This Week in the Metaverse for November 21, 2022

0 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:38,000 Script: November 21, 2022 1 00:00:39,000 --> 00:01:07,000 Hi, it’s Mike Stiles and this is This Week in the Metaverse, your weekly newscast that keeps you up to date on everything that isn’t real, and yet is. It’s November 21st. What happened in and around the metaverse this week? 2 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:36,000 Who’s excited for the World Cup? Hello? Actually, probably everyone except the majority of people in the United States but globally, it’s the most watched sporting event that there is. Fewer people might want to go since the host city of Qatar said Budweiser can’t sell beer at the matches. It’s very hard to be a soccer hooligan without alcohol. So far, it’s been going well, if you try not to think about the extreme heat and migrant worker deaths. Now FIFA, those are the soccer people, have always tried to be cutting edge. Their first VR experience was all the way back in 2018. Now they’re looking at the metaverse. In fact, a digital replica of Lusail Stadium is going to be raffled off as a prize. It’s part of a whole World Cup experience designed by a CA company called Upland. You can go to a virtual airport, wait for your virtual flight to Doha, and visit the virtual stadium and shops once you get there, where, it is hoped, you’ll buy digital team merchandise to display in your virtual house. And this could be a trend of offering ways to experience things for those without the freedom and money to do it in real life, which is probably where Disney Parks is headed. 3 00:01:37,000 --> 00:02:05,000 If you’re going to live in the metaverse, you’re going to need to manage your money there. Or whatever passes for money that month. And that means banks are trying to figure out how they can best serve customers in that realm. Why do they care? Banks love getting customer loyalty out of young people and that’s where they think they will be. Futurist Bernard Marr reports that some of the things they’re working on are virtual lobbies where banking products can be sold. HSBC bought land in The Sandbox to interact with online sports fans and e-sports people. Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank also has a virtual branch there. JP Morgan Chase set up shop in Decentraland with a lounge called Onyx where people can learn what the bank is doing with Web3 stuff. They also care because a huge economy is shaping up there. Spending in the metaverse is expected to hit $5 trillion by 2030, and banks know people will need a way to move money and assets between the digital and physical worlds. Also, you may have noticed a lot of physical bank branches are closing down, which sucks for my armed robbery career, and they think online worlds might be the replacement. And finally, it’s about image. Banks want to be seen as cutting edge, and apparently, we’re no longer wowed by ATM machines. 4 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:34,000 Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean somebody can’t keep making money off you. And the latest deceased cash cow looks like it’s going to be The Notorious B.I.G. He died 25 years ago, but Variety’s Todd Spangler reports he’s being brought back as a hyper-realistic avatar for a VR concert exclusively in Meta’s VR and Facebook platforms. Now this is being done with the full cooperation of Biggie’s estate and it’s being billed as a celebration of what would have been his 50th birthday year. I guess I don’t need to tell you there won’t be any new music, but you’ll hear classics from his catalog, and it will be performed in a virtual recreation of ’90s Brooklyn. It happens Dec. 16 and you can get it with a Meta Quest 2 or Meta Quest Pro headset, and if you don’t have that, you can watch the 2D version on the official Notorious B.I.G. Facebook page. There’ll be guest performances by Sean “Diddy” Combs, The Lox, Nardo Wick and Lil’ Cease, as well as a special set from DJ Clark Kent. And then after the show, they’re going to put a hologram of Michael Jackson on trial again. That’s not true, but it’s not because they can’t. 5 00:02:35,000 --> 00:03:03,000 Is your country truly metaverse-ready? The fact is - some countries embrace technology faster and more fully than others. For example, the United States is okay for connectivity and Internet speeds, but there are other factors that make it not that ready. Anyway, a study by Uswitch scored the countries on such criteria as fixed broadband speeds, internet prices, the number of blockchain financial startups, and the cost of high technology exports. And here are the top 10 in terms of “ready for the technology needed to make the metaverse really work.” #1 is the Netherlands, a place that now has the best technology and the best flowers. Next comes Switzerland, Lithuania, Malta, France, Sweden, the UK, Denmark, Luxembourg, and Canada. Where’s the United States? Oh, there it is in 12th place. Other countries did well in certain categories. Romania has the cheapest internet and Cyprus has the most blockchain startups. 6 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:32,000 Remember last week I told you about a brand-new physical country that will be on the banks of the Danube called Liberland that’s going to start first in the metaverse? You don’t? Guess you won’t be making that country’s Olympic team anytime soon. Well, this week I’m reporting about a country that’s going the other way. They exist for real but are creating a duplicate of itself in the metaverse. Actually, it’s Nick Kelly and Marcus Foth reporting it. The nation is Tuvalu and it's in the Pacific and I think there was a season of Survivor shot there. But the reason they’re going online is they think their whole nation is going underwater as a result of climate change which of course was caused by you. In the metaverse, the nation’s beautiful islands and rich culture will be preserved should things get really bad. From a technological aspect, it’s feasible. But where the questions come up is can you function as a sovereign state in the metaverse with your citizens scattered all over the world and no physical land? And, from a love mother earth perspective, running a nation online would require a sizable physical infrastructure of servers, data centers, network routers, devices, and head-mounted displays. All of it run on, you guessed it, electricity. So, not that green. 7 00:03:33,000 --> 00:04:01,000 Sure, you’re interested in the metaverse, but I’m compelled as a human being to mostly talk about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. But stay with me, there’s a metaverse component. Jonathan Chadwick reports at DailyMail.com those two are about to enter the metaverse because, I don’t know, the food’s better? They’re building their own world. Now they’re hardly alone, right? A lot of celebrities, who could already fairly be accused of having a god complex, want to build their own worlds that revolve around them. Oh you can be in it, you just have to revolve around them. Meghan and Harry will show up as avatars to make special guest appearances. Zurich tech firm Pax.world is the partner and apparently Meghan’s more into this than Harry, but he’s going along. The idea is to take their brand global because…that hasn’t already happened? But as I said, they aren’t alone. Snoop Dogg has Snoopverse in The Sandbox. Paris Hilton has “Paris Hilton World” on Roblox with digital replicas of her Beverly Hills estate and private jet. I’m currently building “Stilestopia” but it’s just going to be a budget motel in the Smoky Mountains. 8 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:30,000 That’s all we have for you this week. If you’re interested in the metaverse, some of the people you hang out with might be too, so tell them about this show and we’ll be back next week. 9 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,000 In this short episode you’ll learn: 10 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:36,000 The metaverse’s role in this year’s World Cup 11 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:39,000 What banks are doing in the metaverse 12 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:42,000 Which dead celebrity is coming back to life as a metaverse hologram 13 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:45,000 The countries that are most “ready” for a fully functioning metaverse 14 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:48,000 Which country thinks it might only exist in the metaverse in the future 15 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,000 The latest celebrities who think we want to live in worlds they create 16 00:04:52,000 --> 00:05:00,000 https://thisweekinthemetaverse.podbean.com/e/this-week-in-the-metaverse-for-november-14-2022/