⚡ Life in the Metaverse - by Anthony Tan - Reboot

Facebook has begun calling itself a “metaverse company” and doubled down on Oculus, avatar-based remote work, and marketplaces for virtual goods. Yet in today’s guest essay, open source virtual reality (VR) founder Anthony Tan presents a passionate call to protect the metaverse from megacorporations and preserve it as a space of sanctuary and recovery. By Anthony Tan I met my boyfriend in a virtual mansion overlooking Hong Kong. We had some drinks, played a game of pool, then took a portal into a nightclub and danced with dozens of people. Later, with a few friends, we hopped into a medieval inn and talked for the rest of the night, staring up at the digital moon. This happened to me. This was a typical night in VRChat: a social VR platform and the closest thing we have to a metaverse today. Recent visions of the “metaverse” have been depressingly commercial. In fact, the people of the early metaverse — internet communities, gamers, and VR users — don’t even use the term in their lives

Facebook has begun calling itself a “metaverse company” and doubled down on Oculus, avatar-based remote work, and marketplaces for virtual goods. Yet in today’s guest essay, open source virtual reality (VR) founder Anthony Tan presents a passionate call to protect the metaverse from megacorporations and preserve it as a space of sanctuary and recovery. By Anthony Tan I met my boyfriend in a virtual mansion overlooking Hong Kong. We had some drinks, played a game of pool, then took a portal into a nightclub and danced with dozens of people. Later, with a few friends, we hopped into a medieval i