7 ms·

footage of a meeting between the NBA and the "metaverse partner" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8f-BQFo7lw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8f-BQFo7lw

adoxyz 5y ago
first thing I thought of lol. I can't believe South Park is as solid as ever when it comes to capturing the absurdity of cultural phenomena.
- AlwaysRock 5y ago
  All they give butters is a piece of paper and he uses that to break out of a mental asylum, spread chaos, and sell nfts. Incredible.
beebeepka 5y ago
You lure your customers in, and then you fuck them with some NFTs. You can't just sell food to people. Thing is, people have been shelling real money for virtual items for a long time. Remember MMOs, hell even Diablo? Team Fortress 2 and the whole hats money making machine? Well, now all that is going to end up mainstream. I don't like it one bit but status symbols have been around since before there were humans. You can see this shit in animal societies, too
- fullshark 5y ago
  Everyone knows there's SOME sort of market for NFTs, if you spend your life terminally online, it makes sense that you'd be interested in status symbols for them. Or if you play a game, you'd want items that give you a leg up or have some aesthetic appeal. I can even see a situation like some magic the gathering cards, where an NFT in a particular game could gain value over time if the game has a contingent of diehards and the NFT provides some unique ability. But the whole thing seems so craven, just like freemium games that south park also skewered, based on taking advantage of some addicts/clout chasers who crave the rush of some digital bits attached to their avatars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2luhwy3KAE0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2luhwy3KAE0
  - egypturnash 5y ago
    People have been trading items in online games for real money for as long as there have been online games. Which is longer than “blockchain” has been a thing, much less NFTs. Some games welcome it, some try to fight it. The only thing NFTs seem to offer is an extra middleman who can make money off of these transactions.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - hn8788 5y ago
      > The only thing NFTs seem to offer is an extra middleman who can make money off of these transactions. Even that isn't new. Valve has been taking a 30% cut of everything sold on their community market for as long as I can remember.
      - egypturnash 5y ago
        yeah, a lot of "web3" really seems to boil down to "I'm the person all the money runs through now instead of the existing players, also everything has a few more extra layers of complexity and abstraction for no good reason".
- andrewflnr 5y ago
  I agree the virtual goods thing is not new, hats etc. But those were always viewed as a little silly too, and I'd argue they actually provide more value than the average NFT. I really don't think it's going to go mainstream. Most of us are already tired of NFT nonsense, and other virtual goods can barely be said to have gone "mainstream" either, after all this time.
- mabbo 5y ago
  > people have been shelling real money for virtual items for a long time I think the difference is that at least to someone, those virtual MMO goods had value. You could wear the stupid hat. You could buy in-game stuff with the virtual gold. You could live in your Ultima Online castle. NFTs really don't have any intrinsic value to anyone, at all.
- psyc 5y ago
  As a gamer, I can fully understand cosmetic items as sort of pricey micro-expansions. I still don't understand NFTs. How do you show off an NFT? I'm imagining people posting a long cryptographic signature into a group chat, and the other people replying with "ooo" and "aaah" emojis? Not really sure I want to know any more about that subculture than I already do, though.
  - throw_nbvc1234 5y ago
    Social media (twitter), dating apps, job site profiles (skill accreditation NFT's), "metaverses" (probably overlaps with social media), the ability to even get into a given group chat (NFT required for access). Just think of NFT's as a digital receipt (incl. tickets or club membership), certificates and then think of use-cases where proving that you have one of those would be useful. Of course you can argue that the entire blockchain aspect isn't necessary but that's a different conversation. Or if this is a good thing or not.
  - hn8788 5y ago
    I think NFTs are mostly a scam, but I could see people showing them off in some sort of centralized "gallery" type of game. It'd be like how people show off their islands in Animal Crossing, except you could show off the artwork and other things you collected. There's way too many hurdles to make it viable, but I can see a hypothetical way that people could show them off like real collectibles. Another thing I thought would be useful in games, but unlikely to ever happen, is using NFTs to track ownership of in-game cosmetics. That way cosmetics you get from known e-sports pros could be worth more than cosmetics you purchased from whatever store, the same a pair of Michael Jordan's shoes he wore during a game is more of a collectible than buying the equivalent shoes from Footlocker.
agar 5y ago
That flipchart presentation reminds me of so many PowerPoints that I'm feeling a little targeted...
DamnYuppie 5y ago
I laughed so hard I ended up spitting all over my monitor while watching this...

adoxyz 5y ago

first thing I thought of lol. I can't believe South Park is as solid as ever when it comes to capturing the absurdity of cultural phenomena.

AlwaysRock 5y ago
All they give butters is a piece of paper and he uses that to break out of a mental asylum, spread chaos, and sell nfts. Incredible.

beebeepka 5y ago

You lure your customers in, and then you fuck them with some NFTs. You can't just sell food to people. Thing is, people have been shelling real money for virtual items for a long time. Remember MMOs, hell even Diablo? Team Fortress 2 and the whole hats money making machine? Well, now all that is going to end up mainstream. I don't like it one bit but status symbols have been around since before there were humans. You can see this shit in animal societies, too

fullshark 5y ago
Everyone knows there's SOME sort of market for NFTs, if you spend your life terminally online, it makes sense that you'd be interested in status symbols for them. Or if you play a game, you'd want items that give you a leg up or have some aesthetic appeal. I can even see a situation like some magic the gathering cards, where an NFT in a particular game could gain value over time if the game has a contingent of diehards and the NFT provides some unique ability. But the whole thing seems so craven, just like freemium games that south park also skewered, based on taking advantage of some addicts/clout chasers who crave the rush of some digital bits attached to their avatars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2luhwy3KAE0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2luhwy3KAE0
- egypturnash 5y ago
  People have been trading items in online games for real money for as long as there have been online games. Which is longer than “blockchain” has been a thing, much less NFTs. Some games welcome it, some try to fight it. The only thing NFTs seem to offer is an extra middleman who can make money off of these transactions.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - hn8788 5y ago
    > The only thing NFTs seem to offer is an extra middleman who can make money off of these transactions. Even that isn't new. Valve has been taking a 30% cut of everything sold on their community market for as long as I can remember.
    - egypturnash 5y ago
      yeah, a lot of "web3" really seems to boil down to "I'm the person all the money runs through now instead of the existing players, also everything has a few more extra layers of complexity and abstraction for no good reason".
andrewflnr 5y ago
I agree the virtual goods thing is not new, hats etc. But those were always viewed as a little silly too, and I'd argue they actually provide more value than the average NFT. I really don't think it's going to go mainstream. Most of us are already tired of NFT nonsense, and other virtual goods can barely be said to have gone "mainstream" either, after all this time.
mabbo 5y ago
> people have been shelling real money for virtual items for a long time I think the difference is that at least to someone, those virtual MMO goods had value. You could wear the stupid hat. You could buy in-game stuff with the virtual gold. You could live in your Ultima Online castle. NFTs really don't have any intrinsic value to anyone, at all.
psyc 5y ago
As a gamer, I can fully understand cosmetic items as sort of pricey micro-expansions. I still don't understand NFTs. How do you show off an NFT? I'm imagining people posting a long cryptographic signature into a group chat, and the other people replying with "ooo" and "aaah" emojis? Not really sure I want to know any more about that subculture than I already do, though.
- throw_nbvc1234 5y ago
  Social media (twitter), dating apps, job site profiles (skill accreditation NFT's), "metaverses" (probably overlaps with social media), the ability to even get into a given group chat (NFT required for access). Just think of NFT's as a digital receipt (incl. tickets or club membership), certificates and then think of use-cases where proving that you have one of those would be useful. Of course you can argue that the entire blockchain aspect isn't necessary but that's a different conversation. Or if this is a good thing or not.
- hn8788 5y ago
  I think NFTs are mostly a scam, but I could see people showing them off in some sort of centralized "gallery" type of game. It'd be like how people show off their islands in Animal Crossing, except you could show off the artwork and other things you collected. There's way too many hurdles to make it viable, but I can see a hypothetical way that people could show them off like real collectibles. Another thing I thought would be useful in games, but unlikely to ever happen, is using NFTs to track ownership of in-game cosmetics. That way cosmetics you get from known e-sports pros could be worth more than cosmetics you purchased from whatever store, the same a pair of Michael Jordan's shoes he wore during a game is more of a collectible than buying the equivalent shoes from Footlocker.

agar 5y ago

That flipchart presentation reminds me of so many PowerPoints that I'm feeling a little targeted...

DamnYuppie 5y ago

I laughed so hard I ended up spitting all over my monitor while watching this...