Online Games as an Introduction to the Metaverse Universe

I think it was the late 90s. Because I could not keep up with the insane passion for Comodor64, I fell in love with the Sega Atari console. Of course, I did not realize at the time that I had discovered a hobby that would take up a big part of my life. I came home from school and literally occupied the TV in the living room. Of course, my family had no idea about the storms that broke out in me at the beginning of the arcade and the scenarios that I shot. Sitting in front of the screen, I was lost inside the famous "9999 games in 1" cassettes.

Again, one day I came home from school as fast as I could to play. It was that moment when my parents brought home a computer that my life completely changed. In fact, that was not my first encounter with it. That has already happened several times so that I did not misbehave at my parents' workplace. But this time it was completely different, now the computer was at my house. That was how I opened the door to the world where I would later meet continuously developing amazing people, and I will never close it again.

In addition to many opportunities for self-development, computer games have given me strong friendships online. Even though we never met physically, we really enjoyed spending time with each other like 40-year-old friends. That was because we comfortably and pleasantly spent 4-5 hours together after our routine duties during the day and were guests at each other's houses.

Our world is no longer on the verge of digitization. Now a new generation is being born on this Earth. So, how does this environment which most people consider "a waste of time" benefit us?

Research conducted by Stanford University has shown that people who play games are more resilient to stress and depression than those who do not. In addition, people who have a high rate of successful multitasking come from the gaming world.

The most appropriate and, moreover, a modern example., in my opinion, can be "Cem Bölükbaşı". Cem Bölükbaşı was born in 1998. In other words, being the Gen Z representative, he was born in the heart of the gaming world. He once competed in GT4 races sponsored by Borusan Otomotiv and is now the racer who will represent us in Formula 2 under an agreement he made in 2022. He also had a chance to compete in the gaming world known as esports and has achieved countless successes. Many F1 drivers today play F1 console games both for training and for fun. I want to share with you two photos from the actual racing salon of the Formula 1 game. I think the resemblance is just amazing. Do you not think so?

So what is this universe expanding towards? Will digitalization underpin the world of the future?

We are all used to buying cassettes or CDs to listen to music. Since the 1990s, this system has undergone incredible changes thanks to the release of a music store program called NAPSTER in 1999. In the wake of NAPSTER, in 2003, iTunes appeared, and now music is available on our mobile phones. Later, with the advent of Youtube and Spotify, this technology became completely cloud-based, that is, decentralized. Well, does this not remind you of crypto money, which has recently been on everyone’s tongue and in their pocket, decentralized and controlled only by the digital environment?

Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, and NFT (Non-Fungible Token)

Money, bank cards, and phone applications that we used to use in everyday life are being gradually replaced by cryptocurrencies. The digital world now has a currency and continues to grow rapidly.

The system of cryptocurrencies is actually not much different from our daily purchases. The only difference is that the record of these exchanges is fully processed by computers using the cryptology method in systems called "Blockchain". Moreover, anyone can access these records. To open a cryptocurrency account, you only need to create a wallet on the blockchain. All transactions, that you make with this wallet, are registered in the system in the form of codes. The money we used to hold in our hands is now stored in these wallets as codes.

This change, which entered our lives in 2021 with the concept of NFTs, also affected works of art. NFTs digitize and record artwork using the same blockchain infrastructure. Thus, works of art and paintings are sold on the Internet in huge numbers. Like "The First 5000 Days" by Mike Winkelmann, owner of the painting below. Mike Winkelmann drew one drawing every day for 5,000 days. That included both digital and pencil drawings. After 5000 days, he combined them, saved them as NFTs, and put them up for sale. In the end, this digital copy found a buyer who paid exactly $69 million for it.

2021 yılının sonlarına doğru artık NFT üzerinden evler, yatlar, arabalar ve avatarlar satılmaya başlandı. İnsanlar bunları niçin alıyor? Çünkü artık dijital dünyanın kapıları sonuna kadar açıldı ve arkasında ne var görmeye başladık. İlk örneğimdeki gibi bu dünyanın görsellik olarak geliştirilmesi nerdeyse tamamlanmak üzere. Para birimi olarak kripto paralar da yerini aldı. Son olarak NFT ile bu dünyadan arsaların da alınmasıyla dijital dünyanın ilk sokakları, caddeleri, mekanları, spor salonları oluşturulmaya başlandı. İşte bütün bunların içinde bulunduğu bu evren artık “Metaverse” adıyla anılıyor. İlgililere, Borusan Cat’in mağazası da Decentraland ‘-56, -103’ numaralı parselde ziyaret edilebiliyor!

By the end of 2021, houses, yachts, cars, and avatars started being sold through NFTs. Why do people buy them? Because now the doors of the digital world have opened wide, and we have begun to see what is behind them. As in my first example, the visual development of this world is almost complete. Cryptocurrency has also taken its place in it as a means of payment. Finally, the first streets, avenues, playgrounds, and gyms of the digital world were created by buying land in this world with the help of NFTs. The universe that contains all of this is now known as the "Metaverse". Interested persons can also visit the Borusan Cat store in Decentraland at site No. '-56, -103'!

Our team recently gathered in front of our store.

The 2018 movie Ready Player One provided great examples of what this universe would look like. It is one of my favorite films. I highly recommend it to everyone. Finally, I leave you with a little "gaming" section of the Facebook commercial, which, as we all know, has changed its name to META.

For the first time in my life, aside from my writing in elementary and high school, I tried to the best of my ability to write a blog post. I would like to thank my supportive teammates, Murat Can Atalay, and you, who are reading my article.

References

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Mert Sanlı

Author

Mert joined the Borusan Cat family in 2021 as a Sales Consultant. Balances the stress and business of real life by playing games in the digital environment. Follows every change in the world of technology with pleasure and enjoys self-development in this direction. Likes to play basketball and spend time with his friends whenever he gets the chance.