I will give my opinion on this matter and the characteristics of the metaverse that distinguish it from games. Let's go in order:

The Metaverse is not the future. This is real. Thanks to the development of the Internet and social networks and the gaming industry, we are already in some kind of nascent metaverse, but only in 2D. Our personalities are digitized and stored in databases. Companies have a great idea about us, this data can be transferred / used on different platforms and where personalized recommendations will be created. People are working to create content and even gamify the process of communication in social networks. All it takes is to create a 3D interface to take gamification to the next level and further equate digital and real identities. The benefits may be an increase in Retention, Sales and a reduction in business costs.

I often cite Telegram as an example. Imagine that Telegram is a kind of Decentraland only in 2D. User avatars are here. We know many people in chats only from them and have formed an opinion about them without ever encountering them in real life. The channel is an analogue of the earth. Chat is an analogue of the open world.

At the same time, socialization and the first impression remain important, so buying a unique avatar with a proven fact of ownership would be a reasonable feature. Land can be a profitable investment for brands and influencers.

And imagine that you will navigate not with the help of a cursor through channels and chats, but with the help of a digital avatar in the clothes that you possess. From chat to chat (space), from channel to channel (lands) and all this with gamification, storytelling in a 3D MMORPG-like world and achievements can influence your identity in real life through a digital passport and rating (in a good sense of the word) .

There are seven important aspects of the virtual world that characterize it as the Metaverse. They were formulated by venture capitalist Matthew Ball. Author of the book “The Metaverse. And How It Will Revolutionize Everything.” And for some of the characteristics, just the same blockchain and NFT may be suitable. I have taken the liberty of adding comments to these characteristics of the metaverses. This can be used in disputes with critics of the concept and those who have recently become interested in the metaverse.

• UGC. Users should be able to create content for the metaverse.

• All events within the metaverse occur in real time, and actions do not depend on external factors.

• There are no restrictions on the number of users. Not at all. Anyone can join.

• The Metaverse is infinite and always functions. It cannot be turned off or stopped or past events changed. Here we recall blockchain and decentralization.

• Economy. People work in the metaverse and get paid for it. They also own property, can sell/buy it and create it. Therefore, this story is closer to NFT with storage on your wallet, and not on the company's proprietary servers. If Roblox or Epic Games or whoever is planning to create a real metaverse, then they should give ownership to the citizens of the metaverse.

• The metauniverse and the real world should not exist separately, they should be intertwined with each other. At the moment, phigital items that brands give away via NFT are just merchandise that lives its own life after release. If we sell a physical item, then this does not affect the NFT in any way. Events in real life and in the metaverse must affect both realities.

• Interoperability and cross-platform. Content should be able to be transferred from one platform/game to another. Again, we come to the concept of NFT, where the item is stored in the user's wallet and another platform connects to the user's wallet in order to check for NFT to display the content. This should not be on the servers of one company, or all companies should join the same creator of the metaverse, which will lead to other problems and is unlikely, or the metaverse should belong to a global government that sets standards and rules, but while the metaverse is seen more as a decentralized structure, this is possible not this way. In addition, the created content should be able to be easily transferred to the virtual space. The Metaverse must be accessible from different platforms.

Not all MMORPGs have these characteristics. At the moment, closest to the metaverses in some traditional sense: Fortnite, Roblox, Second Life, Meta, Minecraft. Mainly because they already have a huge user base and have huge funds, staff and experience to create something like this. Didn't mention Decentraland, Otherside, The Sandbox just for this reason.

But the first must embrace the concepts of web3. without them, they will not be able to fully embody the real metaverse, and it will be easier for them to do this than to gain a user base second. If they want to compete for a place in the sun, and not be absorbed, they need to grow very quickly, be flexible, have a reserve of liquidity in order to survive the crypto winter and provide unique features. There are features. The same decentralization and DAO to be able to create political associations. But while DCL, TSB, Otherside are far from being able to create a metaverse that is capable of aggregating a trillion-dollar economy, the GDP of which is capable of exceeding that of the US, China or the EU at least to begin with, not to mention the flip moment when the metaverse will be larger than the world economy, which quite likely in the future.