It's only a Game!

Capt. Wardrobe - December 2021

Gaming has become seriously professional over the last 25 years - Globally recognised competitions are now regular events with the major players winning prestige & real wealth.

There is also a myriad of games & apps that offer payment, in Crypto currency tokens for playing them.

I wish to address some aspects that raise concern when considering the impact of both a Social credit system in "Real Life" (my ref: MeatSpace) and a possible merging of that system with virtual layer on top of this; known as Virtual / Augmented - Reality.

The MetaVerse - the ultimate SEEING ROOM?


WEF Young global leader ZuckerBergs metaverse project

check out the creepy promo as Mr Sugar Mountain chooses a skin then,
remembers he is actually a robot in reality, so sticks to his own skin...
then its gets even creepier, from our point of view;

Note: In this promotional clip for the Facebook version of the metaverse (META) - the point of view enters his head so you see what he sees in the virtual space - which implies they wish to hack your perception of reality while you're in there...viewing THROUGH YOU and your actions & decisions. Harvesting your private experiences as data - which in facebooks case - is no great suprise as Artificial intelligence is granted backdoor access to you & your childrens brain patterns via the decisions they make while immersed in this creepy world.

It's almost as if Mark Zuckerberg, by approving that editorial decision of first person POV - is announcing that this project is his "vision" - and, he wants the world to see everything the same way...the way he does, too. - The very definition of Megalomania.

Metaverse - a place containing realms

Rewards in meatspace social credit system could see
access to different levels in society &
possibly to unlock levels of realms within metaverse

2 way unlocking

Gaming in virtual unlocks real life access services

Real life actions rewarded by socially earned behaviour allow access to higher realms of game environment

Real life unlocking:

heat
light
shelter
sustainance
free movement
real physical travel
entertainment
stimulant / medicine /recreational drugs

Note: the UNLOCKING terminology
Jacinda Ahern - WEF Young Global leader pushes
more than you care to see

Battery analogy - Matrix release this year too...is it a documentary?

Social Credit in China is coming here

and NO - it's not a Conspiracy theory

"Radical new policies"

The metaverse will provide the credit needed for more enabled access via tokenised rewards and punishments on many levels

The structure may well see games set up as portals
in a series of glorified shopping malls, offering arcades of many sandbox theme park meta worlds

While society within the virtual realms could echo real life as behavioural social credit scoring

Remembering; Social activity being constantly monitored as
good / bad behaviour choices & acheivements
run on a scale top to bottom.

in such activities as:

face to face meetings

altruism

helping each other

completing tasks

Putting in the hours: working for a company

adherence to pseudo communitarian framework

Remembering that within a metaverse of supposed infinite possibilty,
or shall we say - where the rules of physics need not apply;
not necessarily having to mirror or echo
the limitations a "real life".

Social credit system would function on one physical level, in a certain way. For those only existing in meatspace.

Thus we see a possible incentive to enter virtual realm here: note this echos why many poor and debt ridden, play poker, run the horses, spread bet on sporting events & go to Casinos... It also echos what many fear Social Impact investing is really all about: maintaining a level of managable poverty as a cyclical economy of human resource as data economics.

But would this angle, invariably be based on the assumption some games will be competitive, a Battle Royale in order to maintain physical Social credit score to acceptable levels?

winning or losing
gathering of resources

all valued in a market place

a culture of hoarding

collecting resources:

Tools found / earned
Resources (gems/tokens/awards)
skills / powers / abilities (spells)
keys (level - resource access)

achievements: via actions:

winning races
completing puzzles
finding & mining things
growing things
teaching / freeing NPC's
aquiring knowledge & skills

posessing / changing /
turning / killing
elements or enemies

ready player one?

A free for all - "player as individual" type scenario could see a greedy grab for tokenised gamified & deliberatly rarified access & resources -

access to realms and levels - gems / powers / keys could lead to serious social problems - especially if linked to real time earning of access in meatspace social credit

A legal framework of cyber law courts could become necessary in meatspace

a worrysome development

A colliseum of sorts may be introduced to the virtual space as a way of finalising disputes.

We could thus see an further option introduced

Since the internet became an accepted part of gaming; players have been able to joins squadrons, units, tribes, as teams to play, compete & fight alongside & against each other...

Will we see the furthering of Sportification / militarisation of players into teams with codes of conduct...

joining a team would offer benefits to players

the teams could become virtual militarised corporations

pitting themselves against each other

we may see a voluntary element to this with credit being attributed to amount & quality of service given.

Again a game within the realm of the metaverse could well see a colliseum formed seeing winners of different games go head to head as a regular final decider of "the supreme champion"

Individual gaming for those who do not want to compete.

Wii Fit is an exergaming video game designed by Nintendo's Hiroshi Matsunaga for the Wii home video game console. It is an exercise game with several activities using the Wii Balance Board peripheral. As of March 2012 Wii Fit was the third best selling console game not packaged with a console, with 22.67 million copies sold.

The game uses a unique platform peripheral called the Wii Balance Board, on which the player stands during exercise. The Board is not a rocking balance board but a device that tracks the user's center of balance. The game features yoga, strength training, aerobics, and balance games. Matsunaga described the game as a "way to help get families exercising together". Wii Fit has been used for physiotherapy rehabilitation and has been adopted by various health clubs around the world. It has been used in nursing homes to improve posture in the elderly. The game has received generally positive reviews, despite criticism over the lack of intensity in some of its workout activities

wikipedia entry

Keeping fit & earning credit as you do it is being touted as a market for a new sustainable Climate Change fearful 4th industrial future &, crazily, access to foods not promoted as healthy are being offered now as rewards for mandated Covid 19 vaccine complicity.

METAfit will offer all that Wii does but in the Metaverse

But will it be Precision wellness?

Precision Wellness:

We are living through a transformational shift in consumer demand that has been well underway for over a decade.

From: One-size fits all brands, media, and retailers leveraging scale for mass market reach.

To: Consumer-led innovation, catalyzed by "divine discontent", that forces companies to compete by redefining and personalizing the customer experience in real time to dynamically bundle entirely new systems of meaning for consumers.

When the paradigm is shifting, speed becomes a competitive advantage.

Companies capable of rapidly adjusting incentives, distribution models, and product features to meet consumers where they are have an edge they can compound over the long term.

Nowhere are the effects of this paradigm shift more pronounced than in the world of consumer wellness.

The emerging age of Precision Wellness, powered by the demands of the wellness-driven consumer, is fundamentally reshaping addressable markets, spurring innovation at the intersection of traditional industries, and creating massive opportunities for emerging companies building hyperpersonlized technology, communities, and experiences that improve human health, happiness, and opportunity.

Or Better Wellness!

Level up dynamics in the control of aspiration

Vapid Consumer Public relations via Mckinsey

The concept of wellness has been around for a long time. Remember Jane Fonda workout tapes, neon legwarmers, and the “cookie diet”?

These days, consumers view wellness through a much broader and more sophisticated lens, encompassing not just fitness and nutrition but also overall physical and mental health and appearance.

They also have more choice in the types of products and services they buy and the way they buy them.

Mckinsey

Potential strategy for companies. Assess M&A opportunities to gain entry into more categories within the wellness ecosystem. With this approach, it is important to ensure that any acquisition has a clear strategic rationale and makes sense in view of the acquirer’s existing equity, skill set, and capabilities. If those pieces are in place, we find that a well-defined and executed programmatic M&A strategy can help build resiliency and yield excess returns to shareholders over time.

or sinister Orwell-ness?

“This is a project that will continue to bring benefits to the local region. There have been more than 400 workers on site during construction and the start of operations is now bringing more jobs and supply-chain opportunities.”

Humanity Stacked differently

Australian Quarantine camp
Still from the movie "Ready player one"
Chinese Quarantine camp

Next Part 3 - Gaming grows up