality is changing the way we experience stage shows. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/how-virtual-reality-is-changing-the-way-we-experience-stage-shows-81542 [Accessed 6 Oct. 2019].

Yu, K. (2019). How Immersive Virtual Reality Theatre Pushes the Limits of Storytelling. [online] Medium. Available at: https://noproscenium.com/how-immersive-virtual-reality-theatre-pushes-the-limits-of-storytelling-8265b198bfc7 [Accessed 6 Oct. 2019].

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