Further Adventures in the Metaverse

OK, so now I'm Excited.

I started off yesterday with the long version of Mark Zuckerberg's 'META' launch video from connect 2021 - https://youtu.be/Uvufun6xer8

I've only ever seen a condensed 11 minute version with the main points, but the conversations (though incredibly cheesy) all had really exciting things to say, especially to someone like me who hasn't been following along with the tech developments over the last however many years.. And I also don't game and so a lot of the ideas that are common knowledge in them, are still new to me, but having all this information at once over the last few months has been an absolute mind blower! It's worth watching this in full by the way, I think it gives a really great glimpse into the future..

Watching the video really gave me loads of ideas about where this stuff could go, and how the Faketrix fits into this perfectly, especially when Zucks started going on about how we all need to build the metaverse together, it's not just one company, or a few, its loads, and individuals, all building their own stuff, building this massive extensive metaverse where people can do anything they want.. Not that I want to buddy up with Zucks or anything, but he's right, the metaverse will be built from the ground up with the ideas of the people of now..

I did a bit of a dive whilst my son was going to sleep on me, and found this..

https://youtu.be/y0yOHkzFn9k - Which explains about some of the biggest metaverses already available.

I decided to give Decentraland a go. Decentraland is a decentralised metaverse, different from Meta's (facebooks) metaverse, it's not run by a company, but is opensource, run on the blockchain, allowing users to buy and sell land etc..

Different to IMVU, you don't have to download Decentraland, it's all in browser.

You can sign in using a 3rd party 'wallet', from my understanding this is simply a safe and secure way to keep and transfer your crypto currency. I don't have a wallet set up, because, I have no money, but luckily there's a guest sign in option, which from my understanding is the same experience, except I can't buy anything.. like real life really, I can go into any shop I want, but I can buy anything... And people say that virtual worlds don't reflect real life...

I started by building my avatar.. This is something that will change in the future with NFT/ blockchain avatars, you'll be able to build your avatar on a 3rd party programme, or buy one, and that avatar will be transferable between different metaverses/ games/ experiences. Whereas in its current state, each metaverse/games etc has it's own avatar building system specific to that particular game, and so, here goes another avatar build..

I ended up creating Hilario Offendas, my collaborative alter ego.

Decentraland is interesting, you start in a communal area with a pond that drops in the middle, go through it and you go down into the world itself.

Straight away it seems bigger than IMVU, being a straight up open world rather than having different 'rooms' or servers to join all separated by 2D space. This was like a 3D google maps, where you can walk around on roads to different buildings and districts. I didn't really understand how it was all working when I first started exploring, there were 'non player' avatars, like the characters in games that you have to walk up to to speak to and learn about your task, except these just explained about the world and whatever.

The graphics aren't as mature maybe as IMVU, but kind of feel more finished, more cartoony, but better quality.

I wasn't too sure about these 'game' characters, the non-players. I think I wanted this free form exploration, just exploring and finding out what's about, like I would in a real life town on my first visit, and having these fake characters felt like it wasn't a virtual world run by actual people, it made it feel like a game, rather than a virtual world.

Anyway, after that first interaction there was only one or two more I came across. I started to explore this vast open world.

It seemed odd that everything was so well made, the buildings had similar architecture, the roads/paths were well done, I dunno, I thought this place was supposed to be built by the people who inhabit it, this doesn't feel like that, I feel that would be messier..

And it was full of completely useless buildings, like this one, that had a control panel on it where you could pick a soundtrack, and talk to this robot guy..

It pissed me off. wasted my time, which already felt wasted by me playing a game essentially, when I could have been researching something more important, or making something. Virtual pissed off is no different from real life pissed of by the way..

I came across this weird little canopy thing and it had a few floating buttons, this one caught my attention 'try the builder'..

So from what I've been able to gather this is the in-game builder, which is a version of UNITY, which is a 3D design software. I believe this version is limited to taking pre-made assets and adding them to a base. There is loads of assets to pick from, hundreds, maybe thousands, I didn't spend much time on this.. I felt like there was more exploring to do first.

But I gave it a quick go and made this horrendous construction. But it gave me a feel for it, and after my adventures in Decentraland I went and downloaded the student version of Unity. This has been something I've been wanting to learn for a while, but have never had the right project for it, maybe the Faketrix is doable in a metaverse form, and if so, I think it will benefit me loads to be able to use this software.

I left the builder and carried on strolling around until I came across this Halloween style town. When I entered the grounds a check list popped up on my screen and I got really annoyed by it, it seemed to be pushing me into playing a game, I don't want to do that, I want to explore new ideas, where are all the NFT galleries I've been promised!!??

I quickly left and came across this by total chance..

This is it, this is what I was looking for, an Virtual art gallery that sells digital art on the blockchain.. It was incredibly fitting that I decided to come as Hilario Offendas, this was his first outing into the metaverse, the seeds being planted for his future 'metARTverse'.. It felt poetic.

I knew all this existed, but it felt so surreal going into it. Now, it's worth mentioning at this stage that after a few floors of this multi-story gallery the gimmick of being in a virtual galley wore off, I mean I've had work in a virtual gallery for my degree show, this wasn't that exciting on the actual inside, essentially it was an artist takeover of a galleries Instagram page.. you know, take away the 3D elements, and that's what it is at its core, except it's really not. Because of the blockchain, NFT elements. These virtual art works can be virtually bought with virtual money, that has been bought with actual money, and what's important about that is that each time an art work sells, the artist will get a part of that profit... every time it sells. The idea is bizarre.

Now, there's a whole world of NFTs to explore, and I will do another post on this in the future, but I jumped into a lot of research into NFTs within days of them getting incredibly popular, and was learning to make them, how to sell them etc.. until my research lead me to finding that NFTs, and I believe blockchain in general is pretty bad for the environment.. It was an exciting world that opened up to me, that was shattered in seconds of finding this out... Now, there is a lot of research and development going into making this whole thing more eco friendly, and from what I understand, this tech isn't too far off.. So, maybe I won't be doing anything more permanent until this issue is sorted, just because it's that personal thing of contributing to something, I'm consciously making an effort everywhere else in my life to be more green, and I want to continue that online too.

Anyway, it's still worth researching all this, clicking on the art work sends you to a third party website that sells the art as NFTs, and gives all the blockchain information, the history of the pieces sales etc.. This particular piece has been sold once for 1.666 ether which relates to £2,120.

..I don't know what to say about this. So I'm just gonna leave it here to ponder over when I'm maybe more adjusted to the idea of digital art, and the price of it.

Anyway, this exhibition was 'The Holy Ones', which I believe is the series of art works. The art is alright, nothing really standing out to me, but I enjoyed the experience and the humour was interesting in the work itself.

making my way up to maybe the 3rd or 4th floor I came across this glass room which looked out onto the lawn of the gallery, which held host to this huge spinning sculptural version of their characters. I thought this was fantastic, and is something that would cost an absolute fortune in real life.. and really, is a sculpture of that magnitude that's spinning, might even have been animated, I cant fully remember, but either way, it's not doable outside a metaverse. This made the experience different from Instagram. For a few moments I really felt like I was exploring this cool art gallery which had this contemporary exhibition going on, this is something very rare in my area, the galleries are generally dated, and have a crafters feel a lot of the time, so even the content was fresh for me to view in this gallery setting. I was becoming hooked.

The top floor was dedicated to video work and unlike the cinema I visited in IMVU, these videos actually played.. Which felt quite immersive.

So after a few videos on the very top of the top floor I found a portal, I don't know why they've put this here, I can only assume it's a paid for portal by the gallery it sends you to.. Now, here's my theory.. but it's just a theory. I'll show you the map in a bit, but basically you start in the centre, then it spreads outwards, and do you remember me wondering why the world seemed so clean and well made? Well, that was just the centre district, the part made by the world developers themselves I believe, this was one of the first places I came to that wasn't developer made, I assume this land is more expensive to own than land more towards the outskirts, right?

So the theory is that if this is true, maybe these out of central galleries pay bigger galleries in the centres to place portals in their galleries?? It's all just assumptions, but it makes a lot of sense, maybe they're just mates..

I ended up here, not sure where here is, but there was this huge 'projection' hologram woman walking around.. I don't know, I think I enjoy seeing things that we can't do in real life, why else would we escape here? This was cool.

I came across this gallery ran by an individual, and calling itself an NFT art space. This feels sci fi, not just by hot it looks, but I just teleported from one gallery to another gallery that sell digital art in a 3D metaverse. You can rent this space, that's insane. Someone has bought land, made a gallery and is renting it out to artists to show their work in.. WTF

This was really cool with the back lighting behind the art, but this became a running theme through a few of the galleries I visited, it got annoying fast.

If it fit with the theme of the space and the art like this kind of did, it was great, but it was overused through out loads of galleries..

This was another one next door, for some reason it was really dark, again using the back lit frames. Health and safety doesn't matter in virtual space.. no trip hazards in the dark..

Ok, so this is a very small section of the map, each tiny square is available to purchase, unless it's already been bought. I can't tell what's been bought and what's not, but it's pretty full when you're in the 3d world.. The green square is the central zone, or one of them anyway, this is where I came into the world.

Anyway, I was done with aimlessly wandering until I found something interesting. It got to a point where I was just exploring gallery after gallery and got pretty bored, I wanted to find some interesting stuff, stuff that I've never seen before, creative ideas, not just virtual art galleries, in the end it kind of felt like I was just scrolling through 3D Instagram profiles..

I ended up going back to the central point where I started and found a huge events board. I clicked one at random and it took me to the opening party of 'The Holy Ones' exhibition, the art in the first gallery I went to...By complete chance, this happened to be the main event of the night, and I'd just stumbled across the exhibition.

This open party was taking place at the Aquarium, a virtual bar, which looked pretty sick, I walked in to find a whole new world of mad stuff to get excited about.

I was alone to start with, watching a live DJ on one of the 4 screens around the dance floor, this was a dude who was most probably paid to DJ a live event in a virtual space, from the comfort of his bedroom. He was a good DJ too. I noticed black jack and other betting tables.. These weren't just for show, you could actually go and make bets and shit..

Suddenly the room was full of other peoples avatars. I think my computer was slow, and took a while to load everyone but they'd been here the whole time I was. This was insane, I'd say there was maybe 50 people in here. And, this got weird for me, I haven't been out in ages, the pandemic, having kids etc.. I got excited, I genuinely felt for a few seconds that I was at a club having a dance watching a live DJ. I think maybe this is what this is, this next stage of the internet, and what the metaverse provides, a sense of immersion, I can really start to believe how VR tech can improve this loads. We have over lockdown been watching artists do live gigs on Facebook live and so on, and this was no different, the DJ was on a screen, but the difference is being able to move around the room and interact with other avatars etc.. If I had a VR headset and I could move and dance, and see my hands or virtual hands moving about, I'm sure it would really become a real immersive experience..

It really makes me think of the possibilities this could have with my own life, our kids go to bed around 7.30 these days, it give me and my wife a few hours before we go to bed, we usually watch a show or a film, sometimes we play a board game or something, we can't go out cos the kids are asleep, but what if we got out our VR head sets and entered a world like this where we could have a very similar experience to being in a night club, or an art gallery. In the future we could meet friends out in places, we'd be projection in AR, it could really help with the reclusive ruts you can easily get into in parenthood..

Over the other side of the bar, away from the dance floor and the DJ screens they'd hung a few of the artists' artworks, it was great, it's a little thing but it felt more real, it wasn't just a rave, it reminded you that it was an exhibition opening party..

The only thing that would have solidified this as real for me would have been a merch stand..

I left the party, I wasn't here to party, I had research to do.. I found myself in this store with floating clothing items. All the research I did on digital clothing and shoes etc... It was all materialised here, I'm standing in an NFT clothing store, WTF. people spend a lot of money on digital clothing.

I mean, this tshirt is 249, what I assume if 'mana' the decentraland currency.

If this is in MANA, then it translates to £565,23 GBP. Fuck off.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong.. Seems off, it's a pretty dull t shirt to be fair.

There was the auditorium, nothing going on there at the time..

Then I went to the DAO HQ, and there was load of information about the ecosystem of the world, and how it all works. It seems to work on a voting system, you have to join DAO, become like a citizen I suppose to have voting rights.. kind of like 'Starship Troopers', which definitely makes me weary, but it seems like they're really pushing to be, and remain decentralised, being a space for the people, owned by the people rather than a small group of large companies.

I liked this, 3D graffiti, it says ETH, which is a crypto currency, I didn't like that so much! It's celebrating the currency though, and I dunno knowing the history maybe makes it better, that crypto currency was created to bypass the shit of the real world, and underground digital trading system, I dunno, maybe there is something to celebrate there? But at the end of the day it's putting money on a pedestal.. We have this opportunity to create a whole new world that doesn't have to run or rely on money, yet it seems that it's falling into the same old trap.. Worshiping money.

And another gallery with those back lit frames, it's really strange that there was very little sculptural art in the galleries. 3D shit is surely one of the big interests of a 3D virtual space, yet all the art is 2D, why's that?

I ended up walking into this building that entered me into a game, I was given a pick axe and a gun to switch between, I switched to first person mode and had to run around this mine to find gold.

Once I found enough I was allowed through a shaft to this train.

Which started moving and I was chased by cowboys on horse back, of which I had to shoot. I also had to top the engine up with coal that I was apparently supposed to collect in the mine too... oOps.

Anyway, I don't know what it is, but games don't interest me..

Here's what I assume was another game, But I couldn't get into it.. maybe it was still being built? Seeing all this though really gave me a sense of the metaverse, a 3D version of our current internet, we jump from social apps like facebook, to instagram which is kind of like a gallery for artists who use it, then we can jump onto a game, the metaverse does that, but you can walk from one to the other, you can socialise with friends in a virtual cafe, then walk into a gallery, then go and play a game together.. it's cool, Now imagine the future when these avatars are more lifelike, and you can talk to your friends and make hand gestures, and you have VR headsets and it's fully immersive... you can have a proper day out without leaving your home... Now, I know that seems silly and lazy, but I truly believe in real life interaction and experiences, but this is an also kind of situation, this can take you to experiences you CANT have in real life, and maybe this is where the metaverses that exist right now are maybe going wrong, theyre concentrating hard on making places that look and feel real, which is great, but maybe they should be working on places and ideas that are new, shit we haven't seen in real life because its not possible in real life..?

This continued when I entered this other building, it was relatively empty, except for this livestream thing going on on the screen, it was pretty busy in this place, nearly as packed as the exhibition event... its mad. This was a gaming stream thing.. i had no interest but see the incredible potential... and that's the thing with a metaverse set up, things are left more to chance, generally with the current web2 you have to search for specific things, or have links to sites, here you can stroll around and come across new things, new experiences. If I wasn't in this metaverse I never would have stumbled across a gaming stream, I never would have played a cowboy game, I wouldn't have discovered 'the holy ones'. Now it's worth mentioning that these things are not of much interest to myself in content, but I see the potential of stumbling across something by chance that could really take someone by the balls you know? I'm sure theres gonna be kinds, and adults alike who will find their next career by just exploring a metaverse... that's bizarre.

This was a pretty cool exhibition..

And again shows possibilities with scale within a virtual space, but again with those backlit frames, really boring now.

Now, this building was cool, all the glass windows, but it really doesn't do the art justice.. and I think the backlit frames really take away from the art too.

So there was this really big staircase that circled to the roof, from around half way up I could see these, and again it's giving different perspectives to viewing the work.

This was that famous NFT of the cat and the rainbow.. I should have found out how much it was sold for etc.. damn.

This was an incredibly interesting, eye opening and insightful stroll around an incredibly small part of the Decentraland Metaverse with Hilario Offendas, It's got me really excited to start exploring 3D modelling and seeing how far I can get to creating a metaverse kind of thing of my own for the Faketrix Universe. But here's an idea... What if the Faketrix was built inside Decentraland? Could it work? Probably could.. This is the exploration I will be heading down next.