Incidentally, this track from Benny the Butcher’s Pyrex Picasso has heavy notes of Bennie and the Jets — but that’s thanks to a sample from the Israeli singer Svika Pick. אלה סינדרלה packs adrenaline into Benny’s bars on working your native streets for cash. Nothing like that home-court advantage — listen here.
At this point, what company is not doing a land grab in the Metaverse? Gucci, Samsung, Adidas, Miller Lite, PwC et cetera have all invested in digital property, and now J.P. Morgan has thrown in its hat as tHe f1r$T b4NK to enter the space. Good old JP just bought space for lounge in Decentraland (clearly we don’t hire branding firms in the metaverse) so people can… hang out in a bank? No, no, of course not — a brand’s presence in the metaverse is the same as having a storefront in SoHo: it’s a billboard, an advertisement as much as it is an experience.
The metaverse store, at least, is ad space that the company owns (fuck a lease!), and therefore one that also holds speculative value in the same way that physical real estate does. Kind of a win-win for the company, but likely a loss for the rest of us who are not a part of the metaverse’s landowning class (though I guess it has always sucked not to be J.P. Morgan).
Also, I hate to say it, but… do you actually know anyone hanging out in the metaverse? Despite the number of friends I have who build this kind of technology, I’m not aware of anyone chilling in there for fun. And you know what happens when the brands all get somewhere first: it doesn’t tend to *get* fun. We’ll see obviously, but right now the vibe is that we’ve basically just made a big, digital SXSW. Bright side: maybe we can all (continue to) skip Austin next year!
What’s the OG real estate company? McDonald’s! And you can bet they’re buying up metaplots, albeit with a twist: when you hit the arches in the metaverse, you can walk in and order real-world delivery. What sounds like a stunt might actually be the smartest corporate metamove there is. If customers are able to interact with your brand image in the metaverse, why not allow them to pay you money for an instantaneous experience of the physical item you actually sell? Nike, Gap, Walmart and Balenciaga are all feeling innovative for trademarking stuff for NFTs, but put their digital merch next to a real-life big mac and it starts to look like everyone’s living in a pre-link instagram while McDonald’s is out here with the “SHOP NOW” button.
If you want to have a rich digital food experience, you only need to look as far as The Sims. As you’ll learn from Nikita Richardson’s wonderful NYT piece, the game has evolved somewhat since you were 12, and now you can buy expansion packs that let your character cook specific foods from a variety of cultures — or raise goats, learn to forage, even train to work in food service.
Nikita writes:
“Many Simmers cite the “City Living” expansion pack, a 2016 upgrade, as a major turning point for the game — it made food something to explore and learn about. Players could take their Sims to food stands, where they could not only encounter foods like pork adobo, tagine and goi cuon, but also learn to tolerate spicy foods, use chopsticks properly and, ultimately, gain the ability to make those foods at home.”
What a goddamn symphony — The Sims is drilling down on the human experience (as opposed to um the brand experience), understanding how foods actually function in their real-world cultures so they can be portrayed in expansive ways that draw users further into the game. If we’re going to be online, help us learn more about the world we live in. It’s good for business!