We are in the midst of a war. It’s a war of consciousness, and the Metaverse is a battleground. The term Metaverse was originally coined in Neil Stephenson’s 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. This concept has been further explored in many other science fiction novels.

Here’s a recommended reading list:

• Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson

• Neuromancer by William Gibson

• This is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams

• Rainbow’s End by Vernor Vinge

• Daemon by Daniel Suarez

• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Now, the Metaverse has been here for a while. Online gaming and social media user populations have been growing for decades, and the separation between the virtual and physical world is slowly dissolving. Teamspeak, Ventrilo, and more recently Discord are VOIP platforms that have been used by gamers to hang out, coordinate MMORPG raids, events, and multiplayer gaming for years.

Clubhouse, with its tiny little 2D bubble avatars creates the connected sense of presence for the masses that gamers have experienced for years, in Lo-fi no less, and yet, it seems as addicting as crack cocaine.

Meanwhile, Tim Sweeney, the billionaire game engineer CEO from Epic Games, leader of the 350 million strong Fortnite army has declared war on Apple and Google. Apple and Google declared war back, by removing Fortnite from their stores. Lawsuits have ensued.

The Metaverse War has just begun. Ultimately, the Open Metaverse will be about individual, cooperative, and collective sovereignty for creators and artists. It is time to feed the artists.