The Metaverse in general, refers to an interactive, immersive, and collaborative virtual world environment which is shared among the online crowds. Along with the development of advanced technologies, [like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) devices, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing techniques, Blockchain and 5G/6G wireless communication networks] the Metaverse offers an extraction of physical, virtual, and augmented reality to manage socialization, play, and work. As real because the reality, Metaverse is characterized by a three-dimensional (3D) virtual world that permits social connection through avatars. An increase in proportion of our daily lives had become a mix of physical and virtual worlds. Though, different from traditional online interactive environment, the Metaverse is crawling towards reality and also afford the embodied interactions to break the in between lines between real and virtual reality.
The virtual world is gradually transforming from temporary drowning into a state of new normal. Second Life, as a popular three-dimensional(3D) virtual world, has been in service for decades. Antiquities could be designed and sold, and residents in Second Life can go to live concerts for social gatherings. Nowadays, a flourishing application of Metaverse lies in the entertainment, including the famous Minecraft which affords amazing creations through sandbox construction and the popular Animal Crossing as an online self-built happy home paradise. Furthermore, the Metaverse can afford enterprises business by authorising a virtual space to engage customers and employees and has been recommended to be applied in the health management field. Most recently, the social media giant Facebook has also claimed its aim to embrace the Metaverse for the next evolution of the social connections. Further, business sectors also actively supports Metaverse. For instance, Microsoft Mesh enables geographically distributed team members discuss and collaborate within the shared mixed reality conferences. Walmart is also working to jump into Metaverse by creating its own cryptocurrency and a collection of NFTs.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) relates to including Human Intelligence into machines based on the algorithms. It is related to the driving force behind advancing technologies and encompassing machine learning, where machines are programmed to learn by experience. Deep learning, a subset of machine learning is driving all innovations in AI. Deep learning involves repeated execution of algorithms for a task, and every time tweaks it for improved performances.
Online interactions in the Metaverse are featured by in depth participation from mass crowds with various avatars. With the embodied avatars, individuals within the Metaverse can self-present themselves to interact in distributed collaboration, voice their self-recognitions, and socialize in several scenarios. The Metaverse thus also unlocks new opportunities for the buyers and sellers to connect. Enabled by cryptocurrencies and NFTs, individuals within the Metaverse could purchase virtual goods and trade items anytime and anywhere. With blended real and magic experiences, individuals in the Metaverse could design more attractive and effective creations combining reality and imagination. Further, the realization of Metaverse requires collected effort from business model designers, software engineers and device providers. Therefore, Metaverse have brought several opportunities.
The Metaverse also challenges our traditional interaction and collaboration in many various ways. Due to the interconnected nature of the Metaverse, the challenge of personal privacy raises. Hackers may easily access non-accessed devices to steal our data and personal information. In addition, individuals may also have distrust issues regarding the deep usage of the Metaverse. Another challenge lies within the reputation and identity issues in Metaverse. Since facial features and voices can be imitated, identity authentication or verification is essentially important to get rid of potential problems with ethics. The challenges that the Metaverse brings out also include the inability of the platforms to engage users in an in depth virtual world. To form meaningful relationships, virtual world communities should thus afford visual fidelity with the ability to sense. In addition, time and space penetrations might be different between the real world and the virtual environments, traditional business models and marketing tactics may lose effectiveness in the dynamic Metaverse.
In respond to the challenges posed by the Metaverse, this special issue aims to call for attention to the latest trends of Metaverse and the opportunities and challenges of the Metaverse. This special issue invites contributions from a spread of conceptual and theoretical perspectives. We particularly welcome behavioural studies that address the challenges and opportunities the Metaverse presents, explore the new interaction and collaboration modes, provide multidisciplinary perspectives, and/or adopt mixed methods research approaches.
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