Category: Latest News

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NFT Thought Leaders Becomes Go-To Web3 Event GMW3 Live

As Web3 has grown during 2022 so has your favourite website Good Morning Web3 (gmw3), bringing you news, interviews and exciting feature pieces. Today, gmw3 takes another step toward becoming the prime resource for Web3 by welcoming influencer network NFT Thought Leaders to the brand. This will see the network and its international events program rebrand to GMW3 Live.

Co-founded by Charles Adkins and John Kraski, NFT Thought Leaders has been acquired by gmw3 parent company Admix for an undisclosed sum. The network became a leading NFT (non-fungible token) community, building a 30k strong following within the Web3 space, and hosting 20+ in-person events across the globe including Los Angeles, London and Amsterdam.

NFT Thought Leaders

Under the new GMW3 Live brand, it’ll continue acting as a resource hub for all things Web3-related as well as rolling out more events during the course of 2022. In conjunction with gmw3, there will be whitepapers, research, and technical deep dives to keep the community up to date.

“Networks are where ideas, plans, and deals are born. As part of Admix, GMW3 Live will leverage the extraordinary networking success achieved by NFT Thought Leaders and take it to the next level, says Adkins in a statement. “Our focus remains on putting people who matter together in an environment where business can flourish. In addition, we’re building an expanded content development team and will host a wealth of new market intelligence data and reports on the new GMW3 hub.”

As part of the arrangement, Adkins and Kraski will assume key roles at Admix, Global VP of Marketing and Director of Strategic Partnerships respectively.

“Charles and John are two of the most knowledgeable and well-connected people in Web3, who understand the transition from web2 and know how to on-ramp brands into the metaverse,” said Samuel Huber, founder and CEO of Admix. “We’re excited to supercharge the platform they have created and rebrand in under gmw3 to create the most important networking and knowledge resource in the space.”

To hear more about the announcement and the future of GMW3 Live join Sam, Charles and John for the live announcement on LinkedIn, starting at 9 am PST (5 pm BST) Friday 17th June 2022.

For all the latest updates on GMW3 Live events, you know where to come.

Disclosure: Admix is the parent company of gmw3. gmw3 retains its editorial independence.

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Take a Look Inside Link, Engage’s Pro Metaverse

There seems to be a new metaverse-related project popping up each week with the latest to make an appearance being Link. Created by the enterprise-focused platform Engage, Link will be aimed at the more professional end of the market, covering educational, entertainment and enterprise users.

Engage Link

Originally codenamed ‘Oasis’ when Engage unveiled the platform in 2021, Link is essentially an extension of the company’s original social platform, the main difference now being persistent virtual worlds. Described as a: “collection of linked persistent spaces designed specifically for enterprise, educational and creative entities to have their presence on the metaverse,” the newly released trailer gives a first look at the social space.

Full of beautifully wide open spaces for users to congregate in, the first area on show is Central Plaza, which as the name suggests is the “jumping-off point” for Engage Link users. A glass-domed circular location, the Central Plaza is surrounded by portals to take users to the various other ‘Metaworlds’ if they so choose. The Central Plaza has been designed for social meetups as well as business meetings, with the area also functioning as an entertainment space.

The next area shown is the Enterprise Plaza, with a revolving stock ticker just in case you’re not sure where you’ve ended up. It’s from here that companies can link their own Metaworlds built by themselves or Engage, completely tailored to that business’s values and aesthetic. Education Plaza connects users to institutions from around the world – or Metaversities as they’re being called – where students can access course content or even attend a lecture.

Engage Link

The last stop of the tour heads to the Apartment Plaza which is far more open to the public. Here you can have your own virtual penthouse apartment: “an opportunity to have friends and family over, to socialize, hangout, watch movies and have a great time,” the video presenter notes. Customisable to your own style, you can add portals to your most visited areas of the Link metaverse for quick and easy access.

Engage Link doesn’t have a release window at the moment but when it does, gmw3 will let you know.

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Bill Gates’ Take on NFTs: They’re Based on ‘Greater Fool Theory’

When it comes to technology and who people will listen to, Microsoft founder Bill Gates is high up on that list of influential thought leaders. He recently broached the subject of NFTs during a climate change event hosted by Tech Crunch noting his dislike of them due to his view that they’re “100 percent based on greater fool theory”.

Greater fool theory is a well-known financial concept whereby overpriced assets can still be sold at a profit if the seller can find someone (the fool) willing to pay a higher price, even in a market bubble. “Obviously, expensive digital images of monkeys are going to improve the world immensely,” he remarked, in reference to Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), one of the most well-known NFT collections.

Gates went on to discuss what he preferred to invest in, saying: I’m used to asset classes, like a farm where they have output, or like a company where they make products.” Referencing both crypto and NFTs, he added: “I’m not involved in that, I’m not long or short any of those things.”

This isn’t the first time Gates has voiced his scepticism on the world of cryptocurrencies, noting the volatile nature of the industry. And that’s not unreasonable in the current climate. Whilst Bitcoin has hit highs of $64k in 2021, that’s now tanked alongside the rest of the industry, currently sitting around $21k.

Bored Ape Yacht Club
Bored Ape Yacht Club. Image credit Shutterstock

That’s seen prices of NFTs fall including those of BAYC and CryptoPunks in what’s termed a bear market. Prior to the overall market decline, cashes like Terra’s stablecoin UST and its native token LUNA have only added to cryptos’ woes of late.

NFTs aren’t going away anytime soon though, more and more keep cropping up. Some are tied to celebrities whilst platforms including Instagram have been experimenting with integration. Bill Gates isn’t going to be buying NFTs at any rate, but if you are then check out gmw3’s NFT Spotlight.

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Meta’s Metaverse Horizon Worlds Lands on UK Shores

Facebook might have changed its name to Meta as company CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues to push his metaverse vision, but its actual metaverse Horizon Worlds hasn’t been that accessible globally. Previously only available for North American Meta Quest owners, this week finally sees Horizon Worlds coming to UK headsets.

Horizon Worlds

Just as with any of Meta’s bigger software updates Horizon Worlds will gradually roll out to UK Meta Quest owners over the coming week, so if you can’t access it now keep checking back. Initially released in beta in 2021, Meta’s metaverse aims to be a one-stop-shop for all your online social needs, whether that’s just hanging out with friends or playing a game together. As reported in May, Meta is adding more content by integrating apps like Venues, where you can watch concerts or enjoy film shorts from the Tribeca Festival.

As the name indicates, Horizon Worlds is made up of individual worlds for users to explore, or they can make their own. Hence why Meta has been encouraging creators onto the platform to build worlds for new users to venture into. Starting with a $10 million USD fund to help support the initiative, the company then began testing monetization features allowing builders to make money from their creations.

The roll-out of Horizon Worlds to the UK is just the start of a wider expansion to more European countries during the course of the summer. Meta hasn’t said which will be next on the list. The UK launch announcement also includes several platform updates to improve the user experience.

Horizon Worlds

All new Horizon Worlds users go through an onboarding process to teach them about the Safe Zone tools that can block, mute, or report anyone engaging in unwanted behaviour. Adding to that list is Voice Mode, giving you the option to choose how you hear people who aren’t friends. The default setting is as you’d expect, you can hear everyone at the same volume. Or you can select Garbled Voices where strangers’ voices are unintelligible, yet friendly sounds. They’ll see an indicator so they know you’re not ignoring them and if you do want to un-garble their voice simply bring the controller next to your ear.

Voice Mode will be rolling out to Horizon Worlds in the next few weeks.

The Horizon Worlds metaverse is free to download for Quest owners who are 18+. For continued updates keep reading gmw3.

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StepVR Launches VR Gates Into the Metaverse

Whether on a flat-screen or in virtual reality (VR), the idea of a metaverse is an all-encompassing digital world. And if films like The Lawnmower Man or Ready Player One have taught us anything you’ll need a big rig to strap into to truly appreciate the experience. So Chinese technology company StepVR has done just that, unveiling its Gates01 omnidirectional motion system.

Gates01 - STEPVR
Gates01, image credit: STEPVR

Better known in China for its free-roam VR esports brand, Future Battle, StepVR has designed the Gates01 device to effectively be a gate into any VR metaverse. Covering an area of approximately 3m2 – so not exactly suitable for home VR – the Gates01 system comprises a harness, custom VR headset and an omnidirectional treadmill allowing players to walk and run as naturally as possible.

The company says that the Gate01 will: “restore the sense of vision, hearing, touch, smell, and vestibular balance in the virtual world,” so players will be able to experience haptic feedback as well as other “hyper-reality” functionality previously seen in venues like The VOID.

Actual tech specifics have yet to be detailed, such as the omnidirectional floor. From the demonstration video, it looks like users will have to wear specialised shoes (or shoe covers) to walk on the active floor. Whether players will be able to jump and crouch is another matter entirely – you might be able to hang by the looks of that frame.

StepVR Gates01 gun
Gates01. Image credit: StepVR

Founded in 2013, StepVR’s Future Battle franchise comprises 140 location-based entertainment (LBE) venues across China, each one facilitating up to 10-player free roam sessions. The company states that 60 partner stores are still to be opened and that 22% of its partners have opened a second store.

StepVR expects to release Gates01 for entertainment venues in Korea, Japan, Singapore, the Middle East, North America, and Europe during October. A consumer version which will be lighter and 50% smaller is slated to arrive sometime in 2023. Currently, StepVR hasn’t revealed a price or supported content.

For an omnidirectional treadmill alternative without all the extra sensory effects, there’s always Kat Walk C2 which held a successful Kickstarter.

For continued updates on all things metaverse related, keep reading gmw3.

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Meta Quest’s Home Will Finally be Social in v41 Update

You’d expect social experiences to be at the forefront of Meta’s virtual reality (VR) drive but one thing that’s always been missing is the ability to directly hang out in the home environment. During Connect in 2021 Meta announced Horizon Home – rather than Oculus Home – which would eventually add that social aspect. That’s going to arrive in the Quest’s v41 update which CEO Mark Zuckerberg demonstrated today.

Horizon Home

With Horizon Home, the whole premise is that rather than having to use a separate app to convene with friends in VR or just use voice through the party feature Quest users will be able to gather in one environment and see each other’s avatar. From there they’ll be able to jump into a game or app, making the whole experience far more seamless.

To showcase the update today Zuckerberg invited climber Alex Honnold where they watched his 360-degree film The Soloist. This is a heart-pounding, death-defying ascent up the Dolomite mountains, free climbing up sheer rock faces.

“Met up with legendary climber Alex Honnold in the new Horizon Home — launching with Quest v41 update to bring social presence into your virtual home as soon as you put on your headset,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “Invite friends to hang out, watch videos together, or jump into apps right from your virtual home. More options to customize your home space currently in development. Also, check out Alex’s 360 film The Soloist VR where he takes you 1000 ft up free climbing the Dolomites!”

Horizon Home - Group

The announcement hasn’t specified when v41 will arrive but considering Meta rolls these out monthly and v40 landed almost a month ago, Quest users will likely see the feature arrive in the next week or so. As always it’ll be gradual, so you might need to wait until the end of June to test the new social feature out.

Another step towards Meta’s metaverse vision, as further updates are announced gmw3 will let you know.

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Always Sunny Star Rob McElhenney Unveils Web3 Writers Initiative Adim

When comedians launch a project that’s very different to their usual stuff it’s hard not to wonder where the expected joke might lay. But that doesn’t seem to be the case with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney’s latest endeavour, a new Web3 entertainment-tech company called Adim.

Co-founded by McElhenney, Chase Rosenblatt, Melissa Kaspers, Spencer Marell, and Richard Rosenblatt, Adim wants to make it easier for writers to connect and collaborate whilst owning a greater share of the output. So the team are utilising a Web3 model to build a community of storytellers that anyone can join. All aided by a $5 million USD seed round led by Chris Dixon, general partner at a16z crypto.

You simply head to the Adim website and apply to become a member. If accepted you’ll have the chance to join Creator Rooms to participate in workshops that’ll create stories, characters, and narrative universes under the mentorship of established writers like McElhenney and Keyonna Taylor.

100 applicants will be chosen initially and once a Creator Room has concluded, all participants will receive a Core Character NFT that details their ownership of what was created. The NFTs will be non-transferable as they will also grant the owner rights to royalties or revenue shares when projects use the characters.

Adim

“Every beloved character throughout TV, movie and gaming history has been imagined and brought to life through collaboration,” said McElhenney, who also serves as Co-Chairman, in a statement. “Adim is building for the next evolution of these groups – communities of creators, writers, artists, designers, developers, fans and friends working together to create and own a new generation of content.”

“By combining traditional creative development practices with web3 technology, we are building a new model and value network for creators and collaborators, giving people ownership of the characters and content they create,” Rosenblatt adds.

This is another innovative use of Web3 technology and principles, adding a new level of utility to the NFT concept. For further updates on the Adimverse project, keep reading gmw3.

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Ryu Games Announce Flame, Aims to be the Steam of Web3

The rise of Web3 gaming has not been without its problems, from expensive NFT buy-ins to lacklustre titles to play. There’s also the problem of where to go and find these kinds of videogames in the first place. Ryu Games aims to solve that problem with Flame, a Web3 games store and marketplace that’s about to launch its beta.

Rick Ellis CPO Ryu Games
Rick Ellis CPO Ryu Games

When it comes to PC gaming, Valve’s Steam platform is the de facto marketplace all PC gamers go to and that’s exactly what Ryu Games wants for Flame. And to do that its going in the right direction by hiring former Steam founder Rick Ellis as the company’s Chief Product Officer (CPO).

Bringing with him a wealth of experience across console, PC and mobile gaming development, when it comes to Web3 gaming Ellis remarked in a statement: “Games that use NFTs and crypto are in their infancy, but their potential has already drawn millions of gamers to play these sometimes very simple games. The past few years have seen incredible advances in reducing blockchain’s negative environmental impact and lowering the cost of transactions. Meanwhile, serious game developers are heads down building the first generation of AAA titles built around open economies.”

“The last missing piece before mass adoption is a user experience to launch these games, he continued. “The technical and UX challenges Flame is solving are going to bridge the gap between gamers everywhere and the next internet — one that is owned by the users and not central authorities.”

Flame Web3 platform

Flame will serve not only as a Web3 videogame store and marketplace, it’ll encompass a multi-chain wallet and game launcher to help simplify the whole process – which up to know has been a little fragmented.

“The fact that millions of people are fighting through the friction and pain of onboarding to play crypto games and using NFTs is a testament to how fundamental a shift in blockchain tech can be to human-technology interaction,” adds Ross Krasner, CEO of Ryu Games. “For the first time, people truly own digital assets and can interact in permissionless systems. Gaming is always first to adopt new technologies, and to me, Flame is the last missing piece before Web3 games are just ‘games.’ We’re thrilled to bring on Rick, who built Steam, which today had almost 30 million concurrent users. To put in perspective, only about 3 million people have ever interacted with an NFT.”

Flame isn’t available at the moment, with a beta launch on the way. And it hasn’t yet revealed what titles the platform will offer or some of the finer details regarding how it operates. But it’s certainly looking to benefit from Steam’s ban on blockchain games and NFTs.

However, Flame isn’t the only one looking to explore this section of the growing Web3 market. Last month saw the reveal of LootRush, a similar Steam-like platform that had just secured a $12 million seed round. And then there’s Kongregate, the browser-based, Web2 gaming platform that’s turning to Web3.

As gmw3 receives further updates regarding Flame, we’ll let you know.

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Binge 20 Tribeca Shorts for Free on Meta Quest

The Tribeca Festival returns for 2022 this week with a massive selection of films, shorts, XR content and more, viewable online via desktop and virtual reality (VR) as well as physical events. For the first time, however, organisers have teamed up with Meta to showcase 20 Tribeca Shorts via Horizon Worlds for Meta Quest.

Skin & Bone
Amanda Seyfried in Skin & Bone. Image credit: Tribeca Festival

First reported by Variety, the selection of 20 short films will be shown in the new Venues section of the Horizon Worlds metaverse beginning this Friday, 10th June. Running for five days, each day will have a new selection so you’ll have to pop back to watch them all. Notable additions include Skin & Bone, a 17-minute horror starring Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia!, Chloe), directed and written by Eli Powers (Holy Moses).

“At Tribeca we always explore new ways of storytelling, so we are thrilled to partner with Meta and create our first shorts program to play in VR,” said Ben Thompson, head shorts programmer for Tribeca. “We have curated a range of Tribeca Festival films including out-of-this-world science fiction and impactful documentaries that will excite and inspire audiences in this new storytelling frontier.”

Oculus Venues used to be a separate app but last month Meta announced it would be merged with Horizon Worlds as the company builds its metaverse vision. Venues shuttered yesterday which means the only way to watch the Tribeca Shorts in VR is in North America, as Horizon Worlds is region locked currently. For everyone else, the shorts can be viewed via Tribeca’s Facebook page.

Horizon Venues

Tribeca Shorts 2022 in Horizon Venues

  • 10th June
    • Echoes in the Arctic (2021)
    • Queen of Basketball (2021)
    • Sixth of June (2021)
  • 11th June
    • Carementis (2021)
    • Gets Good Light (2021)
    • TOTO (2021)
    • Abducted (2021)
  • 12th June
    • Kapaemahu (2021)
    • Miss Panama (2021)
    • Umbrella (2021)
    • Magnolia Bloom (2021)
  • 13th June
    • Six Nights (2021)
    • VERA (2021)
    • Black Ghost Sun (2021)
    • Night Ride (2022)
  • 14th June
    • Peggy (2019)
    • The Originals (2022)
    • There Are Bunnies on Fire in the Forest (2021)
    • Girls Night In (2022)
    • Skin & Bone (2022)

Apart from the shorts, you can also enjoy Tribeca Immersive content programming through The Museu of Other Realities.

As you may have spotted, the festival has now dropped the “Film” part of its name because over the years it’s become so much more. Alongside the staple film selection, there are immersive experiences, videogames, and podcasts to enjoy. Tribeca Festival is both online and in-person in New York City, running from 8th-19th June 2022. For further updates keep reading gmw3.

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Kongregate Creates $40m Web3 Dev Fund With ImmutableX

Web gaming platform Kongregate has been gradually moving towards a more Web3 centred approach, planning to release 8-bit inspired metaverse The Bitverse as well as blockchain game Blood Vessels. Delving further into the Web3 space, Kongregate has announced a new $40 million blockchain gaming fund in collaboration with crypto solution provider ImmutableX.

Kongregate - Blood Vessels
Image credit: Kongregate

The fund looks to inspire developers to build blockchain games for Kongregate.com, consisting of an IMX token pool that will be awarded as grants to creators. While Kongregate.com has always been about web-based gaming, the site will relaunch later this year focused on the Web3 space, therefore it’s looking to invest in a library of content to support that vision.

“With the relaunch of Kongregate.com for web3, we’re once again creating a destination unlike any other for developers and gamers to come together to discover, chat about and play games,” said Max Murphy, Kongregate’s Chief Technology Officer in a statement. “As gamers ourselves who have long been dedicated to what made the original site so fun and special for millions of community members worldwide, we’re excited to reopen doors with new, sustainable technology that enables players to uniquely experience and be a part of the games they dedicate their time to.”

Kongregate is continuing its partnership with ImmutableX which began with development of upcoming title Blood Vessels. Currently being built by Kongregate’s new blockchain-focused development team, Electric Visions, Blood Vessels is set during the 19th Century at the Chicago World’s Fair, with players NFT vampire characters.

The Bitverse
The Bitverse. Image credit: Kongregate

“As an early innovator in web-based gaming, we’ve been proud of our partnership with Kongregate to help power the next generation of blockchain games,” said Robbie Ferguson, Co-Founder and President, ImmutableX. “With today’s launch of our blockchain developer fund, we’re excited to deepen our relationship with Kongregate as we work together to attract the best and brightest developers to build new titles on Kongregate’s relaunched Web3 platform.”

Kongregate will be initially sharing how to access the fund to current developers on its platform, new teams interested in being part of it will have to reach out to Kongregate directly. As further details regarding the platforms’ Web3 plans unfold, gmw3 will keep you updated.