Rename and merge with The Metaverse: Cyberspace

The Metaverse is glaringly disused - 55 wicks (and 15 for Metaverse) and only 2 inbounds - which I believe is due to a combination of the following:

• A non-indicative name: It's named after Snow Crash's "Metaverse", but the name itself is not really connected to the trope definition.
• Not distinct enough: Its own description claims it to be "Cyberspace as an actual replacement for the Internet as we know it". I'm not sure if that's enough to merit splitting it from Cyberspace, and there's extensive overlap in the example lists of the two tropes, so it appears others are similarly confused and just use Cyberspace for either trope.

I recommend that this trope be either renamed if the description is alright, redefined if not, and cut outrigh if it's not salvagable.

edited 19th Feb '12 12:31:11 PM by MetaFour

And, it's full of Zero Context Examples.

I'm not sure I see the big difference with Cyberspace.

edited 18th Feb '12 7:56:29 AM by lu127

This is basically Deep-Immersion Gaming or Extreme Graphical Representation but Internet? or Virtual Reality Internet it seems woefully disused.

What would the Amala network in Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne be?

edited 18th Feb '12 8:03:40 AM by Raso

I thought The Metaverse might be something about meta-narrative.

I was thinking a large version of The 'Verse.

Apparently Turok is an example, even though the internet and cyber space are not a factor in that video(or comic) at all.

Well Turok does defend a real outside of time that various aliens and historical figures try to conquer so when I saw Metaverse on the page I didn't think anything of it. Zero Content Example is right. Here is my idea, scrap article as it is now and rewrite it to reflect worlds like the one Turok lives on. As it is now, "Cyberspace that you can walk around in" is redundant because we already have examples of Cyberspace people walk around in. Tron, Digimon, The Matrix and we also have Inside a Computer System(Reboot) and Everything Is Online(Mega Man Battle Network).

Maybe this this trope would still be too close to Magical Land and get cut but if we aren't going to cut it I suggest broadening beyond the computer stuff.

Ugh. This trope. Yes, there is not nearly enough to distinguish between this and Cyberspace. I'm all for merging this and cyberspace.

I personally would rather that we cut The Metaverse, merge its examples into Cyberspace, and replace its correct wicks with Cyberspace, since I've seen "Metaverse" refer to things ranging from a (special kind of) "Multiverse" to a whole "Omniverse", and so it has no place being restricted to a Cyberspace kind of Other Dimension.

For the record, The Metaverse doesn't define itself as "Cyberspace that you can walk around in" (which is redundant, since Cyberspace by default involves waking around in it), but rather as "Cyberspace is an actual replacement/successor for the Internet, known to and used by everyone in the general public".

edited 18th Feb '12 10:10:34 AM by MarqFJA

And I don't really think "everyone uses it" vs. "only the uber-hackers use it" is enough of a distinction for splitting a trope about portraying the internet as an immersive virtual reality simulation.

I agree, I just want to set the record straight.

The name is really unclear. The name makes people think it could be a variety of things, as demonstrated in this thread. Honestly, I'm not sure what to do with the actual name.

edited 18th Feb '12 11:20:46 AM by ThatHuman

The problem with Cyberspace is that it's a real life term for just the internet, and it's being misused for both that, the internet with a cool interface, any virtual simulation (not just the internet as one), and the Table Top Game from a quick glance at the wick. I'm planning on doing a more through wick check, but it does look like there is a range of things on Cyberspace.

Cyberspace doesn't seem to be any clearer a term than Metaverse.

edited 19th Feb '12 5:46:35 AM by shimaspawn

It is, because "-space" is easily understandable, and "cyber-" has had a lot more exposure to the public thanks to myriad popular Science Fiction films, TV series, literature, games, etc., thus its meaning of "computer/Internet-related" is more well-established; it's even in the frigging dictionaries, for crying out loud!

I personally would merge and rename to Virtual Reality Internet or Walking Inside Cyberspace... there are zillions of names that would be creative and more descriptive than these.

It's because cyberspace is a real world term that means something completely different than what the wiki-uses it for. We frequently refer to the Internet, our internet, as cyberspace, and we can't wander around in it. We also have Inside a Computer System, and Deep-Immersion Gaming that Cyberspace is suffering misuse for. People seem to be using it as a catch all term for "something that has to do with computers, things moving between them, and any virtual reality that shows up."

edited 19th Feb '12 5:59:30 AM by shimaspawn

But as the Neuromancer example and quote show, the term has been co-opted by fiction-makers to mean the trope. It was even coined by William Gibson, Neuromancer's author.

edited 19th Feb '12 6:00:50 AM by MarqFJA

That doesn't change the fact that it's suffering terrible misuse on the wiki. Cyberspace on the wiki is much much broader than just "walking around in the internet". Cyberspace on the wiki seems to be "the internet with or without any cool representation, as well as any virtual reality ever, and random people shrunk down and wandering around computer architecture."

All of these are different tropes. They shouldn't all be crammed badly into one page that can't figure out what it wants to be other than something about computers and space.

edited 19th Feb '12 6:07:40 AM by shimaspawn

That's a good point. Cyberspace should probably get renamed to something clearer. We could include a note along the lines of: "When William Gibson coined the term 'Cyberspace' in his novel Neuromancer, he used it to refer to this trope, but popular use has expanded its definition far beyond that."

edited 19th Feb '12 11:54:38 AM by MetaFour

How about, after we come up with better-fitting names for this trope, the trope currently named Cyberspace, and so on so forth, we make Cyberspace a disambiguation page, with links to the tropes that it gets used as a term for both by actual fiction and due to troper misuse here?

edited 19th Feb '12 11:57:19 AM by MarqFJA

Actual fiction uses it for all of those things. Hence the troper misuse. One is a consequence of the other. I think it might be better as a disambig.

I've changed the thread title and linked article to reflect the current state of the discussion.

Re-opening on request, but clocking.

Since it appears there's more than one thing to do here, multi-prop.

Wait, this thread was locked at some point during the past month? How come I didn't get a watchlist notification when it was sent to the Morgue?

Anyway, we need to attach the crowner to the thread.

I noticed that too when the bot locked up the stale threads - it didn't notify on the watchlist.

The crowner needs a moderator to hook.