In 2023, the term metaverse - a combination of the words "meta" and "universe" - had become a catch-all for a diverse set of expectations about online virtual worlds, virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), and the future of the internet, which each meant different things to different people. What did seem certain was that a piece of the future was up for grabs. In October 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company was "all in on the metaverse," and changed its name to Meta to position itself for the coming shift. Meta's big bet was based on one vision of a still-evolving future. Executives at other companies like Epic Games, Microsoft, Nvidia, Electronic Arts, and Roblox had vastly different views of whether, how, and when the metaverse would take shape. In the midst of the debate and uncertainty, executives and entrepreneurs had to deal with several critical questions as they strove to form their own vision and strategy for the metaverse. First, was the metaverse going to emerge in the next few years or much further down the road (if at all)? Second, what would be the main use cases of the metaverse, and which one(s) would come first? Some expected consumer use cases like gaming to lead the way, while others expected enterprise use cases to really demonstrate the value. Third, and perhaps most critically, would the metaverse be an open, interoperable, interconnected virtual world, much like the Internet in 2023? Or would it play out like most social networks, as large but separate and closed walled gardens?