[The Editors' Verdict] The Metaverse Syndrome

On March 2nd, Soonchunhyang University, in cooperation with SK Telecom, held a non-face-to-face freshman entrance ceremony in a metaverse virtual space. The university's main stadium was recreated as a virtual reality map closely resembling the real one. The entrance ceremony program was displayed on a large virtual electronic billboard, and freshmen entered the ceremony as avatars. Meetings with professors in charge as well as campus tours were also conducted within the metaverse virtual space.

The metaverse, which has recently attracted much attention, is a compound word of 'meta,' meaning virtual or transcendence, and 'universe,' meaning world or cosmos, according to Wikipedia. It refers to a three-dimensional virtual world. It encompasses all fields including politics, economy, society, and culture through the coexistence of reality and virtuality. Individuals communicate with each other in the form of avatars, earn money, consume, and engage in activities such as play and work, just like in real life. Users connect to servers using audiovisual output devices such as goggles and earphones.

The metaverse is moving beyond the realm of simple play. In September last year, a girl group BLACKPINK held a signing event in the metaverse virtual space 'Zepeto,' where 50 million fans worldwide created avatars and received autographs from BLACKPINK avatars. In the same month, BTS's 'Dynamite' was first released in the metaverse mobile game 'Fortnite.' Fortnite previously hosted a virtual concert by American hip-hop artist Travis Scott, attracting 12.3 million attendees. The revenue generated reached 20 million dollars. Joe Biden, the current president and former U.S. presidential candidate, created 'Biden Island' in Nintendo's game 'Animal Crossing: New Horizons' and used it as an election campaign platform. Hyundai Motor Company also held virtual reality (VR) meetings to evaluate new car models in virtual spaces.

There are also places selling virtual real estate. The metaverse platform 'Earth2' sells Earth's real estate in the virtual world. Land including the Blue House was sold to a Chinese person for only 56.67 dollars on November 10th last year, and apartments in COEX and the Gangnam area were also sold. Expectations that virtual real estate prices will rise along with Bitcoin prices have fueled investment enthusiasm. Dividing Earth's surface area of 510 million km² into tiles of 100 m² each results in about 5.1 trillion tiles. Even if one tile is sold for 0.1 dollars, Earth2's net profit would exceed 500 billion dollars.

The active use of online virtual spaces is due not only to environmental factors such as increased demand for non-face-to-face services caused by COVID-19 but also to technological advancements supporting this. Three-dimensional virtual reality technology gained great popularity a few years ago with the emergence of 'Google Glass,' but it ended in failure due to lack of technological completeness. Recently, improvements in real-time processing technology and the introduction of 5G mobile communication have accelerated content transmission speeds.

The metaverse also carries problems. When social issues such as crimes occur in the virtual world, the question arises whether the legal order of the real world should be applied as is to the virtual world. For example, cashing out virtual currency is not illegal in the U.S., but it is prohibited under the Game Industry Promotion Act in Korea. Addiction to the virtual world is also a major concern. Unlike existing online games, the metaverse is perceived as part of daily life, raising worries about addiction. Excessive immersion in the virtual world can devastate real-life routines and cause identity disorders. Since many issues need to be resolved, we must all work together for the healthy development of metaverse virtual spaces.

Im Juhwan, Honorary President of the Korea Institute of Communication Sciences