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Trapped in the Metaverse: Here鈥檚 What 24 Hours in VR Feels Like | WSJ - YouTube
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- Now the best way to
understand the metaverse
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is to experience it yourself.
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(alarm beeping)
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(upbeat music)
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- I definitely don't
feel very well right now.
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And you wouldn't feel well either
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if you attempted to spend 24 hours living
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in virtual reality or the metaverse.
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Don't know what the metaverse is?
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That's okay, I'm not
sure anyone really does.
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But Meta, formally known as Facebook,
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Microsoft and more are defining it
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as the virtual world
that is the next phase
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of the internet.
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In this world, we have digital versions
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of ourselves or avatars.
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- And we call this the metaverse.
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And you're gonna be able
to do almost anything
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you can imagine.
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Get together with
friends and family, work,
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learn, play, shop.
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- So I decided why wait?
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And stupidly I dared myself
to visit the metaverse
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for a full 24 hours in its
current not-so-great state.
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In fact, Meta and others will tell you
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that the metaverse isn't even here yet.
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But the best way to see the start of it
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is through virtual reality.
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And since I didn't
wanna pop into a headset
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with my kids running around,
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I packed my bags and moved
to the Holiday Inn Express
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around the corner.
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I set a few rules.
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The headset can come off to
eat and go to the bathroom.
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Yes, I attempted to sleep with it on.
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I checked my phone only if it was urgent.
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I had notifications
coming into the headset.
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It's about to be 6 PM,
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which is the start of
my metaverse journey.
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I've got two headsets in
case of technical issues.
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And lots of apps and
other things preloaded
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for different parts of the day and night.
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What could go wrong?
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- [Narrator] Welcome to Beat Saber.
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Now, cut the cubes in the arrow direction
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and match the color.
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That was too soon.
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Wait for the beat, wrong direction.
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Wrong direction.
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- She's very mean.
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I started with games like Beat Saber
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since right now they're
the most popular use of VR.
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And while many games allow
you to play with others,
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I had no real friends to play
Beat Saber with that evening.
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So I decided to go elsewhere
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for some social interaction.
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AltspaceVR, an app that
allows you to hang out
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with other avatars in virtual venues.
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Okay, I'm gonna customize my avatar
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for a night out.
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I guess in the metaverse
I could have short hair.
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I wasn't exactly prepared
for what would happen next.
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I guess I'll go to this campfire hub.
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Hello?
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As soon as I was in the public area,
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I started hearing people
talk and chat and.
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(woman coughing)
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Apparently there are no
masks in the metaverse.
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I was dropped into an area
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with lots of trippy little
LEGO-looking people,
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and I attempted to interview them.
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- [Woman] Oh, a journalist are you?
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- I wanna learn what you guys do in here.
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- [Man] Pretty much
everything that you would do
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in the real world.
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- I knew I had really made friends forever
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when they asked me to go to a comedy club
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by clicking on this portal thing.
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The club was so obviously fake
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but my presence in it and the presence
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of all these other
people felt really real.
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Do you guys have wine?
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- Yeah, of course, wine,
everything you want.
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- I even felt awkward when the comedian
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hit on my avatar.
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- You were the girl I was
trying to find out your name
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but I can't 'cause I'm
trying to be subtle.
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- I spent a good amount
of time in Altspace
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and came away thinking it's
like an AOL chatroom evolved,
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which I'm not sure is
a good or a bad thing.
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I need to relax for a moment.
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(clock ticking)
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The meditation app is launched.
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Okay.
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- [Narrator] Kindness starts with you.
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I highly recommend meditation apps
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like Guided Meditation or Trip.
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It's oddly relaxing and peaceful.
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And I could lie to you
and tell you I slept
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with the headset on the whole night
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but we have this proof.
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(playful music)
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(alarm beeping)
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I woke up feeling refreshed.
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I pulled up some morning
reading in my web browser.
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Got Google News over here,
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The Wall Street Journal website over here.
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And Instagram over here on the right.
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And had breakfast at
the foot of Machu Picchu
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with a llama in the
National Geographic app.
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It's funny, this animal
has legs in the metaverse.
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Why do animals get four
legs in the metaverse
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and we get zero?
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And then I had a pretty
fun and intense workout.
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- Welcome to Supernatural.
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Be ready for your first Flow workout.
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- There are various types
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of workouts you can do in Supernatural,
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which involve everything from doing lunges
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to using controllers to hit targets.
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Working out in the metaverse is great.
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I got so into it,
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I actually lost track of time.
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I have a meeting in Spatial in one minute.
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I need to change, crap.
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Yes, meeting in the metaverse are a thing.
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Hi, Erin, I'm Joanna.
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Nice to meet you.
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- Hi, thanks for coming.
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- The idea is that instead of Zoom,
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you chat as avatars.
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My first meeting was in
an app called Spatial.
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And, of course, it required
a different avatar.
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Yes, that's my actual
face on a floating torso.
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I met up with the co-founder of Spatial,
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Anand Agarawala, in an NFT art gallery
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with works from Ken Kelleher,
AKA Anchorball on display.
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And this is a great stop
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because it turns out I'm
in an NFT art gallery,
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which sounds like the metaverse to me.
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- Heck yeah, I mean, you
can't get more metaverse-y
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than a pixelated dog or
these crazy heads and stuff
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or these beautiful sculptures.
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- We also went to a campfire
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where I asked him about the lack of legs.
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- The headset tracks
your head and your hands
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and so we can make it do realistic stuff.
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What are my legs supposed to do?
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We can't actually detect
the signal from your legs.
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Legs are coming, coming soon.
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- I quickly had to jump from that meeting
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to another meeting as another avatar
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in Horizon Workrooms,
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an app made by Meta,
formerly known as Facebook.
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Oh I see, so it's kind of like
you've gotta really put it
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on the board.
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You can even invite
people from the real verse
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who happen to be on their webcams.
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But again, there was this real feeling
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of presence in the room.
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I felt like I was actually sitting across
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from my editor, Wilson, in this meeting.
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- It's like in Ghostbusters,
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I'm a full-torso apparition.
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You don't need legs.
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Oh no, Joanna's looking under the table.
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That's so scary.
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- Yes, meeting metaverse is fun
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if you don't do it for four hours on end.
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That was so much time in avatar meetings.
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My eyes hurt and my head hurts.
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So what did I learn from this adventure
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other than I'd never
recommend you do this?
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Well, a few things.
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It's clear why big tech companies
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are fighting over this.
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There's an opportunity
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to build the underlying platform here.
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One avatar with legs living across games,
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workout apps, meetings and more.
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Meta's Meaghan Fitzgerald told me as much.
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- And the metaverse is not
gonna be built by one company.
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That there are other
companies, organizations,
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creators that maybe will use our avatars
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and allow people to move
from one place to another
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while still feeling like themselves.
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- Then there's the privacy
tools and moderation.
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It's gonna be insane judging
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from my brief comedy club experience.
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And then headsets will need to be smaller
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and more comfortable and
run for longer on a charge.
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Thank you guys, my headset's
gonna die in five minutes.
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So yes, it's certainly the
early days of the metaverse.
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But lock yourself in a room like this
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and you can really see the potential.
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