Al Gore of the Metaverse

Someone's gotta think I'm an asshole or else this world stops turning apparently. I can already tell March is gonna suck.

So I'd like to address this comment left on the How I WoW: http://www.howiwow.org/?p=123#comments by Octav regarding my claim to fame being that I invented the Metaverse.

"I took issue with Alachia’s characterization of her relationship to the term Metaverse. She did not make this word up and I felt she very carefully spoke about it in an ambiguous way in order to claim credit for it or at least leave open the idea that she was it’s originator."

And as much as I'd love to be the Al Gore of the Metaverse, I think I shall pass. The reason this claim struck me as totally off-putting is that it goes against pretty much everything I hold of value in the metaverse. The thing that really upsets me is feeling that I might have come across like I'd have an ego large enough to make a claim like that.

Perhaps I misunderstood Patrick's questions to me regarding the idea of the Metaverse. I thought they were asking me what my understanding of the term meant and how I apply it. I am very particular about how I interpret the concept of a modern metaverse.

I actually only became aware of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash after I started mentioning the idea of the Metaverse on my podcast in Episode 13: The Metaverse called WoW and its Inhabitants (meta)

I got an email from Kitch with a recommendation to read it which I did. The term Metaverse was definitely coined by Neal Stephenson's in my mind but his idea of the metaverse is not what I consider what we currently occupy. His concept was a fiction-based universe much like the Matrix with a lot of sci-fi sensationalism as in the Neo-construct. 

My particular view is one that separates Sci-Fi from the reality of social and cultural interactions. We're talking about real life people and real life day-t0-day interpretations of reality as it plays out in simple micro and macro levels online. I wanted to be sure to separate that out from the idea of flying around on hover boards and wearing laser-beam goggles and stopping bullets mid-flight.

Octav is right though, I should have re-interated where I did actually get the term from as I sure has hell did not come up with it myself. The full credit for my interpretation comes from David Wong (my personal hero) and his article "A World of Warcraft World: 10 Ways Online Gaming Will Change the Future." His article completely changed my perspective on online gaming and how MMO games could transend beyond a simplified mechanism of entertainment. David Wong's is my orginator what the Metaverse means to me and the reason why I chose to use that terminology.

"when I say ‘Metaverse’ I mean…” This tells me she is fully aware she did not create the word but is purposely obscurring her answers in order to create the impression she did."

I guess the point is I shouldn't have approached the interview with this idea that people sort of know my history. I did sort of assume that everyone knew where I was coming from and apparently that was a huge mistake. So I'll take this opportunity to disclaim that I had anything to do with the construct of the terminology of the metaverse. 

I will however give EVERYONE credit for its creation because that's what it means to me.