Metauniverse urban legend 02: metaphor of the number one player

writing / White Europe

edit / Shen Jie

What is the meta universe ？

Maybe many people answer this question , Will naturally associate with 2018 ) 《 No. 1 player 》. Spielberg in his science fiction story , There is no mention of “ Meta universe ” The concept of , but VR glasses 、 game 、 The emergence of virtual world and other elements , Cleverly depict the scene of the meta universe .

This is also the charm of those classic movies , Under the influence of time and external environment , The audience can always find new value points , Even the director has never thought of the expression . Following this logic ,《 No. 1 player 》 It is not just the blueprint of the story told by the advocates of the meta universe , There are also some special metaphors hidden .

The second topic in the urban legend series , It's about 《 No. 1 player 》 Expand , Is the metauniverse really a fantasy paradise in the mouth of capital ？

01 Why do we need a metauniverse ？
stay 《 No. 1 player 》 In the narration of , Spielberg used a few short shots to explain the background of the whole story ：

Male host Wade · Woz was born in 2027 The junior of the year , At that time, the world had fallen into material scarcity 、 The period of broadband resource riots , A famous “ Oasis ” The game has become a haven for countless people to escape from reality , Wade is one of countless game addicted users .

Spielberg's setting follows the routine of most cyberpunk films , With high-end technology , Most people live a low-quality life , The world is in extreme order 、 A period when classes are extremely distinct and solidified , Then let the man fight after complete despair , And finally became the winner of fate .

Questions that can be answered with just a few scenes or monologues in the film , For entrepreneurs who endorse the meta universe , But it is difficult to give a definite answer ：

That is, why we need the meta universe ？

《 No. 1 player 》 Attribute the reason to “ The reality is too bad ”, and “ Oasis ” It meets the deep desire of users .18 Wade is not real “ Good boy ”, But it can be in “ Oasis ” Harvest everything you want , For example, the bonus after winning the next game can be replaced with a new set of game equipment ; Because of the excellent performance in the game , Become an idol worshipped by peers , It even has a great appeal .

Primordial “ Legend teaches ” in , There is no lack of similar techniques ： Virtual reality equipment is regarded as a channel connecting the new world , You can do anything you want there , You can ski on the pyramids , You can climb Mount Everest with Marvel heroes , You can have a picnic and camp on the moon ……

Unfortunately , In reality “ Meta universe ” My experience doesn't seem optimistic . Due to lack of immersion experience , Can't create the selfless atmosphere of being born in his environment , Even if some people are already 《 My world 》 Attend the graduation ceremony 、 stay 《 Animal Crossing 》 The wedding is being held 、 stay 《 Fort night 》 Enjoy the concert , In essence, it is a supplement to the real world , Instead of replacing in the real sense .

Just like several domestic Internet enterprises “ Metacosmic samples ”, Even if they learn from each other a lot of social elements , There are few highlights in the user experience , The actual feeling is far inferior to the relatively mature role-playing game . Especially at the bottom of the metauniverse, technology is still in its infancy ,VR、AR There is no predictable time for the popularization of hardware , Want to remake 《 No. 1 player 》 Scene in , And use this to pry users' demand for the meta universe , It's like talking on paper .

For such established facts , Explorers of the metauniverse certainly know , Investors who have invested in the yuanuniverse project are also familiar with this theory , But it does not prevent the popularity of the concept of the meta universe .《 No. 1 player 》 The cruel reality described in , It may be the shortest path that drives people into the meta universe , But after all, it is not the only channel , At least in the tangible universe , A path to the meta universe “ winding path ” It has already been run through .

02 Web 3.0 Pragmatic interpretation
In the conceptual interpretation of the meta universe , Someone put forward Web 3.0 That's what I'm saying ：

Web 1.0 It belongs to one-way transmission of information , There is a news portal 、 E-commerce and other applications ;Web 2.0 From simple static web pages to interactive experience 、 User generated content is economical , Evolved into social networks 、 Financial technology and other business forms ; The primordial universe represents Web 3.0, A collection of virtual reality 、 Blockchain 、 Artificial intelligence and other technologies , Will be the key to the next generation of Internet .

If only “ Meta universe ” On the meta universe , Probably, it will be criticized as a fraud of capital speculation , After all, under a series of technical constraints , Empty talk will sooner or later exhaust the patience of the outside world . The view of Internet evolution , Then it finds the necessary evidence for the existence of the metauniverse , If we strip away some sci-fi technical elements ,《 No. 1 player 》 Medium “ Oasis ” In reality, there are too many “ Mirror image ”.

According to Spielberg's hypothesis ,“ Oasis ” It is a virtual space where people escape from the real world , You can socialize in it 、 entertainment 、 A literary creation 、 transaction 、 Love and other behaviors , To sum up, nothing more than light and shadow stimulation 、 Instant feedback 、 The economic system 、 Functions such as passing time .

As early as Web 1.0 When , Products with similar logic have appeared . For example, Shanda network is 2001 Korean games of Shi Li 《 legend 》, There was a news report that a player changed an Audi for a dragon slaying knife , And Wade · Woz's behavior of changing equipment in the game is the same .

here we are Web 2.0 The stage of , social contact 、 Online retailers 、 Internet giants with a market value of 10 billion or even 100 billion have appeared in entertainment and other tracks , More and more people's lives are deeply tied to the Internet , Even if it is 《 No. 1 player 》 Some extreme examples in , You can also find prototypes in real life . For example, aunt Wade's boyfriend made a lot of money in the game , Don't hesitate to invest the money used to move . At present, the Internet also has various gray industries , Cases of deep cover and even loss , It's everywhere .

Especially in the second half of mobile Internet , Algorithm recommendation and the popularity of short video content , Set off a scene “ Kill time ” The whirlwind of , It further verifies Brzezinski's “ Tit music ” theory ： Due to the rising productivity , A large part of the world's population will not have to actively participate in the production of products and services . To comfort these “ Abandoned ” People who , Their life should be filled with a lot of recreational activities , Divert their attention and dissatisfaction , Avoid conflicts between a few vested interests and the majority of bottom people .

Compared to shouting “ Meta universe ” The slogan of the ,Web 3.0 Is a more pragmatic statement , It not only meets the need of the Internet to occupy more and more users' time , It also laid a solid theoretical foundation for the arrival of the meta universe ： The underlying logic of business has not changed , Immersive experience in the metauniverse , It's just a new tool to occupy users' time .

03 The world is accelerating “ Fold ”
If 《 No. 1 player 》 The era of time has arrived as scheduled , What will the social order be like ？

Spielberg's expression in the film is slightly trite ：“ Oasis ” Halidi, the founder of, left colored eggs in the game , Who can find the eggs in the game , Who can inherit 3500 A billion dollar legacy and “ Oasis ” Control right , Then all the plots are in the service of the set story line .

What makes people a little puzzled is ,《 No. 1 player 》 In this way “ Shuangpian ” It's not flattering in the European and American markets , The rotten tomato index was only 75%, It happened that I got it on the watercress 9.2 The high score , The score is still as high as 8.7, Many people regard it as “ Masterpieces ”. It's just about the film itself , It's just another cyberpunk movie , Some elements of conspiracy theory can be added , The film is full of “ metaphor ”：

At the beginning of the movie , The director presents a fragmented world , The poor live in piles of garbage “ Concentration box ” in , The rich live in prosperous cities , With haojingfang 《 Beijing fold 》 The scene is very similar . It seems that the meta universe has not solved the trend of class separation , The upper class and the lower class live on different spatial scales , Even the opportunity to cross class , It's as slim as winning the lottery .

Halliday's eggs , It's like a light shining into the bottom society , As long as you find the eggs, you can “ Change life against the sky ”. But the phenomenon revealed is quite cruel ： The upper class of society controls the rules of the game , by 101 company “ working ” The middle class is working at a high pace , Almost all the bottom of society are blindly following the established rules . Like ADOS · Huxley in 《 Beautiful new world 》 What is written in ：“ People will gradually fall in love with the entertainment and culture brought about by industrial technology , Stop thinking about .” It is not just the rising channel that is strangled , And the ability to think and judge independently .

The end of the film seems to be loved by many people , Wade and his friends won the game , Also on “ Oasis ” It has been restructured , It is stipulated that users cannot enter for two days in a week “ Oasis ”, Try to let people learn to embrace real life , No longer indulge in the virtual world . It's also where I'm afraid to think carefully , Wade, who changed his fate, did not reconstruct the existing social rules , But adapt to your new identity as a vested interest .

Maybe 《 The financial times 》 Journalist Isabella · Kaminska's view ： The universe is like a casino . In the last century 30 During the great depression in the s , Las Vegas is also a barren wasteland in Nevada , Gambling legislation passed to save the economy , The wasteland has gradually become a pleasure space to escape from the harsh reality , Graze your desires wantonly , At the same time, he plays the lamb to be slaughtered .

In the speeches of capitalists and entrepreneurs , Metauniverse is always an attractive dreamland , The other side of the coin may be a carefully woven folding space ： A few elite classes control the rules of the game , Countless individuals can only find emotional support and existence value in the virtual world , In it, he plays his intelligence that he can't find use , And most people don't know their situation .

notes ： The content is fictitious , Don't be serious ！