I swear, every time I have to write the word “metaverse” these days, a part of my soul dies and my eyes get a little more crossed. It’s hard to deny that this buzzword is everywhere — even if nobody quite knows or understands what it means.
If your definition of a metaverse is an expansive and ever-growing immersive virtual world, then Second Life would like to point out that it kind of did this already — and it’s about to do a whole lot more. Former Linden Lab head Philip Rosedale has rejoined the project as a “strategic advisor,” lending his efforts to create a more metaversey Second Life despite being somewhat critical of the concept just a month ago. Rosedale is selling resources from his VR company to help further the cause of metaversocity.
“It is like a merger,” said Rosedale in an interview. “The majority of our people, some of our money, and patents related to the metaverse are moving over.”
Second Life sees more than 1.6 million transactions and 1.8 million messages take place every month.
“We are excited to have Philip advising us and continue to lead the metaverse conversation,” Linden Lab Executive Chairman Brad Oberwager said. “It’s a special time right now. And you really just need the history and the leadership and you need the moral compass.”
