If you’re often online, chances are you’ve come across the word “metaverse”.
A rapidly growing digital world full of possibilities, the metaverse is essentially a virtual space where people can create and interact with one another.
Well, it’s a bit more complex than that, but don’t take it from me. Rather, take it from any one of the countless resources out there about it.
As the concept of the metaverse gains popularity, plenty of information—with varying levels of legitimacy—has popped up to help people understand it and even make their own mark in this new, strange digital world.
And these resources include offlines ones, too, such as books. In just 2022 alone, there has been quite a variety of titles on this topic.
For one, there’s “The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything”, a book by former Amazon Studios head of strategy, Matthew Ball.
You could also refer to Herman Narula’s “Virtual Society: The Metaverse and the New Frontiers of Human Experience”, or QuHarrison Terry and Scott N. Keeney’s “The Metaverse Handbook: Innovating for the Internet’s Next Tectonic Shift”.
Indeed, there is plenty of reading material out there about the metaverse. But, how about we get a little bit closer to home?
Published earlier this year, Jason Low’s “Metaverse – Now and Future, a Universe in the Palm of Your Hands” (Metaverse) differs from other titles in the market on the basis that the author had penned it for the Asian market.
“I realised that all of the books available out there have very Western-driven content which might not allow relevance towards the market in Asia,” Jason told Vulcan Post. “Worst of all, they were fully black and white like dictionaries.”
“I believe when explaining about the metaverse, colours and imagination should be key, hence the inclusion of a full coloured book about the metaverse.”
Vulcan Post received the hard copy book from the man himself, so of course we had to give it a read, but more on that later.
Braving the frontier alongside 500 Global
As the co-founder and CEO of Virtualtech Frontier (VTF), a virtual solutions company specialising in the metaverse, Web 3, and virtual events, Jason certainly has experience when it comes to the metaverse.
However, Jason also shared that he actually was not that immersed in the Web 3 space before VTF, though he did know the fundamentals of blockchain technology, and had founded an augmented reality and immersive technology startup in the past.
Rather, it was when VTF got funded by 500 Global that he immersed himself in Web 3, which the metaverse is a part of.
“Securing funding from 500 Global has always been a dream and personally a long shot from my perspective,” Jason expressed.
He believes that VTF’s revenue growth and profitability, as well as the experienced team behind it, gave 500 Global the confidence to fund it in a world full of scams and rug pulls. Khailee Ng, a managing partner at 500 Global, even wrote the foreword to Jason’s book.
As VTF has done plenty of research on the topic, the writing of Metaverse only took Jason two weeks. Meanwhile, the proofreading and editing brought on another two months of work.
Notes on Metaverse
A 334-page book, Metaverse’s demographic is primarily fellow Malaysian business owners who would like some insight into the metaverse.
Beyond just explaining what the metaverse is, the book has informative topics such as business ideas within the metaverse realm, marketing tools, and case studies of similar businesses.
Overall, the book reads like an aggregation of curated metaverse topics. It’s a good starting point for those who would like to foray into the metaverse.
For readers who are semi-proficient in the metaverse, this book may also suffice as a kind of refresher course on what you already know, and a resource to point beginner friends towards.
More advanced readers would definitely benefit more from doing their own research. Something they can learn from Jason’s book and nowhere else, though, is the insight into VTF and its projects, giving a more localised glimpse into the metaverse.
While the book itself is sectioned into a few chapters that explore various aspects of the metaverse, the table of contents doesn’t actually tell you what pages each topic begins, though running heads in the book help readers know what chapter they’re on.
On the note of formatting, since the book aims to be educational, its style of referencing could be improved.
Jason’s Metaverse does not use any inline citations using superscript numbers, though there is a section of references at the end of the book. This means readers find it hard to understand what each reference is even for in the first place.
Using MLA, APA, Harvard, Chicago, or any other referencing format would be helpful as well, since the reference section is currently only links.
This is especially true for Metaverse since it’s a hard copy book—as much as we’d like to, we can’t actually click on the links, and having to type out a lengthy URL character by character for further reading can get frustrating.
Escaping metaverse woes
In this rapidly changing universe, news about the metaverse is also constantly evolving. How will Jason’s book stack up over time?
The author himself admitted that since the period of the book launch till date, there indeed has been a lot of different technology and news about the metaverse that has surfaced.
“But with this in mind, I have already attempted to write fundamental and general information as best I can, while referring to a few projects in detail that everyone could learn from,” he said.
As he put it, Metaverse mostly focuses on “the theoretical sense of the metaverse, and what it could bring on a macro level instead to businesses”, rather than just current events.
Speaking of current events, though, the crypto world, which is rather closely tied to the metaverse, has been rocky as of late, what with all the FTX scandals surrounding it. And let’s not forget the LUNA crash earlier this year.
Has this then made people more hesitant about any investment—whether it’s their money, efforts, or time—into the metaverse?
To that, Jason said, “I think there is no easy way to ‘escape’ from the negative connotations that the space has brought, especially when many people also deeply associate metaverse with tokens and cryptocurrency involvement.”
However, it’s books like his that might help mitigate any misconceptions or doubts about the metaverse, as it promotes education and awareness.
In any case, Jason’s Metaverse is a book that serves as a great launching pad for entrepreneurs who want to get involved in the scene, but have no idea where to get started.
If that sounds like you, “Metaverse – Now and Future a Universe in the Palm of Your Hands” is now available at major bookstores such as Borders, Kinokuniya, MPH bookstores, Popular Malaysia, and more.
- Learn more about Virtualtech Frontier here.
- Read other articles we’ve written about Malaysian startups here.
Featured Image Credit: Jason Low
