News Disney CEO Bob Chapek hails the metaverse as 'the next great storytelling frontier' and sets up a new team at Disney to create new experiences

[yensidtlaw1969]

Take this YouTube video for a example of current VR. The meta universe will take this to the next level. Basically allowing you via an avatar to experience the realm by entering it in 3D and eventually 4D. Once you have an avatar you can buy NFT's to change your avatars style, appearance, powers, etc.

Think of it as a endless digital landscape that you will be able to virtually experience.

Cool video:




Another way to get an understanding of the potential is to watch the Bruce Willis movie, "Surrogates"

The catch is . . . anybody who rode that ride knows that the chance to experience it in person far outweighs the chance to experience it in VR.

We don't have that choice in the case of 20,000 Leagues, sadly, but Disney is 65+ years deep in its investment in a better product than the Metaverse. I can understand the impulse to see what elements might suit Disney's operations, but the truth is they have their own Metaverse already and it's built in brick and mortar - for decades people have paid an arm and a leg to fly there from around the world because the experience of exploring a place in actual reality is so much more compelling than experiencing something virtual.

Doesn't mean there's no corner to that market that Disney couldn't do anything interesting with, and that there's no value to VR at all. But if it comes at the expense of the parks (which are already seeing some negative impacts from poor conceptual thinking) I think this could end up biting Disney in ways they don't fully expect.

I wasn't kidding when I said Bob Chapek needs to get a handle on the medium he currently works in before he tries pioneering a new one. His track record with the parks (and, it should be said, Iger's as well) has done damage that they have to work to actively come back from. Now's really not the time to lose focus.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

The catch is . . . anybody who rode that ride knows that the chance to experience it in person far outweighs the chance to experience it in VR.

We don't have that choice in the case of 20,000 Leagues, sadly, but Disney is 65+ years deep in its investment in a better product than the Metaverse. I can understand the impulse to see what elements might suit Disney's operations, but the truth is they have their own Metaverse already and it's built in brick and mortar - for decades people have paid an arm and a leg to fly there from around the world because the experience of exploring a place in actual reality is so much more compelling than experiencing something virtual.

Doesn't mean there's no corner to that market that Disney couldn't do anything interesting with, and that there's no value to VR at all. But if it comes at the expense of the parks (which are already seeing some negative impacts from poor conceptual thinking) I think this could end up biting Disney in ways they don't fully expect.

I wasn't kidding when I said Bob Chapek needs to get a handle on the medium he currently works in before he tries pioneering a new one. His track record with the parks (and, it should be said, Iger's as well) has done damage that they have to work to actively come back from. Now's really not the time to lose focus.

He's definitely trying to be too many things at once...and he's not good at anything so far, except raising prices.

 

[Heppenheimer]

And why would anyone spend tons of money on a VR setup to do that? We can do all the same things on our phones already.

But what if I really wanted a headache, eyestrain and nausea to go along with my ad-oversaturated shopping experience? How else will I maintain near constant awareness of the brands that are Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Budweiser and all the various cryptocurrency exchanges?

 

[Virtual Toad]

This reminds me of a conversation over on Quora a few years ago where a Millennial was asking if Boomers* understood what Bluetooth was and a boomer had the perfect comeback: "Who do you think invented it?"

They then went on to point out that "Boomers" were actually responsible for the invention of most of our current modern technologies that young people enjoy and seem to think older people are too feeble-minded to understand.

*I fall into neither category so without skin in the game, I just found the whole exchange funny.

Absolutely! And a lot of us “boomers” continue to experiment like kids in a candy store today. All the stuff we wanted to do back then— but couldn’t due to the tech limitations of the time— is possible and even commonplace today.

It’s a great time to be a maker, especially if you’ve been around long enough to see where it all started and appreciate how far we’ve come. Having kids to share it with makes it even better. Scratch, Python, Raspberry Pi’s, Adafruit products, 3D printers and interpretive text-to-speech platforms are in daily use here at the Toad household and it’s been a blast continuing to create stuff and tell stories in new and amazing ways.

 

[MrPromey]

And why would anyone spend tons of money on a VR setup to do that? We can do all the same things on our phones already.

This is the part some people seem to not grasp - there is no reason to think people are just going to be ditching every other form of access to wear a headset and wave their hands in the air to do everything exclusively.

I wonder how many of the people that think this have ever even tried VR and if so, for more than just an evening at a friend's house.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

He's definitely trying to be too many things at once...and he's not good at anything so far, except raising prices.

And listen, I'm not one to pretend he someone caused all these problems himself in a yearlong tenure. There are some problems that he simply inherited. But regardless of whether he caused them or not, he is responsible for solving these problems, and so far he's showed surprisingly little aptitude for that.

Disney should really be getting its house in order before they try to expand. If they can botch marquee projects like the Galactic Starcruiser with their current makeup I can't imagine that diverting resources to something like the Metaverse is suddenly gonna improve things. The parks are really the closest analog for something like the Metaverse in the Disney Portfolio, and they're not gonna suddenly resolve their spending on the parks if they think they can spend on the Metaverse and make money that way.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

And listen, I'm not one to pretend he someone caused all these problems himself in a yearlong tenure. There are some problems that he simply inherited. But regardless of whether he caused them or not, he is responsible for solving these problems, and so far he's showed surprisingly little aptitude for that.

Disney should really be getting its house in order before they try to expand. If they can botch marquee projects like the Galactic Starcruiser with their current makeup I can't imagine that diverting resources to something like the Metaverse is suddenly gonna improve things. The parks are really the closest analog for something like the Metaverse in the Disney Portfolio, and they're not gonna suddenly resolve their spending on the parks if they think they can spend on the Metaverse and make money that way.

Exactly.

 

[AEfx]

The "metaverse" is nothing more than a rebranding of VR, which has largely been a commercial flop since it actually hit the consumer market, after decades of promises and false starts. I don't see this as any different. Then again, I could be wrong - I mean, I was wrong about 3D TV's not taking off with consumers as the majority don't care - remember how ten years ago they said by now everyone would have one? And here we are, a decade later, and everyone has - er, wait a minute...

 

[Virtual Toad]

I think there’s a lot more potential for the metaverse than it being an exclusively VR experience. That tech is interesting but ever so clunky and as others have pointed out, totally unworkable in its present form for any sort of long-term use.

Interactive and immersive online spaces are still in their infancy just like the tech we are using to experience them. I think there’s a good middle ground between interacting using a simple TV monitor and a full-on VR headset. Disney had it right with omnimover vehicles. Think egg chair with a motion base and wrap-around screen.

 

[TikibirdLand]

This reminds me of a conversation over on Quora a few years ago where a Millennial was asking if Boomers* understood what Bluetooth was and a Boomer had the perfect comeback: "Who do you think invented it?"

They then went on to point out that "Boomers" were actually responsible for the invention of most of our current modern technologies (as could be verified on patent registrations) that young people enjoy and seem to think older people are too feeble-minded to understand.

*I fall into neither category so without skin in the game, I just found the whole exchange funny.

I know I'm veering way off topic. But...
I follow a "history tech" channel, Curious Marc, who regularly restores old computer systems. He had a good series on the restoration of a Model 33 Teletype and an Apollo landing guidance computer. If you think Neil Armstrong just put the LEM on the ground through his own grit, you've got another thing coming!

Circling around to "new" tech, as Second Life and Sims have proven; the virtual universe is interesting, just not compelling -- yet. I've "walked" through the Titanic and even the Adventurers' Club. But, there's no people and no activity going on. The tech can't handle that yet. We've had King's Quest and even Leisure Suit Larry trying to bridge that gap. The tech will get there. But, you've to to find the proper combination of experiences to make a "killer app".

 

[MrPromey]

It’s a great time to be a maker, especially if you’ve been around long enough to see where it all started and appreciate how far we’ve come. Having kids to share it with makes it even better. Scratch, Python, Raspberry Pi’s, Adafruit products, 3D printers and interpretive text-to-speech platforms are in daily use here at the Toad household and it’s been a blast continuing to create stuff and tell stories in new and amazing ways.

As the son of a single parent of the opposite sex (at a time when that made more of a difference than it does today in terms of influence on things) who's focus was on keeping me fed and healthy, I didn't have access to a lot of stuff I would have likely been thrilled with as a kid.

I remember taking a computer class in middle school where we were using TRS-80s that had to have been at least 15 years old by that point and wanting to stay after school so late to do stuff with them that the teacher would just lock the door and say to make sure I shut it tight when I left before going home for the night and leaving me there by myself.

Today, I get mad every time I hear about a friggin' Microcenter add since it's all in-store only and I have none of them near me but it's probably for the best because I'd have at least half a dozen Ender 3 Pros at this point with them regularly selling for $100, there.

As it stands, I probably know I have more than I need with my Elegoo Mars 2 Pro, Ender 5 Pro, and CR-10s Pro 2... and laser cutter but that has hardly stopped me - I'm eagerly awaiting notice of my Elegoo Jupiter shipment and have already backed the CR-Scan Lizard on Kickstarter.

I took my son to a Maker Fair last year and was thrilled to see that we've come to a point where, while this group is still fringe, the people in it no-longer have to feel like outcasts.

I envy my boy who gets to play with all this amazing stuff now* and think about where he'll be with it all when he's my age since with a lot of it, having gotten a later start, I'm not that far ahead of him with, at this point.

Sorry everyone for the drift - but I just had to get my nerd on.

*with goggles, a breathing mask, and heavy adult supervision, of course!

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

I've "walked" through the Titanic and even the Adventurers' Club. But, there's no people and no activity going on. The tech can't handle that yet. We've had King's Quest and even Leisure Suit Larry trying to bridge that gap. The tech will get there. But, you've to to find the proper combination of experiences to make a "killer app".

I recently attended an Art Gallery "opening" virtually, with other people there who I could hear and interact with. Their little peg-people avatars had their picture on the face, so you could regognize people as themselves. As you got closer their volume would increase so that the room wasn't just a total echo chamber, it was intelligent to who was close to you and made it possible to have conversation with the other real people in the room. The artwork was on the "walls" of the virtual gallery and you could walk around and take them all in as you moved through the space.

I'd tell you the name of the program that hosted it, but I already forgot because it just wasn't so fascinating that I committed it to memory. As you say, the tech was interesting but not compelling - there was nothing about it that was preferable to going to an actual gallery opening in person, Pandemic notwithstanding. It was a competent but unengaging facsimile of a real-world experience. In this particular moment in time I can understand the desire for that, but if they want my attention moving forward they better focus on giving me an experience that DOESN'T have a better real-world alternative. Given the (safe) option to attend in person I'd never choose this experience over the real thing.

 

[Virtual Toad]

As the son of a single parent of the opposite sex (at a time when that made more of a difference than it does today in terms of influence on things) who's focus was on keeping me fed and healthy, I didn't have access to a lot of stuff I would have likely been thrilled with as a kid.

I remember taking a computer class in middle school where we were using T-80s that had to have been at least 15 years old by that point and wanting to stay after school so late to do stuff with them that the teacher would just lock the door and say to make sure I shut it tight when I left before going home for the night and leaving me there by myself.

Today, I get mad every time I hear about a friggin' Microcenter add since it's all in-store only and I have none of them near me but it's probably for the best because I'd have at least half a dozen Ender 3 Pros at this point with them regularly selling for $100, there.

As it stands, I probably know I have more than I need with my Elegoo Mars 2 Pro, Ender 5 Pro, and CR-10s Pro 2... and laser cutter but that has hardly stopped me - I'm eagerly awaiting notice of my Elegoo Jupiter shipment and have already backed the CR-Scan Lizard on Kickstarter.

I took my son to a Maker Fair last year and was thrilled to see that we've come to a point where, while this group is still fringe, the people in it no-longer have to feel like outcasts.

I envy my boy who gets to play with all this amazing stuff now* and think about where he'll be with it all when he's my age since a lot of it, having gotten a later start, am not that far ahead of him with, at this point.

Sorry everyone for the drift - but I just had to get my nerd on.

*with goggles, a breathing mask, and heavy adult supervision, of course!

I owe my experience with programming as a kid to an awesome public school district that offered a middle school coding class in 1979 (that we had to camp out in front of the school at 4am to sign up for due to demand), a neighborhood friend whose dad was a physics professor who liked to build computers for fun, and the manager of our local K-mart, who tried to shoo us away from the working VIC-20 display model, but ultimately let us stay and write code on it when he saw how passionate about it we were.

 

[TikibirdLand]

As the son of a single parent of the opposite sex (at a time when that made more of a difference than it does today in terms of influence on things) who's focus was on keeping me fed and healthy, I didn't have access to a lot of stuff I would have likely been thrilled with as a kid.

I remember taking a computer class in middle school where we were using T-80s that had to have been at least 15 years old by that point and wanting to stay after school so late to do stuff with them that the teacher would just lock the door and say to make sure I shut it tight when I left before going home for the night and leaving me there by myself.

Today, I get mad every time I hear about a friggin' Microcenter add since it's all in-store only and I have none of them near me but it's probably for the best because I'd have at least half a dozen Ender 3 Pros at this point with them regularly selling for $100, there.

As it stands, I probably know I have more than I need with my Elegoo Mars 2 Pro, Ender 5 Pro, and CR-10s Pro 2... and laser cutter but that has hardly stopped me - I'm eagerly awaiting notice of my Elegoo Jupiter shipment and have already backed the CR-Scan Lizard on Kickstarter.

I took my son to a Maker Fair last year and was thrilled to see that we've come to a point where, while this group is still fringe, the people in it no-longer have to feel like outcasts.

I envy my boy who gets to play with all this amazing stuff now* and think about where he'll be with it all when he's my age since a lot of it, having gotten a later start, am not that far ahead of him with, at this point.

Sorry everyone for the drift - but I just had to get my nerd on.

*with goggles, a breathing mask, and heavy adult supervision, of course!

Great time to be a maker, for sure! I've got to get the brakes finished on my antique cars so I can get back to my Raspberry Pis!

 

[Ayla]

I definitely didn't mean to be ageist, but this site is not the only one where wide spread angst (for lack of a better word) over the metaverse and virtual reality in general is shared by the older crowd. I read the NY Times regularly, which like this site has a sizeable readership of people over 40. The comments to any articles on the metaverse are mostly negative, like I'm seeing here.

It isn't angst. It's more along the lines of "having the experience and life wisdom to know it will never be what they claim it will be."

 

[Ayla]

This reminds me of a conversation over on Quora a few years ago where a Millennial was asking if Boomers* understood what Bluetooth was and a Boomer had the perfect comeback: "Who do you think invented it?"

They then went on to point out that "Boomers" were actually responsible for the invention of most of our current modern technologies (as could be verified on patent registrations) that young people enjoy and seem to think older people are too feeble-minded to understand.

*I fall into neither category so without skin in the game, I just found the whole exchange funny.

Exactly what I was going to say. I'm Gen X, which also had a huge hand in developing current technologies.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

I think there’s a lot more potential for the metaverse than it being an exclusively VR experience. That tech is interesting but ever so clunky and as others have pointed out, totally unworkable in its present form for any sort of long-term use.

Interactive and immersive online spaces are still in their infancy just like the tech we are using to experience them. I think there’s a good middle ground between interacting using a simple TV monitor and a full-on VR headset. Disney had it right with omnimover vehicles. Think egg chair with a motion base and wrap-around screen.

This seems as good a time as any to mention my love for the Virtual Toad project, and to thank you for it - I can't tell you how closely I followed as things progressed. The work you did really was stunning, and it was thrilling to watch that attraction come back together piece by piece.

At the risk of sounding immediately impolite, it might also be worth mentioning that my interest in that project (and perhaps even your own) might have been different if the attraction had simply stayed open . . . I think part of the thrill was seeing something effectively be raised from the dead. This goes, too, for the 20,000 Leagues recreation posted earlier (which, to your credit, is much less artful than Virtual Toad was), and even the Atommobiles ATIS Virtual Ridethrough. There's appeal in ressurecting lost spaces, but that goes back to the idea of offering an experience that doesn't have a better alternative.

I've never been half as interested in any Haunted Mansion Virtual Recreation as I have been with these, because, well, if I want to ride the Haunted Mansion I can just go ride it (or watch some crazy low-light footage on Youtube, which didn't exist at the time of these extinct attractions). You know?

 

[Virtual Toad]

This seems as good a time as any to mention my love for the Virtual Toad project, and to thank you for it - I can't tell you how closely I followed as things progressed. The work you did really was stunning, and it was thrilling to watch that attraction come back together piece by piece.

At the risk of sounding immediately impolite, it might also be worth mentioning that my interest in that project (and perhaps even your own) might have been different if the attraction had simply stayed open . . . I think part of the thrill was seeing something effectively be raised from the dead. This goes, too, for the 20,000 Leagues recreation posted earlier (which, to your credit, is much less artful than Virtual Toad was), and even the Atommobiles ATIS Virtual Ridethrough. There's appeal in ressurecting lost spaces, but that goes back to the idea of offering an experience that doesn't have a better alternative.

I've never been half as interested in any Haunted Mansion Virtual Recreation as I have been with these, because, well, if I want to ride the Haunted Mansion I can just go ride it (or watch some crazy low-light footage on Youtube, which didn't exist at the time of these extinct attractions). You know?

Thanks for the kind words. That was an amazing project for me at the time and came from the sincere passion I felt that theme park rides are an art form worthy of preservation. Back then home video cameras and flash photos couldn’t capture the experience— so 3D software seemed like the best alternative, though if I had had the real estate and budget, building it for real would have probably been easier LOL. Today, 360-degree, low-light, 4K videos of attractions are commonplace, so at least it’s nice to know they’re being widely preserved for posterity in some form. But I agree that nothing beats the real thing.

Regardless of what present-day Disney does or doesn’t do, it’s really incredible how it’s brought together a lot of people (here on the boards and elsewhere) with common likes, hobbies and experiences.

Post-Toad I had to devote a lot of time to raising the kids. They’re both teens now and I’ve been working on a few other creative projects I’ll have to share some day soon. In fact, I just discovered through this thread that another poster and I have actually been working on similar projects without even knowing it! This is a truly awesome community with a lot of talented people. If the metaverse could help create and foster the same sorts of relationships and sense of community, it would be a pretty amazing place.

 

[HauntedPirate]

I wasn't kidding when I said Bob Chapek needs to get a handle on the medium he currently works in before he tries pioneering a new one. His track record with the parks (and, it should be said, Iger's as well) has done damage that they have to work to actively come back from. Now's really not the time to lose focus.

What do you mean? $lappie understands merchandising quite well from his years as a crap peddler. Oh, wait...

 

[Lilofan]

Maybe not now, but one day in the not-so-far future they will be.

How are those kids going to pay for their Disney vacations?