GAMES, VIRTUAL WORLDS & METAVERSE DESIGN SERIES

preliminary considerations

Related Articles:

Virtual Music Environments: a concept for experimenting in the metaverse

Metaverse Maker: Leveraging AI to Quickly Prototype Virtual Worlds

Metaverse = Film + Architecture x Games to the Power of Music: an algorithm for designing Musical virtual places

Music-Visual Synchronization in VR Environments: a light-handed approach through phase sync drift

XR 101 | Video Lecture Series

Words, Words, Words

We don’t have a metaverse yet, but we can start creating design frameworks for it anyway, since we do have all the computational media ‘realities’ (XR, VR, AR, MR) which prefigure well enough the future informatic entertainment spaces to come. The term ‘metaverse’ is risky to use, because presently it is mostly hype, to be sure, but as hype it neatly circumscribes the general idea of being able to dip into alternate media realities (some day!) as easily as today we surf the web.

Beyond the hype, the ‘metaverse’ is also analogous to the internet in this sense — what most people interact with at an experiential level is not the internet per se, but websites composed of webpages. IT professionals, technical support staff, engineers, standards committees, policy makers and software developers tend to deal more directly with the internet ‘itself,’ — i.e. network protocols, packets of data flow, routing, nodes, network access and exchange points, peering agreements, firewalls, backbone networks, data centers, content delivery networks, underwater cables etc. on a regular basis.

The term ‘metaverse’ generally refers to an immersive virtual world that extends beyond the physical realm, incorporating elements such as virtual and augmented reality, wearable technology, and more. It represents the convergence of the virtual and physical reality, combining aspects of social media, online gaming, augmented reality, virtual reality, and cryptocurrencies. Essentially, it’s a shared, digital space where users can interact socially and professionally, partake in various activities, and even invest in digital currency. The metaverse is perceived as the next iteration of the internet, albeit with potential risks if not developed responsibly.

For most of us, I think it’s fair to say, ‘the internet’ is like Heidegger’s broken tool — we only notice it when it malfunctions, as in, “hey, the internet isn’t working!” Instead, when we’re on the web, we’re on pages that link to other pages, and there is a spatial metaphor that is kind of weird — because it combines both books and buildings — where ‘pages’ belong to ‘sites’ even though there’s nothing really page-like about web pages, which are really just glowing rectangular window-screens loaded with various content and things to click on. And the ‘site’ is something that can be in millions of places at the same time, which is not very site-like.

In this article I won’t be discussing the engineering, regulatory or capital dimensions of piecing together a global network of alternate computational realities so that they can all link up seemlessly using shared protocols and infrastructure. Rather, just as the web operates over the internet, I envision a multiverse of computational realities built on a metaversal technical substrata.

However, since that italicized phrase is too long to wield as a word in itself, I will add to the terminological confusion by using ‘the musical metaverse’ as my label for a certain variety of these multiversal experiences, because the word ‘multiverse’ problematically links up to both astrophysics and superhero movies and is thus probably not very helpful, either!

Placing Constraints on Infinity: it can be anything, but it has to be something

Like any virtual media, a metaverse experience can be anything, so it may seem pointless to imagine design frameworks for non-existent media experiences that can take any form! Luckily, the adjective ‘musical’ helps to narrow down the infinity to a new value, let’s call it ‘sub-infinite’ which is still infinite, but it’s less than the over-encompassing infinite of which it is a subset of.

In another article I’ve addressed a key dimension of musical metaverse design, namely the approach one should take between synchronization of musical to visual rhythms. You’ll have to agree that this is a very specific design parameter that wouldn’t pertain to the vast majority of possible metaverse experiences that may await us some day.

The title of this article points to another design dimension — collective musical experiences. Here I will be quite generous with my definition of ‘collective’ and expand it to include the experiences of solitary listeners.

What? How does that make sense? We have mass media to thank for this. According to a Google search, 142 million people viewed the streaming TV show Squid Game. This is certainly a collective phenomenon, though obviously a) everyone did not watch the episodes at the same time, and b) everyone was not located in the same place viewing the show together.

Any mass medium can create a collective experience, which simply means that many people experience the same thing, not that they are all together in the same real or virtual space or experiencing it at the same time. So, a single musical metaverse VR app downloaded by 100 million people and experienced individually through a wearer’s head-mounted display and headphones can still amount to a collective form of experience.

Obvious design parameters in this context are simply Synchronous vs Asynchronous and Single versus Multi User. Are you the only avatar in the space, or are you joined by many other avatars? Are you all there at the same time or can you all dip in and out and pause whenever you choose?

Another parameter I’ve alluded to is the idea of a downloadable app on your computer (where ‘computer’ can be a handheld, PC or mobile device).— which is the opposite of, say, a browser-based experience or something playing off your gaming console.

So, despite the sheer infinity of possibilities belonging to this sub-infinite design space of the musical metaverse (premised as a subset of the non-existent hyped predicted metaverse infrastructure of the future), in just a few paragraphs we have a nice set of design parameters which provide some structured constraints in which our creativity can explore ideas:

• Perceptual synchronization approaches between visual and audible rhythms
• Experiences designed as synchronous or asynchronous events for a multitude of individuals
• Access via a standalone app, browser/network or specialized device
• Single versus multi-user
• The computational media ‘reality’ being utilized: XR, VR, AR, MR
• Associated hardware variables: cellphone, HMD, headphones, wearables
• Music that is live, pre-recorded or generated on the fly via system and algorithm design (these parameters can be derived simply from the term ‘musical’ itself)

As the subtitle of this article is ‘preliminary considerations’ I will stop here, since I announced at the offset I will not be attempting anything definitive and comprehensive, especially since I am just imagineering future tech in a blog post.

Plus, the ‘Part 1’ in the title gives me plenty of time and space later to expand upon this initial design parameter set! And to pursue other related ideas, natch.

Designing the Musical Metaverse Part 1: Imagineering the Future of Collective Musical Experiences was originally published in Sound & Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.