Making a metaverse that matters | Wagner James Au interview/podcast

venturebeat.com:

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Wagner James Au has been covering the idea of the metaverse for decades. He was the first embedded journalist inside the world of Second Life, the early virtual world from Linden Lab. And now he’s back with his own book about the metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One. 

The book, Making a Metaverse That Matters: From Snow Crash & Second Life to A Virtual World Worth Fighting For, debuted this month from Wiley and you can find it here and on Amazon. Au’s book is a kind of spiritual sequel of his earlier titles, The Making of Second Life and Game Design Secrets.

It’s a book about exploring nascent metaverse platforms that have already captured the imagination of millions. It includes interviews with people like metaverse creator Neal Stephenson and it tries to cut through the myths and misconceptions around it. Rather than favoring walled-garden approaches that the big tech companies favor, Au prefers a grassroots and open view of the metaverse. And he tackles a variety of controversies and challenges of taking the ideas of the metaverse to the mainstream.

I interviewed Au (@slhamlet) for the inaugural release of the latest season of Navigating the Metaverse Podcast I’ve independently recorded with Dirk Lueth, co-CEO of Upland, the metaverse app.

We’ll be releasing a new podcast once a week for 10 weeks. Hope you enjoy it and see you in the metaverse.

Here’s an edited transcript of our podcast.

GamesBeat: What’s the status of your book right now as far as timing and the publisher and so on?

Wagner James Au: It comes out June