Konstantinos KomaitisI have seen zero data on the presumed interest or need for #Metaverse for users! Yet, some governments (the EU) intergovernmental institutions (ITU) and companies (#telcos, #Meta) want us to believe this is the next big thing. Also, can any one of them, please define Metaverse?
the grugq@kkomaitis I like the definition I saw the other day: the metaverse is online games. Any online game from the last 20 years is a metaverse. Roblox is the biggest one right now.
happyborg@thegrugq @kkomaitis Ah, remember MUD in the eighties?
@happyborg @kkomaitis no. Before my time. But I think that’s what the snow crash metaverse was based on. Generally the main thing that ppl seem to be excited by is having a visual 3D environment shared with other people you interact with.
Without the visual element you could probably push it back to the first multi user systems. Things like ‘write’ to send messages to someone else’s terminal.
@thegrugq @kkomaitis I'd set the bar as some shared environment created in the computer in which each person experiences their own perspective of a greater whole. I don't think write makes the cut as the shared 'space' is outside.
MUD = Multi User Dungeon is the first I recall ...barely. I think Moria came soon after which I remember slightly better but I played rogue more (single user). All played using text terminals.
Much later.. Doom death match mode was 👌
@happyborg @kkomaitis that’s a reasonable definition, but I think the visual element is what gets the public excited.
I know MUDs but I was never interested. I spent my time on IRC.
There’s a paper / blog post I read.. decade or more ago, which was by a guy who ran a MUD. I think. It was about how communities grow and what people look for in games. Things like “freedom of speech” is easy as a principle when you have a small community, but when the assholes show up things have to change. And this is always gonna be one of the defining points in the community culture. Do you eject the asshole, or let them stay and lose some number of other people.
It was fascinating because it predicted basically all the stuff that happened with reddit and Facebook and I guess Elon at twitter.
I can’t find it anymore. Frustrates me.
Anyway, I’m going to say there’s a non zero chance that some weird BSD system in the 70s had some primitive type of MUD system… or some other random box at a University somewhere. But we’ll probably never know :)
@thegrugq @kkomaitis Those Egyptian tombs might be worth a look and I'll bet the Sumerians had Tetris.
PS I've no idea if I actually mean the Sumerians but 🤷♂️