Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A future (counterpart or continuation of the) Internet.
  • noun The or a set of universes or composite of (all) universes.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • On the whole, virtual worlds are very different from the internet though here I will focus on what I term the metaverse model of virtual worlds, as opposed to the emerging highly distributed model that Vast Park, MetaPlace and the like are using.

    Structures of Governance 2008

  • On the whole, virtual worlds are very different from the internet though here I will focus on what I term the metaverse model of virtual worlds, as opposed to the emerging highly distributed model that Vast Park, MetaPlace and the like are using.

    August 2008 2008

  • -- Wright, "One of the things we're going to be doing continually is rating the most popular content, so when you make a creature you're going to be able to go to what we call the metaverse report and get a sense of what is your creature's popularity ranking relative to other people's creatures."

    Will Wright on Spore / Sims / SL 2007

  • The Metaverse "The term metaverse comes from Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash, and is now widely used to describe the vision behind current work on fully immersive 3D virtual spaces.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows MonicaMarlo 2009

  • Virtual World - A virtual world, some call a metaverse, is a place where you can operate in 3d environment.

    Second Life and Open Sim for Newbies (like Me!) - Day 1 2009

  • Virtual World - A virtual world, some call a metaverse, is a place where you can operate in 3d environment.

    Archive 2009-02-01 2009

  • When a deadly computer virus threatens the virtual reality world known as the metaverse, Hiro is called to duty.

    March 2007 2007

  • When a deadly computer virus threatens the virtual reality world known as the metaverse, Hiro is called to duty.

    Battle of the Bulge 2007

  • While the Second Life version of this annual event is closely aligned with the ideals of the much celebrated Real Life Burning Man, the metaverse is a platform from which a myriad of things that would not be possible in real life can take place.

    Archive 2007-09-01 Bettina Tizzy 2007

  • While the Second Life version of this annual event is closely aligned with the ideals of the much celebrated Real Life Burning Man, the metaverse is a platform from which a myriad of things that would not be possible in real life can take place.

    Burning Life 2007 - the weeklong burn has begun Bettina Tizzy 2007

  • The multimedia would come soon enough, but we’re still waiting for the 3D/immersive interface — a.k.a. the metaverse, in today’s parlance.

    1993: Mosaic Launches and the Web is Set Free 2023

  • In fiction, a utopian metaverse may be portrayed as a new frontier where social norms and value systems can be written anew, freed from cultural and economic sclerosis.

    Are We in the Metaverse Yet? By 2021

  • As a buzzword, the metaverse refers to a variety of virtual experiences, environments and assets that gained momentum during the online-everything shift of the pandemic.

    Are We in the Metaverse Yet? By 2021

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  • Coined by Neal Stephenson in the 1992 cyber-punk novel "Snow Crash," the metaverse is a future society fundamentally changed by 3D technologies.

    August 25, 2008

  • "The notion of a metaverse has long fascinated geeks. The idea of 'avatars' — three-dimensional representations of the self rendered in pixels, often fantastical or surreal in nature — wandering through a computer-generated environment has been explored in the science-fiction novels of Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, and Bruce Sterling, among others. The Matrix trilogy introduced the idea at multiplexes from coast to coast.

    And yet unreal worlds have never taken off in actual reality. Philip Rosedale, the creator of Second Life, once showed me screens at the headquarters of his company, Linden Lab, which monitored in real time the number of people logging in. They peaked at 50,000, the maximum simultaneous capacity of its servers. That's not a virtual world; that's a midsized town.

    Anecdotally, many of Second Life's users are there for virtual sex. (The company has banned gambling, so there's little other reason to go there.) The PG-rated Lively, censored by Google, did not even have that; its only draw was innocuous chat, with the occasional subversive attempt by users at raciness.

    No wonder that news organizations, drawn by the visual appeal of the service's 3D graphics, aren't writing stories about Second Life anymore. Reuters, at the height of the frenzy, opened up a bureau; its Second Life correspondent stopped filing copy since September, having left to write for a blog, and the wire service has not replaced him."

    - Owen Thomas, 'Second Life's death knell', valleywag.com, 20 Nov 2008.

    December 9, 2008

  • Firstly my apologies for the awfully long citation. But I wanted to give a reasonable context for this issue. After an absence of about 8 years, I recently returned to IRC. I was surprised how many 16-y-o noobs there were; in fact they severely outnumbered the diehards. I had expected that the younger generation would have been seduced by flashier stuff elsewhere on the internet. It's remarkable how resilient text is, and Wordie is but another remarkable example of that. It's as if text is somehow trustworthy. A lot of my best internet friends were discovered through IRC and, even though I have never seen their photos, I have a precise idea of who they are. Perhaps because images are processed in another part of the brain, I have a quite different rapport with internet acquaintances known fundamentally through pictures.

    December 9, 2008