Abhishek Singh Rajpurohit is an MBA graduate from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, has authored a book on online reputation Management “Protect your online identity like your virginity” and I am quite vocal about the darker side of the digital age. and have also featured on TED talks MUMBAI. He is also the co-founder of a digital growth hacking agency called Beeing Social.
The metaverse is no doubt, One of the biggest changes the gaming industry has experienced, and will likely ever experience. While everyone has an idea or two, about the potential of the metaverse, it is important to note that making this virtual world all that it is meant to be, is bound to be riddled with challenges. And it is. While some challenges range from minor to serious technological setbacks, others are based on ethics. Some ethical setbacks of the metaverse like the technological ones range from mild inconveniences to borderline scary.
Below are a few you might find interesting, grouped in terms of technology, and then ethics.
Technological Challenges Of The Metaverse Gaming Industry
The metaverse is still miles away from being a full-fledged concept. Advances in the world of augmented and virtual reality, IoT and database management still have to be made, to create an enjoyable and realistic experience for everyone. As far as technological setbacks go, there are:
Privacy Concerns
Gaming in the metaverse is more or less a reiteration of the internet games some of us know and use. Only that it provides a more virtual experience to its users.
With all these advancements, however, all of the advantages metaverse gaming has over regular internet gaming, also come with more advanced disadvantages we all have to deal with.
The technology and mechanisms responsible for tracking online user activity on internet games will undoubtedly exist in the metaverse. An IoT device, for example, can track anything, from a user’s heartbeat in certain situations, to the kinds of things their eyes linger on in the virtual world.
Data like this is useful to any data harvester because they know what kinds of things grab your attention, and what kinds of ads to send your way.
Latency
VR headsets and body suits are bound to have some latency. Latency is known to cause what is called a “VR hangover”. These devices might delay sending visual and haptic cues to the gamers by a few milliseconds. The human brain notices these discrepancies and gets confused. Leading to nausea, dizziness and vomiting. Anyone who has ever suffered from motion sickness already understands how this feels.
Access Inequality
While some people have better experiences playing metaverse games because they can afford better devices, others don’t, for the opposite reason.
AR/VR requires the latest gadgets, reliable connectivity and up-to-date software, for the best virtual experiences.
Making the metaverse available to the vast majority, regardless of device type or geographic location is one of the biggest issues metaverse gaming faces.
Ethical Challenges Of Metaverse Gaming
Some ethical concerns of metaverse gaming are the same as that of mainstream internet gaming.
While this new technology has a plethora of use cases, it also has an equal amount of ways it can be misused. Some examples include
Laws and Crime
Is a virtual crime a real crime? The metaverse as many suspects will introduce many loopholes in already existing laws. Can a person be assaulted virtually?
These and many other questions relating to ethics are one Of The pressing questions surrounding the metaverse.
Identity Theft
It is considerably hard and quite unnecessary to impersonate a person on online gaming platforms.
In metaverse gaming, however, it is not only possible to impersonate a person and commit fraud using their identity, it is also possible to do it “physically” by hijacking their avatar.
Age Restrictions
Age restrictions are already flimsy on online gaming platforms. On the metaverse, however, anything goes. There will be limited parental guidance on underage players in the metaverse, meaning that there is no telling what children may be exposed to in this virtual world.
In Conclusion
The metaverse, as you may have realized by now, is riddled with challenges.All of these questions and more are ones developers and big-tech companies have to answer, before any more progress can be made, as to the direction of the metaverse.