It seems "Internet history" now claims Neal Stephenson's coined the term "metaverse" in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. But this isn't really true.

It seems "Internet history" now claims Neal Stephenson's coined the term "metaverse" in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. But this isn't really true. The term is older than that. I recall at least one usage as the title of BBS in the 80s that allowed members to join/form virtual nation-states and act as varying governing bodies. Other members would create issues and crisis that would have to addressed by these players. Of course it was primitive compared to modern virtual reality, but it was nonetheless just that in word form -- and very much literally a "metaverse".