Can this triple-A game usher in the promise of the metaverse?

venturebeat.com:

Presented by Star Atlas

A fully realized metaverse is, maybe first and foremost, a digital representation of the physical world, with all of the real world’s essential trappings, like socializing, commerce, and, yes, spaceship battles. And blockchain games are looking like they can step up to the challenge in making the vision of the metaverse a reality.

For one, blockchain functionality means these games have got true ownership at their heart. Along with that comes a play-to-earn model that’s powered in part by NFTs, which, for good or for ill, are shaking out as a viable way to establish and verify ownership in a way that bridges the virtual and real worlds.

Games like Star Atlas are aiming to add the other elements required to build a real, live metaverse: an immersive VR environment, the interconnectivity of social media, and a persistent online world.

Star Atlas’ CEO Michael Wagner calls the property a next-gen gaming metaverse, offering both traditional core game and blockchain mechanics. Triple-a quality, the game is centered around space exploration, territory control, and political domination. Players still have to work in this metaverse if they want to participate, so before them lay a series of career paths, activities, and industry they can tackle, with the hope of reaping big rewards and maybe bigger starships.

It’s also the spiritual successor to Eve Online, the space-based, MMORPG that launched nearly two decades ago. The famously difficult, often toxic, frequently tedious game wasn’t the first to introduce the idea of an online virtual world, but it pioneered the idea of a single shared virtual world that any player could impact (usually violently) with their actions. It also introduced the idea of object