• plenipotentprotogod@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I mean, this is definitely going to be a disaster but I think the title and article here are a little misleading. The author implies that Warner Brothers is spearheading (and paying for) this venture, but I just read through the buzzword salad of a press release and it barely mentions them. The project is driven by an independent company that licensed the ready player one IP from WB. The whole thing very carefully avoids any details about money changing hands, but my guess is either that WB is getting paid, or they’ve negotiated a cut of any theoretical future profits. Of course, the chances of there ever being profits are slim to none, but I’d say at worst they’re net $0 on the deal, and at best they actually made some money by getting paid up front. They might suffer some reputation damage if it becomes a real catastrophe, but as the author of the article mentioned they are billions in debt, so its probably a risk they’re happy to take.

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Crazy that this involves the author… We really can’t learn can we?

    This is seeing the Titanic movie and saying, “yup, we’re building the titanic and sailing into an iceberg! Who’s coming with us?”

    • zaphod@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Now I’m actually wondering if the author thinks the Ready Player One world is worth living in.

      • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        He really does.

        Ready Player One sounds, on the surface, like a searing critique of corporate capitalist bullshit, but in the end the actual upshot in the novel and movie is “We need kinder, gentler billionaires to be our feudal overlords”.

    • Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Yeah i know I’m getting old when i have no idea what the headline means and I’ve only read the book. 🧐

    • Katana314@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      When I hear about concerts, and hotels reproducing their entire layout inside of Fortnite, I can actually respect the comparison. Of course, I’ve also seen many advertised attempts at “maid cafes” within the residential districts of FFXIV, so there’s multiple people trying it - Fortnite is just the most well known.

    • lorty@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      People don’t associate Fortnite with that due to the main game being just pvp instanced deathmatches. But it is, by far, the most comprehensive example of what a corporate * metaverse would look like, specially now that they have their creative mode or whatever it’s called.

      *I know something like VR Chat or your favorite MMO with housing is closer to what people would want or imagine the metaverse to be, but that’s not what the buzzword is for the suits.

    • ThrowawayOnLemmy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They’re desperate to make it happen because the potential benefits to them are so great that they become blinded by greed.

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      NFTs for just art I’m not sure what’s going go happen, but NFTs are never going to go away when they represent an actual useful digital thing like a concert ticket.

      The tech and industry just needs to further mature.

      • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        But you don’t need NFT to make a concert ticket… a barcode or QR with a simple unique number works just as well.

        • jasondj@ttrpg.network
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          1 year ago

          NFTs are supposed to be cryptographically secure and blockchain-tracked certificates of authenticity for digital goods. “This is a unique original work by so-and-so”. Any duplication wouldn’t have the same hash and thus is not legitimate.

          There are plenty of good uses for this if you are of the mindset that digital goods need to be protected and proven as unique and original works. In a proper setup, it would negate the need for DRM and enable the legal sale and trade of digital media/games in the secondary market, by preventing unlawful duplication (piracy). This is beneficial because piracy, as GabeN prophesized, is an issue of service, not price. Consumers are typically willing to pay good money for good entertainment. They do not want to pay good money and find that a game is incomplete or poorly optimized, or to have less product (digital good) for the same price (physical good) (i.e., not being able to re-download after an arbitrary date, not be able to resell, lack of boxart, bonus content, etc).

        • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          You don’t need anything to anything, it’s just a theoretical improvement.

          No one is hacking your email and stealing the barcode, or figuring out the algorithm and generating fake barcodes. There’s no risk that if I sell the barcode to someone else that I also didn’t sell it other people as well.

          Ticket fraud is huge. (Edit its a multi billion dollar problem)

          To then solve those problems you bring in middle men and they charge fees.

          Reselling a concert ticket securely (from my perspective, not companies) cost me and the user 5% each. And that’s if a service is even offered.

          An NFT concert ticket legitimately solves a lot of real problems more efficiently than existing technology.

          But ease of use of crypto and transaction fees are still too high to make this a mass market solution. That’ll change though.

  • YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    The book was crap so I wouldn’t expect anything else. I honestly think it was one of the worst books I’ve read.

    • Aielman15@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I haven’t read the book, but the movie was crap too. It was just a slide show of '80s and '90s references that completely failed to capture what made those good, or even understand them.

    • meyotch@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      It was a quick read and the entire book can be summed up as generational pandering.

  • alienanimals@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Ernest Cline is a sellout who got lucky piggybacking off the success of popular franchises. I’ve seen high schoolers write better than that guy.

    • inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s easily the worst book I’ve read, and I only finished because of the unintentional hilarity of it all. In a story ostensibly about how evil media mega corporations are, the author wrote a hail corporateove love letter to top selling franchises without realizing the irony.

      There was potential in it being a self parody, although in a way the whe situation is funnier because he was so earnest.

      • jasondj@ttrpg.network
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        1 year ago

        I spent my first audible credit on that book. I hadn’t seen the movie…still haven’t. But it was narrated by Wil Wheaton, and I knew him from reddit. He did a good job. That’s all I have to say about it.

        • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Same only way I heard it and the movie sucked ass. He is a sellout won’t even touch the second one.

    • lloram239@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      It was never alive to begin with. The Metaverse exists as nothing more than a buzzword made popular by Zuckerberg/Meta. There are no technologies, standards, devices or software driving it. Nobody even agrees on what features it should have.

      And on top of that, old pre-buzzword stuff like SecondLife or PlaystationHome are still closer to a “Metaverse” than any of the more recent buzzword filled attempts.

    • fidodo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It is. Of the 3 big emergent techs, vr, crypto, and AI, ai is the only non bullshit one, and the meta verse bet on the other two…

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Just when I thought the WB’s DC cinematic Universe was such a huge Trainwreck, it looks like they plan to top it with this.

    Oh and remember Space Jam?

  • notannpc@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    WB execs are currently in the #1 position on the list of dumbest motherfuckers of 2024. And boy are they setting the bar REALLY high.