The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything

by Matthew Ball

The IVWP interface enables users to create more easily and with fewer people, less investment, and less expertise and skill. Most Roblox creators, for example, are kids, and nearly 10 million users have created virtual worlds on Roblox’s platform. In addition, every virtual world built on these platforms must use the platform’s entire live services suite—its account and communication systems, avatar database, virtual currency, and more. All of these virtual worlds must be accessed through the IVWP, which therefore serves as a unified experiential layer and a single installer file. In this sense, building a world on Roblox is more like constructing a Facebook page than a Squarespace website. Roblox even operates an integrated marketplace for developers where they can upload anything they custom-made for their virtual world (e.g., a Christmas tree, a snowed-on tree, a barren tree, a pine bark texture) and license it to other game makers. This provides developers with a second source of income (developer-to-developer rather than just developer-to-player), while also making it easier, cheaper, and faster for others to build their virtual worlds. The process also drives further standardization of virtual objects and data.