SHOW / EPISODE

Ep 8 : The MetaVerse | What does it really look like?

1h 31m | Mar 20, 2022

SHOW NOTES:

Streams Links

Twitter

Sponsor

 

Discord to The Mad House Community


References

http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com

https://www.vrs.org.uk

https://www.sandbox.game/en/

https://www.investopedia.com


Transcription by https://app.getwelder.com/transcriptions

Pay no attention to the people behind the red curtain. Yes, that's us. Oh, wrong scene. Oh, there we go. Now we're right, I think. Are we right? No. Are we? No, we're not. We're definitely not right. All right. So what we're actuallygoing to be doing that at the end of the stream. So if you or anybody else comes in, Tori, since you are here, that'll be your job to remind newcomers that they have to follow all three channels to be entered to win, and they have to follow all three before we get to the section of the stream that we do it. So there's that. And today we're actually going to be kind of talking about in some realm what we were talking about, but not just only on Spiderman or a multiverse, but more or less the Metaverse and what it may actually look like. This is true. Welcome to the Madhouse Presents Group Therapy, where we talk about games. Are you about our different viewpoints, dive into the strange or whatever we decide in the moment? I am Alex and this is Joker. Hi. How are you doing today? We are talking about the Metaverse.


So dramatic music. What is the Metaverse? We're going to actually talk about it because there's been quite a few different depictions of what a Metaverse would really look like, especially with the coming ups and advancements in VR that have been made in the last decade alone, let alone the last 20 years that VR has potentially been around. So we're going to talk about that tonight. Sure are. What is the Metaverse, Joker? Well, according to Facebook CEO, the Metaverse is going to be a platform in which everybody can interact socially, play games, do business, not only just conduct business meetings like we've probably seen in the last few years. Well, last two years, thanks to COVID, but actually conduct business, sell products. There's currently a market spike in cryptocurrencies and using different types of cryptocurrencies to buy virtual land. Virtual land? Yes. Virtual land is being transferred for millions of dollars. And this is pixels of land at that. That's interesting. Pixels of land. I mean, what would be the square foot? How would you figure out square footage? So it's really not even square footage. Yeah. I mean, just for like layman's terms for myself or somebody out there who doesn't quite understand. So if you look at it, say right now, you got us on a monitor at full screen. And if we were what's the word I'm looking for? Full resolution. So HD, which is 1080p, right? Yes. And what 1080p represents is a Pixel rating on the screen and it's 1900 by 1080. So 1900 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high. So that is what 1080 represents is Pixel rating. And a Pixel is a very, very small electrical or some type of Cube of light that represents a surface area. Well, what they're doing is they are selling virtual pixels in a virtual world. And however many pixels or blocks that you buy, I think it's considered one square block, like real life block. What is it like 250ft by 250ft in real life, I think is considered a block of like a neighborhood or a business district on a street. Well, that block is then sold for a value of cryptocurrency, and it can't be sold again. It's like NFCs or. Hold on. I'm trying to remember what NFT stands for here. Hold on. N ft. It's like final sale, no returns. Yeah.


Wow. Nft didn't come back with the actual definition of it. Nfts are unique cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain. So similar to how cryptocurrency is transferred from one to another, making the understanding of transfer. And what is a blockchain that multiple people that are on the Internet have to verify that an exchange has happened and that's how they keep track of it. So NFTs, which are called non fungible token, is what NFT stands for, and they exist on a blockchain and cannot be replicated. So once it's created, there's only one of it. And if you want it, you have to buy it. It's like somebody buying a physical piece of art. Somebody can only paint it once. They can create additional prints, but they can only actually paint the physical original once. Correct. Exactly. And one individual back in. Hold on, let me see. I'm trying to remember what the web pages is. The million dollar page. He's thinking really hard right now. You can't see his face in audio land, but he had a really scrunched up face when he was searching. Okay, so if you want to follow us at home or as long as you're not driving or operating machinery at this point, there is a thing that was called and it's www. Dot million dollar homepage.com. And what it was is a College kid, I think I want to say back in either the early 2000s or late 90s, created a web page and offered up a single Pixel on this page for $1. And you bought pixels to put whatever imagery you wanted on it for $1. And there was a million pixels. Once they were done, they were done. So you could do a million penises. You could have if you really wanted to. Or you can do one giant penis worth a million dollars. And he's filled it up. And it still exists to this day because it could be across the whole thing for those watching on Twitch. So again, if you're listening on the podcast audio site only, we do stream a live recording of this every Wednesday night at 09:00 P.m. On Twitch. Tv themadhousepodcast. And right now, for everybody on Twitch, I am showing what the actual one or the million dollar home page looks like. And it's just a giant ad board, basically. Is that what people bought to do that? Yes, this is it. This is exactly what it is like nuts. It looks like I'm looking for like Where's Waldo? In a sea of just words and pictures and colors. It's like at my face and I'm looking for Waldo. So here's the thing. Every Pixel or every ad on here goes to another website. Does it really? Yes. Everything that's on here is an ad. It goes to another website. And the only way that any more that you can get on this is you buy the pixels from someone else because if you notice, everything sold out. So this kid like a stock exchange kind of situation. Exactly. This kid who was 21 years old when he came up with this idea is virtually now a millionaire because he received a dollar for every Pixel that was sold on this page. And then people just kept kept buying. Yeah. So like right here, you can see for those of you that can see there's a thing right here that says web hosting. I scroll my mouse over that and it says the best website hosting ever. Only one point, $99. And it's easycgi. Boom. That's them. Then you've got let's see, I saw it up here somewhere. Japan's most beautiful girls and guys.


Ferrari. Ferrari's here. Or someone said they got a Ferrari symbol and their little hyperlink shows. If you love cars, you will love this. Let's see what else? Date night or date tonight? A free dating service and dating site reviews. Still searching. Click here. Free and boobies. Thomas the train even made it on here. Yeah, boobies. But Thomas the train even made it on here. Guys, order your free Thomas and friends catalog today. He is in there. I found him. Waldo? Yes. Where? Right next to coupons. Which coupons? Okay, middle on the right. Coupons tab marks coupons to the left. Ok. He is right there. Look at that. You found Waldo. I did it. I'm good at this. I solved the Riddle. Look at that. If you want to check it out again, it is www. Dot million dollarhomepage.com. You can go and check it out. See what all's in there. I mean, literally even ThunderCats made it in here. Ghostbusters Xbox. There is a lot of shit on this page. Alaskan Mint like gold and silver and jewelry. All these people had to buy more than one, though. Correct. Because there's no way they could make it this big by only buying one Pixel of this. Okay. So to give you reference what they represent as one Pixel on here. Okay. If you go over to the yellow pages symbol on the left side, lower left Quadrant. Okay. You see the yellow pages, little fingers. All right. Go two rows down below that. And then you see a little e like a backwards green e and an a above each other or one above the other. That a is one Pixel on this page. Okay. Got you. That's how big. And that's one dollars for that one. Pixel. That tiny little Pixel. Yes. What a sad little Pixel. And the biggest one, I think the biggest add on here is the green, blue, yellow squares inside the red box. Rentpixelads.com. That is the biggest one


that I can see. Yes, I believe so. Unless you count the free 18 plus free freelance jobs, auditions and map ads. Pixel ads free. I think that's probably the biggest one in there. So, yeah, that's basically what NFTs are and how they're transferred is you buy a spot in this virtual world and you now own that property of virtual land. So that's the stepping stones in which the Metaverse was built on. Very interesting. And then of course with that,


Dipshit from Facebook is trying to create business space. Kind of like Facebook. Oh yeah, it's Meta. Now, again, Dipshit is trying to create the first real life Metaverse, which isn't really going to play out well right now because there's a lot of issues that he's dealing with thanks to his implementations as far as rights, copyrights, visual rights, everything like that. But with the advancements of VR is where he's trying to put his placehold in there. Because of now Oculus, which is owned by Meta and has not only the computing system, which I have one myself, I have a Rift, S, Oculus Rift S and of course a Quest two, which is the portable or non wired version of the Rift. That's the one that you don't need to have a computer with. Correct. You just have to plug it in long enough to set it up. But once it's set up and as long as it's attached to WiFi, it is free standing minus having to recharge. Got you. I still have yet to experience VR. I want to go to like maybe the mall and do it, see what suit all the hubbub the hubbub is about. Hub. Hubbub. I just like that word, hubbub. I can use that in regular day conversation. I'd be happy. Yeah, alright. And then on top of that, talking about VR, the first known VR or virtual reality was created in long ago by Ivan Sutherland and his students, Bob Sprout or his student, excuse me, Bob Sprout, who created the first VR, AR. So VR is virtual reality and AR is augmented reality, but it was a head mounted display called the Sword of Damicules. D-A-M-O-C-L-E-S. Damocles. Yes, sort of Damocles. And that was connected to a computer and not a camera. So what looks like and I'll actually pull up an image real quick for Twitch people. So what they've got here is the computer augmented reality because obviously it's lenses, so you can see in this image. It is actually never mind, it's a bunch of mirrors with projections through them and you can see his eyes through it. So it was more augmented reality than virtual reality. It almost looks like when you go to get your eyes checked all the different magnifying that they do, they're like, click, is that better? Yeah. Is that better or worse? Better or worse? One or two. Now, there was one other very popular Nintendo version that came out in I want to say it was the 80s, but it was called Virtual Boy. And what it ended up being was what you see here currently on the screen, but a controller attached to a very heavy headset and it was just green and black pixels and maybe some red mixed in on its second version. And it was like Metroid or one of the original speed racers, like you saw in Tron, the original Tron, how you had the grid lines and everything. That's what the display looked like for this. And it was sickening, like worse than what we have now. So you've experienced this particular one? Yeah, I had a friend that was quite wealthy as far as his family, and they had one of these for the short live time that they had with it that it was supported. But, yeah, it was interesting. So Nintendo was the first to get into the virtual reality realm. Wow. Yes. Also because of seizures back in the day,


one of these days I'll have to do it, but definitely the idea sounds very interesting. It is fun as long as you get used to it. I don't know, because I get motion sickness every now and again. I don't know if that would be something that would affect me when doing it. Like, I remember as a kid being in the car, like, I couldn't read a book because it would make me sick. Then you will absolutely get sick in VR.


I haven't really read books in my adult life. I mean, I've read but like, especially not in the car. Generally when I'm in the car, either I'm driving or I'm in the passenger seat with somebody who I'm talking to. Yeah. As an adult, I'm not sitting in the back reading a book while we're driving somewhere. Yeah. See, I can do that all day and it doesn't bother me. The only time it bothers me to read in a vehicle is when we're on like a bumpy road or a lot of potholes and it's just bouncing around. That's a different type of aggravation. Yes. Because you can't actually follow it, because it keeps moving. But that's kind of like the book is trying to be virtual reality, trying to come at you. Yeah, right. But yeah. So according to the page that I found is Vrs.org UK as a reference point for some lineage on virtual reality, at least on the development of it. So again, that is Vrs.org UK. And then it's a virtual reality history. So they're saying that the first VR head mounted display was developed up in


Morton highleg. Next invention was the Telesphere mask. And the first example of the head mounted display, or HMD, for a non interactive film medium. So basically you're just watching a video in a head mounted display without any motion tracking. So the headset provided a stereoscopic 3D and wide version with stereo sound. So it was like the early version of going to a 3D movie. Yes. Except you were technically in your home. I'm using air quotes. Yeah. So think about it. Like, if you watch YouTube on your quest or even on some of the previous versions of the phone mounted virtual head, I don't know what to call it, really, but it looks like a quest, but you stuck your phone in it and you can watch 3D YouTube on it if you had an app for changing your screen to 3D, I guess I think I've done that before where I've like because it was like it was on clearance, like Walmart. It's like a cardboard thing, and it just held the phone. And then he just kind of like, did all this, looked around. Yeah. All right. And then 1965 was Ivan Sutherland with the ultimate display, as they called it, was a 3D virtual world viewed through a head mounted display and appeared realistic through augmented 3D sound and tactile feedback. I don't know how they considered that back then, appearing realistic when people are having difficulties making things look realistic now, but it's all relative true. Like, you watch a movie, think about when you were a kid watching a movie and you're like, this is amazing. And then ten years later, you watch that same movie, you're like, wow, that looks really shitty. I thought that look good. Well, kind of like, hey, if we want to talk about a virtual world in that sense, like the first Matrix movie versus the last one. Oh, yeah, the one that just came out. I haven't seen that. Oh, my God, I have to rewatch all of those. So let's just put it this way. The same technology that went into the propaganda that shows for the last Matrix movie and the Matrix game are very realistic in their AI created characters. So they look like it's like they're so creepily real. Like, you know, they're fake. Like Polar Express level more. I'm just like something to relate it to. Yes. So when Polar Express came out with Tom Hanks looking very realistic, but you knew it wasn't him. But it was a cartoon. Yeah, it was an animated movie. Was very strange at the time. That was state of the art technology and realism in an animated or virtual environment. But with the Matrix movie, they did it so well that there are times that they actually transfer between the real Kiana Reeves and an augmented or created one. And it's absolutely strange. You can go on YouTube and watch the interview where they talk about this. The things that they can do nowadays is crazy. You know how in Fast and Furious, Paul Walker passed away while filming one of the was it seven, six, or seven. Yeah. And before in the final scene and they took his brother as a stand in some scenes and digitally recreated his face on his brother for some scenes. Yeah. And me, I didn't pay that close of I didn't really know that not having that history, I wasn't looking for it. And I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference if no one had told me. Yeah. I definitely did not know until after they came out with that. Because they didn't tell anybody that they did that until after the movie debuted. Well, yeah. Because they don't want people looking for it. That would be exactly what happened. And then people will be like, but going in and not knowing you can fully experience it and not realize because of how good they did. Yeah, exactly. That technology for us, at least our understanding has been around for the last decade because it's been right at it or a little over a decade now since Paul Walker passed. The big thing is like right now they're able to create that kind of realism. It's actually putting that into play and creating a virtual world that feels real. Yes. So that would be the next step. Or maybe not because there are ideas or concepts out there for a very realistic concept of a Metaverse that people will attend. And they made a movie about it. Yes. Ready Player One. Absolutely. I mean, they've made a lot of movies as I did more and more research and searching into this. It's crazy how many movies are about this. Ready Player One is one of the most prevalent that I've seen. It's just a big one. What else have you found in your search of the interwebs of. Oh, my goodness. Of those types of there's so many interventions. I was just doing some quick research. There's the recent movie that came out Free Guy. That is not necessarily about the people going into the world, but about the non player character who is selfrealising. It's a whole concept for him, but like that is where he goes into it. So for those of you that have known self actualization. Yeah. Self realization. Yeah. So he is self aware as an MPC in a game that is built similar to what we know is GTA or Grand Theft Auto. And the NPC becomes self aware and it becomes a meta verse of sorts. Even so limited for real people. Yeah. Real people are interacting with him as the NPC. So that's a very interesting one. In my quick research, it's weird, but makes sense. The newer Jumanjis. Yes, I forgot about those. So in original Jumanji, the board game comes to life and it's all around them based on what they do in the board game creates a real life event. But in the new Jumanji, it's a group of like four high school friends or four people they're cleaning out because they got attention and they find an old gaming system and they're transported into a world. Yeah. So the game console Jumanji game reminds me of the later versions of the original Atari systems or the original Nintendo Entertainment Center. As far as the styling, I guess that was really interesting. I was looking around, I was like, wow, I didn't even think about that movie because that's in its own way, its own thing. But then thinking about the VR mindset, that is very much the same thing. Well, see, when I think of Jumanji, I'm always thinking back to Robin Williams. I'm not thinking to The Rock. Oh, yeah. No, 100%. That's what I think of every single time I think of Jumanji, which is why I forgot that the newer ones were that concept. All right. You mentioned some, like, TV shows to me at one point. What were those? I can't remember. I think one was what? Black Mirror that you said an episode of Black Mirror. I have different episodes of Black Mirror. Oh, two, because, see, I've never seen or watched Black Mirror, so I don't know anything about that one. I'm actually really surprised that you've never seen those. I think you would find those very interesting. Okay, so the premise of Black Mirror, they are all individual episodes. Whatever happens on that episode, it concludes or finishes, however they decided to finish at that point. So it never translates to another episode. You can watch one episode from the first season and then another episode from the third or fourth season and not worry about any sort of overlap. Oh, okay. It's like a Twilight Zone type phenomenon. It's a modern world, dark, twisted Twilight Zone is what I would say it is. Maybe another word for it is a dark satire.


Satire. So satire, in a way, is there's a problem? How do we fix it? But a satire is I'm going to think of the most outrageous solution for you, and I'm going to try to sell it. I remember in high school population is getting overwhelming. And there was an essay about we got to eat all the babies. I can't remember exactly all of it. Yes, it's a satire. The thing is, look at your face. It's so outrageous because it's a satire. That's what a satire. You're supposed to make that face when you read something like that. So what this is Black Mirror is a dark satire because everything gets twisted to a very strange ending. And so these two particular episodes, let me just I'll talk about what is it called? Okay, let me pull it up because I have the actual, like, episode numbers if anyone wants to kind of watch these particular ones, if I can get to it. Okay, so this is season three, episode two. It's called Play Test. Okay. So in this particular episode, this guy has traveled across seas. He's doing adventures, meets a woman. He can't get quite home yet, and he's looking through the ad to make money to get home. And there's an ad about testing out a gaming system for a really popular horror creator. Okay. And so he answers the ad and he goes in and the premises is he is testing out a virtual reality. All right. So in this episode, he signs the waiver, whatever it is, they put a little chip in the back of him, and it is it a way in augments reality, he's not necessarily transported into something. In the premise of it, he sees what it projects. So throughout the episode, it is him going to this house and seeing different scary things based off of the chip, reading his brain and finding out what scares him the most. Wow. Okay. So it's very interesting. It has a very weird ending, twisted ending. And I do want you to watch this because I think you would like it a lot. All right, so what was it again? Just for myself and everybody else? The episode number, black Mirror. Right. Black Mirror. So this is Black Mirror, season three, episode two. The episode is called Play Test. Black Mirror, season what? Three, episode two. Okay, so season three, EP two. All right, I wrote it down. Got you. And then there's an additional one. Same show, Black Mirror. Okay. It is season five, episode one. Okay. Okay, so this one is called Striking Vipers. So in this particular episode, it is about two friends. What is it? Their high school or College? Old College friends. They used to play like a very mortal. The game is called Striking Vipers. In the episode, it's very immortal combat, Street Fighter or kind of game. Yes. So basically what you do is they're fighting each other. They play this game as old College friends regularly when they, you know, it says I think it says ten years later, they reconnect on his birthday and he gives him the game with the headset or the VR, whatever it is, it's not necessarily a headset like we know. And what it does is it transports them into the world. So it goes into the controller. You put a little knob on your head. I don't know exactly. It's like a little dot, a chip thing. Yeah. Something. I don't know. It's like a little thing. And then once you choose your character and you press start, they completely slouch in their chair and they're completely trans, like eyes gloss over. Like, you know, when animals start to lose their vision, they look kind of like white. Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about now. Okay. So they go completely it's like fully in into the fighting. And I don't really want to go too far into it because, again, this is a really good episode that you should watch. Okay, fair enough. But there's a very interesting concept, which is something that would be very beneficial about this. This particular character has aged, as we all do, at some point, and he's got a bad knee. Oh, no. So going into this game, at one point, his friends like, how's your knee? And he's just, like, moving around. He's like, completely fine. So one of the benefits that could be from doing virtual reality is giving people more confidence or the ability to experience things that they normally would not be able to experience because of any physical Ailments. Yeah. And that's another thing that we kind of see in Ready Player One is where everybody's in a virtual reality setting, but it's virtual reality as we know it. So, like, you put on a headset, whether wireless or wired to an actual computer, but you moving around in the world can translate two ways. One, you move your body in a space, and the character moves as well. And some of the scenes in Ready Player One, you see that where, like, parents or people are moving around jumping over their furniture or falling over their furniture, like we all do in virtual reality, IRL. But the space, the movement isn't necessarily also on your space. You could sit there and do it as well. But also they come up with concepts. And thanks to that movie and some other ones similar to it, or shows or concepts that they came up with, virtual treadmills. Now, it's not an omnidirectional treadmill like you see in Ready Player One, but the concept is slippery shoes on a slick kind of platform that you are attached to with your VR. And it syncs to your VR so you can actually run in real life, and it moves your character in VR. That's another thing. But when you were talking about TV shows, though, that brought back a move or a show on Netflix that is made in the UK, and it's considered a British cyber thriller drama, and it's called Kiss Me First. And this show is on Netflix. It was first aired in April of 2018 on Channel Four, which is the British, like, ABC Network. I don't know. I don't know exactly how it translates to US TV, but it's one of their popular channels for TV shows and whatnot. But again, it's called Kiss Me First, and it's on Netflix. It should still be there, if I remember correctly, just put it on my list. But what it is is a girl who is 17. So their reality world that they live in, VR is a very big staple. And everybody goes to VR worlds, kind of like VR chat. What we have today, except their avatars are very realistic. Like, they're still digitized, but it's more realistic characters than what we currently have in some places, and they live in existence in this world, but it is simply VR. And you can sit there like we do on some places and just use controllers. They have haptic gloves that they can use. And the premise is a virtual existence or social space that you can go and be around people. It's a wonderful drama. It actually got me hooked. I watched every episode of this damn show and I was hooked from day one. But understand it is an 18 plus because there is nudity in it in some spots. So don't let your children watch it alone unless you don't give a rat's ass. Then you might want to figure out your own headspace if you're going to let a child watch this alone unless they're in their later teens. But anyway. But yeah, that was a good show. But also in popular TV, a Metaverse style virtual reality with games was created long ago and it's something that we should have all grown up on. I know, I sure did. It's called Tron. I mentioned it earlier. Yes, you did. And it had a remake. Well, not a remake, but a sequel to Tron to the original Tron that was done in the 80s and it was kind of a linear storyline where the sun came out, the father stayed in. Well, the son inherits the arcade that his father got sucked in through to the world of Tron and his existence is still there and he goes and tries to save him. Of course he doesn't. But spoilers. Sorry if you never watched the second Tron movie, but it is awesome because it's a virtual universe where people, if you get sucked into it, you can stay almost indefinitely.


I've never actually seen Tron, either of them. None of them. Oh, my God.


Let's see, I'm looking at it. There's a lot of anime that apparently are on. How about we take us back, take you all the way back to Spy Kids? I remember Spy Kids was a big one, especially the 3D one that they did because that had a lot of that because that brings two of the concepts we've kind of talked about is in real life 3D aspect where you're wearing at the time the red and the blue glasses in the theater and things are coming at you and you feel like you're there based off of visual cues as well as inside of the movie. They're going into that virtual reality. Yeah, that was a long time ago. Holy. I'm taking you back another way back. When is The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest? It was a Hannah Barbera broadcast on the Cartoon Network. And Johnny Quest was a computer whiz that battled criminals in real life, but also primarily in a virtual world. And then we had another one that was based on a Simulac robot virtualreality was VR Troopers made by Saban, who also created Power Rangers. So this didn't last as long, obviously, because it's not as well known as Power Rangers. But yeah, that was another one that I remember from back in the day. But anyway, back to the Metaverse side of it versus just the virtual reality side, because like I was saying earlier, we have as far as games and the first concepts of a virtual social environment is VR chat, where you can run around with your own avatar that you either create, buy, or just use other people's and you can switch between them. And with that, you have a social space where you can be anybody. And that's one of the things that we were talking about during our mental health episode. What was that two episodes ago now? I think so. And where you could just be anybody and you could be what you want, how you wanted, and there was almost no limits. Look, however you want, Act however you want. But talking about the metaver side with the virtual property sales, there is a thing that is currently active right now, and it says Alpha season two is open and it's called Sandbox or the Sandbox. So it's Sandbox game Alpha two. And then if you put register in front of Sandbox, it'll bring you to the home page. That actually explains the Sandbox. For those of us in Twitch, I can show you right here. So this is the registry page for the Sandbox. Looks very Minecraft esque, but they have a video. I mean, I'm not going to play the sound to blow everybody's eardrums, but what it is like with the million dollar homepage is virtual plots of land that you can buy with cryptocurrency, in a sense. And I'm sure this will go into very big details as far as how you purchase these piece of land. But you can physically like Minecraft, build your own piece of property, whether it be a house, a business or a theme park. And you can do whatever you want with this space. And it's a social space where you can sit there and do remotes like everything else. For those of you watching right now, you can hold concerts. I believe, if I remember correctly, Sandbox was the platform where they held a virtual concert with Justin Bieber. And people pay real money to access this concert. I believe that, yeah. It's like a robloxminecraftesque aesthetic to it. So that's the look and the feel of it. But you buy a plot of land and you build whatever the fuck you want to. Wasn't there another one that didn't online concert like that? Honestly, I don't know. Is it Marshmallow? Oh, yeah. Marshmallow did it on Mine. No, fortnight. Oh, on Fortnite. That's right. Fortnite concert. Fortnite. Marshmallow concert was the biggest games was the game's biggest event ever. Interesting. Yeah. It's like right here, you can buy non fungible tokens, which again is the NFT in Sandbox is what I'm talking about. And they're minted by a blockchain for digital scarcity, security and authenticity. So once it's created, it can be bought and traded with cryptocurrencies or real money.


They're trying to make it a thing like right here, it says Sandbox is sponsored by Snoop Dogg, the Walking Dead. Adidas. The South China Morning Post Avenge Seven Fold. Atari not our Atari. Atari game system. Deadmouse roller coaster tycoon. Hell's Kitchen. Hell's Kitchen. Oh, my goodness. The Smurfs and Care Bears are all licensed for this realm. If you want to check it out, that is register sandbox game Alpha to play. Now enter the sandbox open. I'm actually going to look at this and see what it looks like. That's a sketchy transition.


Okay. Due to an unsafe site, meta password then. Oh, you can log in with your socials, Facebook, Twitter or Google with your social, like your Social Security number. No social media. Oh, okay. And apparently you have to buy cryptocurrency to access this place too. Interesting. I don't know about that. And they have their own currency. Apparently. That looks fun. It's called sand, but it looks like coins. Sand. And there's a whole marketplace where you can buy NFTs. Holy shit. Fuck


this three stack house, which looks like shipping containers, is 3360 sand or that's definitely what it is. It's three shipping containers. But look at the USG price for this fucked up home that is $10,900 USA. Well, you're the only one that will have that. Yeah, very true. But I'm sorry, shipping containers is not worth people may have paid more for less granite.


Granted. Or granted. Granted, two real shipping containers, which would actually six shipping containers. What looks like as far as the divisions on them. But two real shipping containers that you could turn into a home is going to cost you about 7000 USD to be bought and delivered because I think they're about three. But that's real life. Yeah, that's real life. This is virtual, but roughly $25 USD. You can buy a bakery house.


Bakery. Like a gingerbread house looking thing. Yeah. So this is the 3D view of it. No, it's a baking house. Like it's a bakery. Okay. Single room. It looks very gingerbread house like. Yeah. So this could be yours for 25 USD in the sandbox. Just $25. Yes. $25.33. I've never quite looked at something and said I want to live there virtually. Yeah. A diamond axe. Oh, you can buy a diamond battle axe or I say diamond, but a very Minecraftesque for $68 USD. That's it. 68. Yeah.


Wow. Or pieces to houses. You can build your own, an avatar, a whole avatar, a whole woman. And buy. Oh, you can buy women on here. Yeah. Apparently. Cyberpunk jellyfish. No copies available for sale at this point. Blue whale. I want a great white shark. Yeah. So apparently these are no more copies available of these. So yeah, somebody bought it. You can't make it in NF. T. If you're going to make more than one. True. It's already owned. Yeah. The concept is that. But it looks like it's the only whole ass fucking whale too. Man, that would be so cool. I would go into a world and just ride a whale, put a little saddle on it. Yeah, right. Cowboy hat with a fucking whale. Oh, God. Made a yacht. A couple of yachts, it looks like. So the creator of this whale made a yacht or two. Yachts. A sunken ship. Sunken ship? Yeah, a yacht ladder. Wow. It's the only one in existence. But he made it. What does he have for sale? Let's see what kind of prices this guy is running. Oh, he has nothing for sale right now. Oh, darn. They're all bought up. You lost your chance on that yacht ladder. Yes, that yacht ladder. And you lost your chance on that whale. Only I'm going to take that silence for agreement to everything. You know,

I can't hear any of that. I think you're trying to gross me out with your chewing. And I didn't try.


Anyway. All right, we're going to get that meat. Yeah, that's definitely going back. That's definitely going back into the podcast. I'm not taking that out now, just so you eat that meat.

It's duck in my teeth. What teeth I have left. You got a lot of meat in your teeth. Yeah, I put the meat in my mouth. It's all the way in the back of your mouth. It's down my throat now. Oh, yeah.

Anyway, you did that really good. How do you know we won't discuss that? Yeah, I feel like I made you blush. Look at that. Anyway, all right, so back to the actual topic at hand, the Metaverse. What is the Metaverse?

In the first half we were talking about a lot of different things dealing with video games, movies, concepts that have already been presented to include sandbox, which is utilizing the idea or the jump start of the Metaverse with virtual property real estate, where you buy plots of virtual land and build whatever the fuck you want to on it. So we've got virtual reality is considered a jumping point into the Metaverse where you can spend your time kind of like ready player one. And from there we talked about already established concepts of a virtual environment that is not necessarily just a social space, but an allaround inclusive world in its own right, from Tron to TV shows, episodes within Black Mirror, one of the shows that I have seen called Kiss Me First and Just Moving in those types of concepts. Now there is an acclaimed techie like newsbloggermagazine called The Wire or Wired. Now I think they took Z off and added a D, whatever it's called Wired. And they did a little blog post by trying to give proper reference here Eric Ravenscraft talking about what is the Metaverse exactly as the title of his article. And he's got a few questions stabled out with ideas that he has posted with references from Mark Zuckerberg, Satan Nadali and Google about Facebook talking, how Zuckerberg wants to pull out the official Metaverse kind of thing. But what he does talk about is what does Metaverse even mean? And the way he describes it here is mentally replace the phrase the Metaverse in a sentence with cyberspace. So instead of saying the Metaverse, you can refer to it more as cyberspace. That's an easier way to think of it, I guess. Yeah. So not cyberspace like you think when it comes to the Internet, but a physical or physical like space or area in the cyber world. 90% of the time. This is quoting the article 90% of the time. Where did it go? I lost my meaning won't substantially change that's because the term doesn't really refer to any one specific type of technology. So, like, we were saying, that not necessarily met averse referencing VR or virtual reality, but other aspects as well, but rather a broad shift in how we interact with this technology. And that's where places like the Sandbox are trying to take it, with virtual real estate plots in a Minecraft esque world. And then, of course, NFTs where you have digital artwork or digital images that are like gifts, JPEGs, and they are those items, but there is only one of them. And the consistency of one of them is they're using the same method of transfer of funds and objects or physical digital media the same way they do cryptocurrency with what's called a blockchain. And we'll get into the physical definition of that here in a second, but entirely possible that the term itself eventually became just as antiquated, even as the specific technology it once described became commonplace. And then there was another spot down here is one that I missed. What does this one say? That Fortnite is the Metaverse would be a bit like saying Google is the Internet. Okay, fair enough. I like that reference, because when most people think of the Internet, they go straight to Google to access it. But other such companies, including Nvidia, Unity and Roblox, which is a child social space, kind of like Minecraft, but with social environment where kids can go or adults and just hang out or even Snap. Snapchat, I guess, is considered a virtual environment. Interesting. I don't think so. It's social media. I don't know. It kind of depends on I'm trying to think of a way that I can spin it as being a virtual. I mean, it's a virtual environment because you're having a conversation and you can send pictures or change your face. Yeah. Based off of filters. But if we're going to go in that way, a lot of different platforms use filters. Oh, yeah. You can talk about TikTok, you can talk about Facebook Messenger, you can talk about Instagram and those aspects as well, because they all do typically the same thing. But meta still not getting it. Meta by itself. The word meta in the reference it's talking about is Facebook just rebranded by Mark Zuckerberg. Think it will include fake houses? Well, I say it says fake and underlining, being that they are digital homes or digital structures. Not necessarily homes, not tangible. Yeah. Because they are nonfungible, which means non tangible. But anyway, you can invite all your friends to to hang out in Microsoft Teams, or Microsoft has done something with virtual meeting rooms in the Teams platform that they have now expanded to as well and actually added a lot of cool upgrades with. I don't know if I would consider that a virtual environment. Well, as far as the classroom, in very restrictive terms, it is a virtual environment. Again, very restrictive because it is I use it for work, a webcam, and they can cut out your little, I guess, profile and put it in a fake classroom of sorts. Can you do that, though? Yes, absolutely. I've never seen it that way. I've only used it in the conversation, like video chatting in general. Yeah. The different uses. So I had to use this is how we did our virtual classes in the military was Teams, Microsoft Teams, and the later versions before things kind of switched around with the military contract and Microsoft to its current platform and current versions, you could be a part of a webcam. So whatever webcam, whether it be a laptop webcam, an external webcam, a camera, or you're on your phone, you could do a digital green screen background, and then your silhouettes would cut out and be pasted in the crudest of ways, like worst of ways, and be placed in a digital classroom or 2D classroom where you'd sit University style and like an amphitheater seating kind of aesthetic. So that was interesting. Let's see. Holograms are becoming a thing again because Holograms were big in the early 90s, and now they're apparently making a comeback with AR. So augmented reality versus VR, which is virtual reality. There are a lot of tech companies that are using the concept of augmented reality glasses that allow you to see a digital environment mixed in with the real environment. So you could sit there kind of Tony Stark style, pick up something off of a desk which really isn't there in the tangible world and move it around, Zoom it in, Zoom it out, all that kind of crap. Make it big, make it small, move around this 3D space, but still see everything around you. Well, that's like the episode of Black Mirror that I was talking about. Okay. The ability to see. So in a sense, they do that with Pokemon Go while you're doing it, you can take pictures of the Pokemon in the real world.

Yeah. And so that actually Pokemon. Of course, Pokemon Go was not the first to come up with it, but they were the first that I've seen. Yeah. To put it in the hands of the general consumer. That was definitely an advancement, thanks to a game that was put out there, of course, with different types of concepts. We have magical erasers that you can augment photos very quickly versus pulling up Photoshop and tediously editing out certain things. 3d generated models, voice controlled objects, foldable phones. I mean, I have one my damn self. I have the fold, too, and it's freaking awesome. I love it. Can't wait to upgrade to the next one so I can have a stylist to it. And then what does it look like right now? And as some of the people on Twitch can see right here is the Metaverse replaced the phrase what I was talking about. Instead of saying Metaverse, you say cyberspace. Cyberspace. Yeah. But NFT's, of course, non fungible tokens or digital artwork or digital land space. I say land with massive air quotes here. But digital real estate and digital artwork have become a thing of right now's. Trend NFT's are extremely popular right now. And with that consideration, of course, the only way to purchase these different NFTs are cryptocurrency. Now, there are probably some smaller companies that allow for you to use your credit card or some type of digital wallet that uses USD transfers on the digital platform. But primarily, most transactions with NFDS are cryptocurrency. A lot of Ethereum, Bitcoin, what was at one point popular Dogecoin, but now it's kind of falling off. That was, I think, what really started the huge cryptocurrency surge. Yeah, that's what I mean. I know it was there before. Yeah. Bitcoin has been around. I didn't hear about it until, like, I didn't really start to hear about it with, like, everybody I know until Bitcoin blew up quite a bit. Let me look at that. But it didn't become mainstream blow up. So Bitcoin was officially the first known cryptocurrency. And let me see if I can find something on it. Well, currently, one full Bitcoin, by the way, cryptocurrency is not traded or exchanged like regular physical currency. So you can have one full Bitcoin in your wallet, but you will have the equivalent of 41,000 USD right this second as of March 17 at 02:35 A.m., it's been as high as. Let's see, let's the last year, the highest it's been since. All right, so the time span that I'm currently looking at, if you're watching on Twitch, is from March 17, 2021 to today, which is 22. So one full year time, the highest it's been is $67,582.60 for one Bitcoin. And that was on November 8 of 2021. And it actually looks like that was also the peak over its lifespan. So if you would have bought into Bitcoin back in February of 2016, you could have bought one Bitcoin for $375. And right now it would be worth $41,000 if you held onto it. That's rough. Yeah. Just imagine buying it in Bitcoin back when it was $327 in 2015. Gosh, if I could go back in time, I wouldn't get the winning lottery numbers and get Bitcoin. I'd buy into Bitcoin. I'd buy into Tesla. Oh, my God. Tesla. Yes. Granted, the stocks on Tesla, I think when they first came out was still up there, but it wasn't. What about Google? Oh, God, Google. Ethereum. I actually bought into Ethereum back when it started. Do you know what that is? It's another cryptocurrency. Okay, let's see. Let's look at the value right now. All right. So as of right now, Ethereum, which is the second most notarized or known cryptocurrency, is only valued at $2,770 as of today. For one Ethereum digital currency, the highest in the last year was $4,800. And Max overall looks like about the same. Yes. So $4,800 was its highest peak on also November 8 of 2021. They probably did this survey about the same time. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a stock market style pricing on it got you at one point. I think it was early 2000s when cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin were the three main that I was always aware of. Those were being talked about as the future of currency to standardized currency throughout the world. It gets mined, I guess you could say, like a precious metal, and it's considered a glitch in Internet coding that is Aigenerated. But as it's found with a particular string of code to it, that it goes away like it's not a forever thing. So that's why it was given a price value. So as it gets depleted, in a sense, like gold, silver from its original or which is the Internet code that makes up the Internet, as it gets depleted, the value goes up.


Yeah. The rarity of it. Just like with anything, the less there is of it, the more valuable it is. Yeah. Okay. So even if that were the case and. Oh, yeah, I forgot I was going to look up what blockchain was because that's the way that it is confirmed, I guess.


Blockchain. Blockchain, as far as how cryptocurrency and these EFT transactions are made, is a blockchain is a distributed database that people on the Internet monitor and confirm or deny, usually in an AI fashion. But it is a database which is shared among nodes of computer networks. So people actually control these things. And the database, a blockchain stores information electronically in a digital format best known for their crucial role in cryptocurrency systems such as Bitcoin, for maintaining and securing decentralized records of transactions. So unlike your banks that hold your money and when you transfer money via a wire or digitally over an app or what have you, I. E. Instead of going directly to the bank, pulling out the cash, and then going to a store and using that for your credit, instead, you got credit cards and apps now on your phone. So instead of a centralized bank that could lie about or take your money and just lie to you about what you own. Hence why the USD is going down in value throughout the world. This is a decentralized so multiple people confirm a transaction digitally and it's recorded forever. So if I say I want to give you two bitcoins. Okay, done. I'll take it everybody heard it. I don't have it. So don't get excited. But what it would do is that transaction code or digital signature would go to, say 50 or so different network computers that would confirm that one, if I even have two full bitcoins and say, yes, I have Joker has two bitcoins. And you said you didn't, though. I'm saying, though, this is how it works. These network computers would have to confirm it first before the transaction commences. So, for instance, they find out I would have it, and I say I'm transferring it to you. Well, okay, then they have your account as far as where it's being transferred to. And it would be transferred. It would be taken from mine. My total account of cryptocurrency would then be changed on this network, and then yours would be increased by two Bitcoin. And now it says you have two instead of zero, and I would have zero instead of two. And it's multiple networks working together to confirm that transaction. So there's no lying or tomfoolery that could happen to say, oh, no, he didn't really transfer it, but he just said he did. So your accounts changed. That doesn't work like that. So the same thing goes with NFTs and of course, cryptocurrency. So if you want to look at what I'm looking at, I am using Investopedia, which talks about blockchains and cryptocurrencies and how it works, and that is Investopedia.com termsblockchain. Of course, all the references that we use in this podcast will be in the Show Notes for our audio listeners as well. So if you want to check it out later when you're in a safe place that you can get on the Internet on your phone or what have you, you can just go to the Show Notes on whatever platform you're listening to us on. And these websites that we use are listed there as well.


Yeah, it got really quiet. I might actually leave that blank space in there just for suspense. Like, did it shut off on me? What's going on here? Okay, so I guess we're getting to the end of our time. So we'll finish off with your personal opinion and thoughts based on what we talked about. Als, what does the Metaverse actually look like to you? It looks exactly like ready, player one? I love it. I love everything about it. I like the idea of being able to go in and customize when he's in there and he's like, well, this is what I looked like until. I don't want to look like that anymore. I can literally change anything about me. I can hang out with my friends at a club and dance in the air on a disco lit up floor. And then the next minute I'm pulling a motorcycle out of my inventory and it grows big and I'm just zooming down the streets. I love that idea. I would be terrified for the horror aspect of it. I don't think I could do it. Couldn't do it. So if and when you ever do get VR, you have to let me know because there's still an experience in the horror horror genre. Horror genre that I want to experience. And that's Five Nights at Freddy's. Oh, my God. I know. I have a hard time with just, like, Phasmo, and I've played it so many. I have a hard time, like Dead by Daylight. Sometimes I get scared. I got to say that's me looking at the screen. Bioshock is one of my favorite games. I can't play it on my computer because it's too close to my face to kind of explain. Like, of course you play VR chat. Typically, you play it in VR. You don't have to. You can still play it on a regular monitor, keyboard and mouse. And Phasmophobia. When I went into VR on Phasmophobia for the first time, it revitalized the fear that I had. I already have fear, but I got numb to the regular I say 2D, but the monitor version of the regular version of Phasmo. But when I played it in VR, Holy shit. Was it ever. It was just as scary as the first time I jumped into it. But with that fear, like I said, in VR, it simulates that fear because it looks, in some of these games, very real. But one of the cool things about VR for me, that one of the best experiences, actually. I want to say in closing, as far as an interactive universe was Halflife Alex, like, I streamed the entire game. It took me, I think, eight and a half hours of total play time in VR. This game is solely VR. This was the game that I bought VR for. A lot of people bought it for pizza. I had PlayStation VR for that. But Halflife Alex was so immersive that I actually lost myself in this game. All right, so you know how you have the toilet toothbrush thingies that have the little thing that they sit on you scrub your toilet when it gets a little stained after so long? You said toilet toothbrush. And that really threw me for a second. But the toilet scrub brush. Yeah, the toilet scrub brush. That's different than I call it the toothbrush, because that's fine. It threw me. Yeah. So I was hiding in a bathroom because it was part of an apartment structure that you move through during part of the story. And there's actually a clip still on my personal channel of me interacting with this. Like, I can lift the individual seats. I remember this. And then I reached down and grabbed the toilet brush, and I'm thinking, okay, yeah, because it's still got the base attached to it, but I kind of shake it, just fucking with it, waving it around, and the fucking base falls off. And I'm like, what? Holy shit. Like, you could see my interactions. I'm so excited. Like, I'm jerking in excitement, and I'm like, this is fucking cool.


That to me made that game worth the $60. That one moment in the game, outside of the fact that the environment is very perception realistic, especially if you have stereo headphones like dynamic headphones that do the I guess it's 8D or eight dimensional sound. Oh, my God, it was the best experience I could say. Granted, it hurts standing up. You better have some comfortable fucking shoes or a comfortable fucking floor if you're going to stand up and do it. But doing that NVR. Oh my God, it was an amazing experience. Playing that game. Shooting was very realistic. You had to actually aim down the sites to get distance, precision shots with that. So if the mechanics of that game translate to an open world experience in a social environment, I'm all in. I don't think we're that far off from that. Really. We're not. I mean, from my experience in different games, I mean, hell, even something as cheap and free as VR chat like, you can transfer worlds, meet people. Like, there are people that have met in VR chat that have become real life lovers. It's phenomenal. That's an interesting concept. Oh, there's plenty of YouTubes where people have met and then planned after because they met prior to or during COVID. And as soon as COVID released, they were planning on meeting in person because they were dating because of like during VR chats. Yeah, I guess we're kind of in that day and age where people are meeting online, informing that bond prior to so again, thank you to everybody listening on the audio side with the podcast on all the different platforms, which Spotify, Apple Podcast or itunes, Radio Public, Red Circle, which is our RSS host. Also, if you want to, you can go over to Red Circle and help the channel out. Help the podcast out by doing a subscription or well, not yet. Hold on, let me rephrase this. Not yet on the subscription because I haven't set up exclusive subscription based payment method. But you can absolutely support our channel that way by donating to the channel. And everything that we get goes back into the channel itself, either helping pay any body to help us, which we are still looking for a transcriber. No one has reached out Madhouse@nlmp.org audition for the position of transcriber and it is a paid position. So if you do well, you will get raises and it is paid by each recording. So as you do well and continue to do well and we get more money in, we will pay you more. I say we, but I will pay you more. We are again on Red Circle, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast and the Stitcher. So please go listen to us on your favorite platform. If it is available on that platform, please give us a like and a review. Let us know how we're doing. Also, you can check us out on Twitter, where we are at Mhpgroup Therapy on Twitter, and then of course on Twitch where we do our live recordings every Wednesday night at 09:00 p.m.. Eastern time. That is us Eastern time at Twitch. Tv the madhousepodcast and then of course on our individual channels Owls is over at alzarhoot 92 on Twitch and I am NLMP and we also have a wonderful sponsor warrioraxcoffee. You can find them@warrioraxcoffee.com also. I believe if you look for them on TikTok they're there Facebook, Instagram and on Twitter as well where they rarely are talking but I'm trying to get them back into it but it is simply just axe coffee on Twitter. Ow what do you want to say? Anything you want to let them know if you are anywhere else that you're willing to share other than Twitch Instagram, same handle. Tiktok, same handle. Owls are 92. I kind of post a few things here and there. Tried to put a picture or two so you know what my face looks like on a regular day. Yeah, I failed to post to my Instagram often. I think my last post was when I got the Corsair RGB mini the K. What is it? K 65? It is a just get that. Yeah, I just got it. I used it for the first time last time I posted but that was like a day or two ago. Yeah, that was literally a day or two ago and that's NLMP gaming on Instagram and official NLMP on which I haven't posted to that at all recently. I haven't been so good at the TikTok I got a bunch of clips that I got to grab and actually post. Yeah, I do have things I just haven't put them up the most I've done recently. To add outside of adding things for the podcast channel and my personal channel I finally added a Twitch trailer to my personal channel so if you haven't seen that yet, go check that out. I think I did well without real music. All clips. All clips. All clips.




Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/mad-house-presents-group-therapy/exclusive-content
Audio Player Image
Mad House Presents: Group Therapy
Loading...