Video Games Tutorials and News - Trapped In The Metaverse: Here. S What 24 Hours In Vr Feels Like. Wsj

That's okay i'm not sure anyone really does, but Meta, formerly known as Facebook, Microsoft, and more, is defining it as the virtual world that is the next phase of the internet. In this world, we have digital versions of ourselves, or avatars. And we call this the metaverse. And you're going to be able to do almost anything you can imagine: get together with friends and family; work; learn, play, and shop; so I decided why wait and, stupidly.

I dared myself to visit the metaverse for a full 24 hours in its current, not so great state. In fact, metta and others will tell you that the metaverse isn't even here yet, but the best way to see the start of it is through virtual reality, and since I didn't want to pop into a headset with my kids running around.

I packed my bags and moved to the Holiday Inn Express around the corner. I set a few rules: the headset can come off to eat and go to the bathroom. No, I attempted to sleep with it on. I checked my phone only if it was urgent. I had notifications coming in on the Oculus Quest 2, which is made by Meta.

It's about to be 6 p. m., which is the start of my metaverse journey. I've got two headsets in case of technical issues and lots of apps and other things pre-loaded for different parts of the day and night. What could go wrong? Welcome to Beat Saber. Now cut the cubes in the arrow direction and match the color.

That was too soon. Wait for the beat, wrong direction, wrong direction, she's very mean. I started with games like Beat Saber since right now they're the most popular use of VR, and while many games allow you to play with others. I had no real friends to play Beat Saber with that evening, so I decided to go elsewhere for some social interaction.

Alt Space VR is an app that allows you to hang out with other avatars in virtual venues. Okay, I'm going to customize my avatar for a night out. I guess in the metaverse I could have short hair. I wasn't exactly prepared for what would happen next. I guess I'll go to this campfire hub. Hello As soon as I was in the public area, I started hearing people talking and chatting, and, apparently, there are no masks in the metaverse.

I was dropped into an area with lots of trippy little lego-looking people, and I attempted to interview them. I knew I had really made friends forever when they asked me to go to a comedy club by clicking on this portal thing. The club was so obviously fake, but my presence in it and the presence of all these other people felt really real.

Do you guys have wine? I even felt awkward when the comedian hid behind my avatar. You're the girl that was trying to find your name, but because I'm trying to be subtle. I spent a good amount of time in alt space and came away thinking it's like an aol chat room evolved, which I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

To relax for a moment Kindness starts with you. I highly recommend meditation apps like Guided Meditation or Trip. It's oddly relaxing and peaceful, and I could lie to you and tell you I slept with the headset on the whole night, but we have this proof. I woke up feeling refreshed. I pulled up some morning reading in my web browser: Google News over here.

The Wall Street Journal website over here, and instagram over here on the right, and had breakfast at the foot of Machu Picchu with a llama in the National Geographic app. It's funny that this animal has legs in the metaverse. White animals get four legs in the meadowverse, and we get zero. And then I had a pretty fun and intense workout.

Welcome to Supernatural. Are you ready for your first flow workout? I got so into it that I actually lost track of time. I have a meeting in Spa in one minute. I need to change crap. Yes, meetings in the metaverse are a thing. Hi Erin, I'm Joanna. It's nice to meet you. Hi, thanks for coming.

The idea is that instead of Zoom, you chat as avatars. My first meeting was in an app called Spatial, and, of course, it required a different avatar. Yes, that's my actual face on a floating torso. I met up with the co-founder of spatial, Ananda Agrawala, in an nft art gallery with works from ken kelleher aka Anchor Ball, on display.

This is a great stop because it turns out I'm in an nft art gallery, which sounds like the metaverse to me. Heck yeah i mean you can't get more metaversy than a you know pixelated dog or, these crazy heads and stuff or these beautiful sculptures, we also went to a campfire where I asked him about the lack of legs.

The headset tracks your head and your hands, so we can make it do realistic stuff. What are my legs supposed to do? We can't actually detect the signal from your legs. Legs are coming soon. I quickly had to jump from that meeting to another meeting as another avatar in Horizon Workrooms, an app made by Metta, formerly known as Facebook.

I see it's kind of like you gotta really put it on the board. You can even invite people from the real world who happen to be on their webcams. But again, there was this real feeling of presence in the room. I felt like I was actually sitting across from my editor, Wilson, in this meeting. It's like Ghostbusters.

I'm a full-torso apparition, so you don't need legs. No, Jan is looking under the table. That's so scary. Yes, meeting Metaverse is fun if you don't do it for four hours on end. There was so much time in avatar meetings that my eyes hurt and my head hurt. So what did I learn from this adventure other than that I'd never recommend you do this well?

a few things. It's clear why big tech companies are fighting over this. There's an opportunity to build the underlying platform here. One avatar with legs, living across games, workout apps, meetings and more meta. Megan Fitzgerald told me as much, and the metaverse is not going to be built by one company.

There are other companies, organizations, and creators that maybe will use our avatars and allow people to move from one place to another while still feeling like themselves. Then there's the privacy tools and moderation. It's going to be insane, judging from my brief comedy club experience, and then headsets will need to be smaller and more comfortable and run for longer on a charge.

Thank you guys. My headset's going to die in five minutes, so yes, it's certainly the early days of the metaverse, but lock yourself in a room like this and you can really see the potential.