The Metaverse Story: From GTA Vice City to the Sandbox

I started my digital journey in 2002 when a 5-year-old kid got a PC on his birthday. I didn’t know much about technology at the time but games and movies were always my favorite. And then one fine day, a friend gave me a DVD containing a whole new gaming experience. It was GTA Vice City and the moment I started playing, I become a fan forever.

But why, what was different about this game??

Why?

Video Game summers got me playing Mario, Contra, Roadrash, and many more, but they were all designed to be played in a deterministic storyline. I was always constrained in what minimal I can choose to do apart from a decided path. The “awe” moment for Vice City was that I could do whatever I wanted in a whole city apart from the storyline. I could snatch other NPC cars, buy guns, rampage on roads, drive a tank, and the possibilities seemed limitless.

Okay, What About Metaverse ?

To understand the metaverse, just extrapolate the same video game - “Vice City”. Although the possibilities seemed limitless, there was a lot you couldn’t do, like - Reselling an estate, entering GTA Vice City all buildings, creating new graffiti, playing with friends, and all the unlimited imaginative tasks one can think of.

I visualize Vice City as the primitive metaverse, which Rockstar Games enhanced in their next-generation projects like GTA San Andreas, GTA V, GTA online, etc, but were still focused on the gaming community and their experience. The 3D world became more realistic and capable in features but was still built on the web2 native ideas.

Read Full story on Hackernoon: https://hackernoon.com/the-metaverse-story-from-gta-vice-city-to-the-sandbox