Defining Virtual Worlds: Main Features and Regulatory Challenges

This issue paper pursues three goals. First, it aims to identify a definition of virtual worlds that is shared among stakeholders. There are many possible ways to define virtual worlds and the metaverse that differ sensibly depending on the sector, the use case at hand, or the sensibility of those employing the terms. The European Commission (EC)’s call for evidence for a non-legislative initiative on virtual worlds (April 2023)1 has made things even more complicated. While it employs the term ‘metaverse’ abundantly in its advertising campaign (website, social media, and so on), it uses only ‘virtual words’ in the text of the call itself. Clarifying the boundaries of the two notions is thus necessary, to both making sure we all debate over the same subject matter, and for policy makers to target policy intervention at the appropriate issues. This part concludes by providing a definition of virtual worlds. Second, on the basis of the definitions settled in the first part, this paper identifies the main characteristics of virtual worlds, and highlights a set of challenging features that are relevant for the debate. And third, based on the identified challenging features, the paper raises a set of questions aimed at identifying possible regulatory gaps or topics that might require attention by policy makers.