Reading up on the Metaverse

The tech world has been overtaken by the seductive idea of a virtual utopia, but what’s on offer looks more like a late-capitalist technocratic nightmare

You can try to resist Mark Zuckerberg’s dead-eyed insistence but there’s no escape from the metaverse. Your physical life is being swallowed by your digital life. Is it possible to avoid upgrading your human operating system?

Silicon Valley CEOs keep hailing its imminent arrival as they hawk digital goods, but the metaverse was a dystopian idea from its inception.

Meta (META.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O) and other tech giants racing to build the emerging metaverse concept have formed a group to foster development of industry standards that would make the companies' nascent digital worlds compatible with each other.

What exactly is a metaverse? And how is it different from any other virtual world? Here's an overview of its defining features, and how it intersects with web3. 

James Whatley absolutely loves gaming. The chief strategy officer at Diva Agency is frustrated, however, by the hype being generated by marketers for ’the metaverse’. As part of The Drum’s Gaming Advertising Deep Dive, he argues that the opportunity they’re imagining in virtual worlds is already here.

In the increasingly lifelike worlds of VR, high numbers of users are experiencing hate speech and sexual harassment. How should these lawless spaces be governed?

A new documentary sees a reporter don a VR headset and head into the world that’s supposed to be our future. Within 10 minutes, she had witnessed the most disturbing sights of her life – in a space seven-year-olds can access

A Japanese startup wants you to be able to feel pain inside the metaverse through a wristband that electrically stimulates its wearer's muscles.

Researchers are building new ways to track and analyze your every glance—and big tech platforms like Facebook are already looking to make their own.

I found Metaverse restaurants can't replicate the convenience and appeal of physical locations, so their usefulness is limited.

The first fashion week held in the metaverse featured virtual collections by Etro, Dundas, and Auroboros, as well an appearance from Grimes.

A conversation with one of the few people who have real historical perspective on digital communities

Meta execs said brands can be present in the metaverse sooner than expected through things like livestream shopping and virtual sports.

When the upcoming metaverse – such as we understand it now – meets data privacy, there could be a "clash of the titans."

Brands are already staking out the commercial opportunities within the metaverse but some experts are raising the alarm about the implications immersive advertising will have for user privacy, safety and consent.

PricewaterhouseCoopers and Prager Metis made acquisitions last month, following the example set by other companies to launch operations in the metaverse.

Anna Wiener writes about the metaverse, and how the use of money is developing in a space that combines virtual reality, augmented reality, the Internet, entertainment experiences, gaming, and remote work.

Marketers sure do love their metaverse right now. The buzziest of buzz words reached new heights when Facebook announced that they will now be known as Meta – a nod to their aspiration to be a leader in the metaverse. But do Americans even know what it is? Do they care? YouGov asked 876 US adults that very question on Friday. This is what they had to say.