MetaBooks
Now we can take readers deeper into our worlds. Developing stories with multiple layers and points of entry. Meta media books fuse traditional media with the immersive content of virtual worlds, story participation, gameplay, and augmented reality. Read more……
Virtual Worlds
The ability to build rich immersive worlds with cinematic quality enables readers to discover aspects and details that add to the imaginary landscapes we have created. Visit the temple at Chin Ho or discover the secrets in Pandini’s private museum. Explore in far greater detail the mysteries of Katadesis. Walk down the main street of Paradise. Meet friends in Little Kowloon or catch a show at the Paradise Club. Read more……
Story Participation
There is a distinct and irreplaceable pleasure from reading a book, but sometimes we dream of changing our perspective from observer to participant. Beyond the shoot-’em-up or car chase formula of traditional gaming, there is a world of deep, engaging storytelling to be explored. Metabooks encourage readers to participate in adventures that add to the experience of later books in the series, providing backstory, subplots and character storylines. Read more……
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds without requiring that we access those spaces via VR or AR. Mobile applications allow readers to interact with characters, objects, and places within the real world. To share the visions of Harper in Eye Of The Beholder or find Marlow & Sons bookstore in Paddington. For the author, it provides new and exciting opportunities to allow the reader to interact. Read more……
The Metaverse
To the question, what will the metaverse be like? There is no definitive answer. Like the internet, it is a work in progress that will evolve to meet the needs and wishes of its users. Driven by both big corporations, and by individuals through their usage. Along with disrupters who find and develop niche markets.
The metaverse allows users to travel from site to site, or experience to experience, whilst maintaining a unique digital presence. It enables a digital economy, where users can create, buy, and sell goods, share experiences with friends, and form social groups. Currently, most platforms have virtual identities, avatars, and inventories that are tied to just one platform. The view of the metaverse is one that would be interoperable, allowing you to take virtual items like clothes or cars from one platform to another. Creating a persona that you can take everywhere as easily as you can copy your profile picture from one social network to another.
Just as Google builds parts of the internet, Epic Games aims to build parts of the metaverse. Their game Fortnite already has virtual experiences such as concerts and exhibitions, including an interactive Martin Luther King Jr civil rights museum. Many other companies, such as: Nvidia, Unity, and Facebook, are working to build parts of the infrastructure that might become the metaverse. There are already MMOs (Massive multiplayer online games) that are entire virtual worlds, with digital concerts, online avatars, and commerce platforms. The ability to host hundreds of people in a single instance of a server, or motion-tracking tools that can distinguish where a person is looking or where their hands are being incorporated into games.
The metaverse is not a reinvention of the wheel we know as the internet merely a reiteration. Web 2.0 changed participation from passive to interactive. The metaverse will add the ability to travel more freely by merging physical and digital worlds whilst enjoying these with our social group. The challenge is to build experiences that will capture the imagination of our audience. Understanding how to merge different media into compelling stories is crucial within the writer’s skill set.