Our author copies of the Military Metaverse arrived today! That makes #3 in the series, and I'm busy proofing what will probably be #4 or #5, we're now onto the books not written by Maggi or me.
The book is of course available from Routledge (20% discount til end Jun with code 25AFLY1), Amazon and other good booksellers.
Our microworld on the Military Metaverse is now open and links into the existing space on the series in order to build out our Metaverse Series Microverse.
You can access the world directly from your browser and without creating an account at:
https://framevr.io/militarymetaverse
The space has an area for each chapter of the book, including 3D models and illustrations, and even an AI bot who (should) know all about the book.
You can also flip the space from being about the book to showcasing a couple of higher-rez models and a large floor map of Estonia which starts to give some idea of how such spaces could be used for planning or wargaming spaces.
If you'd like a tour of the space (or the original one for A Critical Introduction) then just email me at david.burden@daden.co.uk.
The Military Metaverse is published today! Details at https://metaverseseries.blogspot.com/p/the-military-metaverse.html.
Sign up to our virtual launch on 7th May at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-military-metaverse-virtual-launch-tickets-1317151809519?aff=oddtdtcreator.
Available from Amazon or Routledge as hardcopy or eBook, 20% discount at Routledge with the code 25AFLY1
This is the third book in the series and we have more in the production pipeline, so look out for more releases in the second half of 2025.
Andy and I will both be there to answer questions and to chat to you, and the space is also set up to email me when people come in, so even if we're not in-world when you arrive one of us should be in shortly afterwards.
We'll post the URL to the space up on the day (and email to attendees), and the space will then persist for the foreseeable future as a way to explore the book and for us to engage with our audience.
We hope to see you there.
Update: I've now produced a Substack post which describes my experiences to date in mixed reality /XR wargaming with ShapesXR and other platforms.
I've been playing around with ShapesXR for the last couple of weeks and its looking really good as a general purpose MR collaboration platform. There is something very different, but also incredibly natural about having collaborators present in your own physical space but working with a mutual virtual toolset. The images below show Andy Fawkes (co-author of the forthcoming The Military Metaverse) and I testing out some prototype manual wargames in my office/game room and his VR space. But with the core ability to import 3D objects, rez objects from a library, move and place objects and add annotations ShapesXR could be used for a wide variety of use cases and is certainly the easiest to use that I've found so far for MR.
Note that both of use can scale, rotate and place the shared environment wherever we want in our own physical spaces, so at one point I had it scaled large and placed on my 8' x 6' table, where he had it shrunk down and sat on his lap. You can also use the scaling so that you can experience any build at eye-level/subjective mode, or loom over it in a more objective/god mode.
More posts (and maybe even some video) of our experiences in MR to follow.
 |
| Andy adding objects to the build |
 |
| Ignore the spurious grey avatar, but Andy's scaled down avatar is visible just in front - so to him the build is scaled right up and he's getting a street level view |
 |
| Andy scaled up to "god" mode looking down upon creation! |
 |
| My first playable MR manual wargame - a WW1 dogfight! |
 |
| Andy's view of me in VR mode. You can toggle at will between MR and VR. I can see the VR mode being the equivalent of blurring your background in Zoom. |
Taylor & Francis have now listed the Military Metaverse book on their web site at https://www.routledge.com/The-Military-Metaverse/Fawkes-Burden/p/book/9781032600512.
Pre-orders open on 10 April 2025, and publishing is expected on 1 May 2025.
Here's the blurb...
The Military Metaverse explores the impact that the Metaverse is having today on how the world's militaries procure, maintain, train, plan and fight, and how the Metaverse presents new challenges and opportunities for future conflict.
The military were early adopters of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies and wider simulation systems. Before 2010 they were one of the few sectors that could afford the technology, and millions of military R&D dollars went into developing and understanding these technologies. However, as the democratisation of metaverse technologies has happened over the past decade there is a danger that militaries have been overtaken and caught short, encumbered with expensive legacy systems, sold and maintained by expensive prime contractors, whilst the gaming and consumer market has cheaper and more innovative and agile systems. The book provides a history of the use of metaverse technologies in the military, particularly in the areas of design, maintenance, training, planning and operations. It then examines the current state of the art in these areas and the opportunities that are available from the current generation of consumer-driven approaches. The drivers for, challenges to, and paths towards an enterprise approach to the Military Metaverse are then presented. The book explores the military use of social virtual worlds, of early work done by defence and security organisations in worlds such as Second Life, and how such environments could become important for intelligence as well as influence operations in the future. Finally, the book will consider what war in the Metaverse might look like, both in terms on in-world activities and the impact of cyber-war on the Metaverse itself.
It should be of interest to all militaries across the world, the industries that support them, and those in academia and the wider public with an interest in the military and defence.
Contents
The chapters in the book are:
Introduction
1. An Early History of the Military Metaverse
2. The Military Metaverse after Snow Crash
3. Military Metaverse Building Blocks
4. The Military Metaverse for Capability Acquisition and Support
5. The Metaverse for Individual Training & Education
6. The Metaverse for Team & Collective Training
7. The Metaverse for Analysis and Planning
8. The Military Metaverse for Operations
9. Social Virtual Worlds
10. Convergence: An Enterprise Military Metaverse
11. War in the Metaverse
Bibliography
Glossary
The link at the sidebar left (coming soon!) provides more information about the book and supporting contents, and a link to out Military Metaverse microverse!
