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

[Diamond Dot]

Don't forget "heavily featuring NFTs for you to waste your money on".

What are NFTs?

 

[Diamond Dot]

I don’t understand why this is so controversial. People go to DW to escape from reality, why wouldn’t they go to the Disney meta verse for the same thing?

This could also be a really effective way to extend the park experience well outside the park’s boundaries. Imagine being able to go and enjoy more fireworks, or explore the Haunted Mansion’s rooms on your own. See the end result of the future Epcot and Animal Kingdom strive to show you, or step into the world of Epic Mickey/Runaway Railway again!

What about the smells? Some smells are distincly Disney.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

What are NFTs?

Non-fungible tokens. Basically digital items that have proof of ownership and can be bought and sold. They're stupid, IMO.

 

[JoeCamel]

Non-fungible tokens. Basically digital items that have proof of ownership and can be bought and sold. They're stupid, IMO.

See pet rocks.....

 

[Virtual Toad]

But would you pay to visit the Adventurers club virtually with other ppl? Or Mannequins? Or the original JII? Mr toads wild ride?
I am pretty darn sure I’d throw my money to put on a headset and feel like I’m at mannequins again

I really have no idea how this is gonna play out so I’m neutral on it. The community building thing on the other hand…total disaster

Interesting ideas and spot on. All the past attractions you mentioned (with the exception of Mannequins, unless I’ve missed it) have been recreated in some form, whole or in part, by individuals with passion and a vision, but lacking the mega-resources big companies like Disney can bring to the table.

I have serious doubts today’s Disney has the passion or vision to care enough about past properties to create a truly authentic and genuine “yesterland” experience.

They’ve shown little real initiative in monetizing the past other than low hanging fruit such as T-shirts and pins and are far more interested in leveraging their current IP.

The metaverse still holds a lot of promise for a true “yesterland” of some sort but it will likely still be individuals or groups of users that will actually make it happen.

Minecraft and Roblox are way ahead of the game on this— at least right now. They see the path forward— they’ve already created the platforms and technology (crude but ever-evolving)— and both profit from users being able to create and share their own worlds and products using that technology.

It’s a fascinating mix— and as the tech improves, user-created worlds will continue to look and feel more and more realistic until the promise finally catches up with the potential.

When I worked on Toad all those years ago, my goal was absolute photo-realism, which proved fatal to the finished product because the tech was too slow and cumbersome to achieve that result. A single frame took Ray Dream Studio on my OS9 Mac weeks to render and the intensity of the processing involved actually crashed and destroyed one of my computers.

But we’ve come a long long way since then, and as tech continues to evolve, hyper-realistic renderings of virtual environments with true interactivity (with others and not just the environment itself) will not just be possible, they will become a reality. Add smellitizers and home-use motion bases to the mix and then you are really starting to get there. That’s where the real fun in this whole thing lies and it will definitely be fascinating to watch it unfold.

 

[zombiebbq]

Oh really? That's interesting. Now I've got this bridge to sell you...

I follow this stuff, it interests me. I'm not pulling it out of thin air. Again, people are so hostile to what is the inevitable progress of technology. weird.

 

[zombiebbq]

Interesting ideas and spot on. All the past attractions you mentioned (with the exception of Mannequins, unless I’ve missed it) have been recreated in some form, whole or in part, by individuals with passion and a vision, but lacking the mega-resources big companies like Disney can bring to the table.

I have serious doubts today’s Disney has the passion or vision to care enough about past properties to create a truly authentic and genuine “yesterland” experience.

They’ve shown little real initiative in monetizing the past other than low hanging fruit such as T-shirts and pins and are far more interested in leveraging their current IP.

The metaverse still holds a lot of promise for a true “yesterland” of some sort but it will likely still be individuals or groups of users that will actually make it happen.

Minecraft and Roblox are way ahead of the game on this— at least right now. They see the path forward— they’ve already created the platforms and technology (crude but ever-evolving)— and both profit from users being able to create and share their own worlds and products using that technology.

It’s a fascinating mix— and as the tech improves, user-created worlds will continue to look and feel more and more realistic until the promise finally catches up with the potential.

When I worked on Toad all those years ago, my goal was absolute photo-realism, which proved fatal to the finished product because the tech was too slow and cumbersome to achieve that result. A single frame took Ray Dream Studio on my OS9 Mac weeks to render and the intensity of the processing involved actually crashed and destroyed one of my computers.

But we’ve come a long long way since then, and as tech continues to evolve, hyper-realistic renderings of virtual environments with true interactivity (with others and not just the environment itself) will not just be possible, they will become a reality. Add smellitizers and home-use motion bases to the mix and then you are really starting to get there. That’s where the real fun in this whole thing lies and it will definitely be fascinating to watch it unfold.

I completely agree. And yet look at the people on here practically screaming that this will never happen.

 

[zombiebbq]

I doubt it, this looks like it engages all your senses shutting out the real world. I want to be free to bounce from one thing to another without having to do something first or even to do a few things at once. It could be done in this space but why take mundane things and complicate them? For the sake of entertainment? I'm not that needy

You might "doubt it" but this tech is going to be mostly for kids who are just being born now, and they will LOVE this stuff, it'll be their whole world. Anyone over 40, it'll probably pass them by unless they make an effort to use it.

 

[Virtual Toad]

I completely agree. And yet look at the people on here practically screaming that this will never happen.

With new tech, there always ends up being a difference between what folks envision and what the end result turns out to be. Whether the metaverse will be a single virtual destination or an ever-evolving experience across multiple platforms remains to be seen. I think the latter is far more likely, which would be a far cry from a single “virtual” world but with all sorts of possibilities.

That being said, it’s true that the term is being used as the hollow vapor-ware buzzword of the moment for numerous companies and investors right now. But like anything tech-related, there are those making a lot of noise and blue sky promises while others are slowly grinding away pursuing the task at hand.

ETA: I wouldn’t dismiss the over-40 crowd on this so easily. We’re more tech savvy than a lot of people give us credit for. After all, all those hours learning how to code on Commodore PETs and TRS-80s back in the day helped pave the way LOL.

 

[zombiebbq]

With new tech, there always ends up being a difference between what folks envision and what the end result turns out to be. Whether the metaverse will be a single virtual destination or an ever-evolving experience across multiple platforms remains to be seen. I think the latter is far more likely, which would be a far cry from a single “virtual” world but with all sorts of possibilities.

That being said, it’s true that the term is being used as the hollow vapor-ware buzzword of the moment for numerous companies and investors right now. But like anything tech-related, there are those making a lot of noise and blue sky promises while others are slowly grinding away pursuing the task at hand.

Absolutely. Although I tend to lean towards their being one "main" virtual world, with countless less popular others you could participate in. And I fully expect this to be a good 10-20 years away, we are in the infancy stages right now. Honestly it's very exciting, I'm in my 30s so I hope to get to experience all the fun as this evolves.

 

[MrPromey]

But would you pay to visit the Adventurers club virtually with other ppl? Or Mannequins? Or the original JII? Mr toads wild ride?
I am pretty darn sure I’d throw my money to put on a headset and feel like I’m at mannequins again

I really have no idea how this is gonna play out so I’m neutral on it. The community building thing on the other hand…total disaster

Well, right now, they're still struggling with how to put working legs on avatars since with most VR setups, there is no way to track any sort of natural forward or side motion of the body or for that matter, anything at all with the legs themselves so I think we're a ways out from anyone experiencing Mannequins...

Also, while it's possible to tether an Oulus Quest to a high end PC for a better experience, most people don't have the hardware to pull it off and the headset by itself, typically with 256 or 128 gb of storage and rendering less capable than what many of us have in our phones is a long ways away from anything that would remotely resemble the fidelity of "reality".

This is a case of "we'll probably get there some day" but something at a cost that can be widely adopted isn't anywhere on the horizon at the moment and with Facebook Meta () widely believed to be taking a pretty big financial hit on every headset they sell with the tech in place right now, I think that time is a lot further out than a lot of people would like to dream/imagine it is.

 

[zombiebbq]

ETA: I wouldn’t dismiss the over-40 crowd on this so easily. We’re more tech savvy than a lot of people give us credit for. After all, all those hours learning how to code on Commodore PETs and TRS-80s back in the day helped pave the way LOL.

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.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

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.

I wouldn't call it angst (I'm almost 50)...more like disbelief that it will ever be anywhere near what Zuck says it will be. At best, I think it will be a bunch of disjointed experiences through various apps...simply because the companies involved won't play nicely enough together to create one coherent "world". There's just way too much greed at the executive level and on Wall Street.

 

[zombiebbq]

Well, right now, they're still struggling with how to put working legs on avatars since with most VR setups, there is no way to track any sort of natural forward or side motion of the body or for that matter, anything at all with the legs themselves so I think we're a ways out from anyone experiencing Mannequins.

Also, while it's possible to tether an Oulus Quest to a high end PC for a better experience, most people don't have the hardware to pull it off and the headset by itself, typically with 256 or 128 gb of storage and rendering less capable than what many of us have in our phones is a long ways away from anything that would remotely resemble the fidelity of "reality".

No one is expecting this stuff to operate on current tech. the tech isn't there yet, but it's definitely coming.

I hope in 10+ years I can meet some of your avatars on the metaverse version of this site. My avatar will be the one wearing the "i told you so" Tshirt

 

[zombiebbq]

I wouldn't call it angst (I'm almost 50)...more like disbelief that it will ever be anywhere near what Zuck says it will be. At best, I think it will be a bunch of disjointed experiences through various apps...simply because the companies involved won't play nicely enough together to create one coherent "world". There's just way too much greed at the executive level and on Wall Street.

Do companies on the internet play nice? the metaverse will really just be the new version of the internet. Instead of looking at a screen to view sites, do shopping, go on social media, etc. you will be doing all of your normal internet activities within the virual reality sphere where all businesses and such will be accessible. When I say metaverse I'm speaking more generally, not really talking about what Facebook is trying to do.

 

[MrPromey]

No one is expecting this stuff to operate on current tech. the tech isn't there yet, but it's definitely coming.

I hope in 10+ years I can meet some of your avatars on the metaverse version of this site. My avatar will be the one wearing the "i told you so" Tshirt

Dude - if you can convince enough of us to meet you over on Second Life, you can do that now.

It's been around for 20 years.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Do companies on the internet play nice? the metaverse will really just be the new version of the internet. Instead of looking at a screen to view sites, do shopping, go on social media, etc. you will be doing all of your normal internet activities within the virual reality sphere where all businesses and such will be accessible. When I say metaverse I'm speaking more generally, not really talking about what Facebook is trying to do.

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.

 

[MrPromey]

ETA: I wouldn’t dismiss the over-40 crowd on this so easily. We’re more tech savvy than a lot of people give us credit for. After all, all those hours learning how to code on Commodore PETs and TRS-80s back in the day helped pave the way LOL.

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.

 

[RoysCabin]

I'm sure it'll all be another excuse to not invest in actual physical attractions and live entertainment, and allow them to just throw NFTs at people because big companies are just giving up on any pretense and are all in on outright pyramid schemes now.

...Sorry, I just watched a video on Golden Oaks at WDW and I find myself seething.

 

[Kgp0793]

Last time I checked I don't know of any teenagers planning and paying for their upcoming WDW vacation.

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