Connecting Virtual Worlds at Scale into the Open Metaverse, with Herman Narula of Improbable
Sep 4, 2023
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Herman Narula, CEO and Co-Founder of Improbable, discusses scaling virtual worlds and prioritizing fulfillment in the metaverse. They explore their technology stack and the potential of the Metaverse, emphasizing value creation and shorter development cycles.
Improbable overcame technical challenges to enable large-scale virtual worlds in the open metaverse, prioritizing reliability over complexity in their approach.
The concept of the fulfillment economy in the metaverse holds potential in addressing the need for human fulfillment through meaningful experiences, beyond just gaming.
Deep dives
Improbable's Journey and Evolution
Improbable is a UK-based tech and experience company known for its work in the virtual reality and Metaverse space. The company's CEO, Herman Narula, discusses the challenges and evolution of the organization over the years. They have focused on developing technology that enables large-scale virtual worlds and immersive experiences. Key factors in their journey include the need for scalable systems to bring large groups of people together and the development of their own rendering technology to support dynamic and unique objects. Their flagship product, Morpheus Tech, handles billions of messages per second, allowing for high-fidelity, lag-free interaction in virtual environments.
Navigating a Decade of Complexity
The podcast explores the challenges of building and evolving technology over a ten-year period. The Improbable team encountered numerous technical obstacles, such as scaling distributed systems and dealing with security issues like DDoS attacks. They highlight the importance of using reliable and well-supported tools and technologies, rather than constantly pursuing cutting-edge solutions. The conversation also touches on the balance between centralized and decentralized components in building a successful virtual economy and the role of open source technology in their development process.
Web3 and the Fulfillment Economy
The guest emphasizes the significance of fulfilling experiences in virtual spaces and the potential value they hold. He introduces the concept of the fulfillment economy, which focuses on providing experiences that foster competence, autonomy, and relatedness for individuals. The discussion highlights the importance of solving the problem of creating meaningful fulfillment in virtual environments, particularly as automation reduces real-world job opportunities. The Improbable team believes that the metaverse and digital assets have the potential to address this issue and bring about a significant shift in how people spend their time and money.
Collaborations and the Future Outlook
The podcast briefly mentions collaborations with companies like Google Cloud and Dolby, although specific details are not provided. The guest emphasizes partnerships with various organizations and brands to create valuable virtual experiences. They highlight a recent collaboration with Major Sports Leagues and the success of broadcasting a football match with thousands of viewers who could socialize and interact with influencers in the metaverse. The conversation concludes by encouraging a pragmatic, iterative approach to developing virtual experiences and emphasizing the need for scalable, valuable solutions rather than focusing solely on technology or tokenization.
In today's episode of The Metaverse Podcast, we host Herman Narula, CEO and Co-Founder of Improbable, a company pioneering new ways to connect, create, and build virtual worlds.
Join our host Jamie Burke as he explores Improbable's metaverse vision with Herman. Whether you're a tech founder, developer, or gaming enthusiast, tune in to:
Explore how Improbable overcame immense technical challenges to enable large-scale virtual worlds and metaverse experiences.
Learn why Improbable now prioritizes reliability over complexity when building the open metaverse.
Discover Improbable's pragmatic adoption of blockchain, which they view as infrastructure rather than the core experience.
Dive into how the metaverse can meet needs for human fulfillment that many games miss through closed ecosystems.
Delve into how Improbable built Morpheus, the core networking and rendering technology enabling new metaverse experiences, and mSquared, the services creating an interoperable digital economy - representing an evolution beyond just selling technology to building a shared network.
Whether you’re a founder, investor, developer, or just have an interest in the future of the Open Metaverse, we invite you to hear from the people supporting its growth.
Outlier Ventures is the Open Metaverse accelerator, helping over 100 Web3 startups a year. You can apply for startup funding here - https://ov.click/pddsbcq122