[sceew]

I think Matthew Ball on Twitter is responsible for the increased usage of "Metaverse" amongst investors, business strategists, etc.

He recently launched an ETF ($META) that indexes to "Metaverse" companies (Roblox, Unity, etc.).

I have always been pretty cynical about his takes and usage of "Metaverse." There's a lot of hand-waving and ted-talky grandstanding to make the "Metaverse" concept seem like something new, exciting and inevitable. But using "Metaverse" seems overly complicated, its just describing a large, centralized online community which isn't a new concept. World of Warcraft or Minecraft may have been the peak of the "Metaverse" so far, so it seems disingenuous to treat the "Metaverse" as something new and novel.

Kinda've stream of consciousness from me - but all this really seems like is someone with a consultant background applying frameworks and buzzwords to concepts that felt childish and unserious for so long (WoW, Minecraft, Fortnite, etc.), but now people are realizing that these companies and games can spit out serious cash, so they love someone who can package it together nicely through these frameworks and thought pieces. Boomers love this!

https://twitter.com/ballmatthew

[Impossible]

I've worked for Oculus and Unity and know a lot of people at Epic and Roblox so I've tried to understand what people mean by Metaverse (outside of directly referencing Snow Crash or Ready Player One). My simplified version is a 3D online game, that has the same number of users and retention as a social network. Almost by definition it has to have user generated content.

Minecraft, Roblox and Fortnite are close in various ways, and many apps have the feature set but are missing the user base.

[Animats]

Matthew Ball .. is responsible for the increased usage of "Metaverse" amongst investors, business strategists, etc.

I think you're right.[1]

[1] https://www.matthewball.vc/all/forwardtothemetaverseprimer