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The web’s landscape looked bleak in its earliest days: great new strides in protocols, a wealth of available data, an infrastructure that was still evolving but headed in the right direction … but where was the content? Once you heard that satisfying sonic handshake telling you that your modem had connected to cyberspace, where could you realistically go? CERN? FermiLab?
That’s the state of the metaverse now. Exercise videos and travelogs are great, but is that all there is to the metaverse? If so, we shouldn’t have wasted all that money on the gear. There needs to be an immersive experience to go with the immersive sensations.
That’s the challenge X World Games has taken on by moving its popular Dream Card non-fungible token (NFT) characters into the world of virtual reality.
Three drivers
X World Games, a blockchain GameFi company, already has the intellectual property to start strong. Its anime-inspired Dream Card video game series provides the skins, but motion capture will bring them to life in the virtual world as they sing, dance and interact with fans. Pop stars Catherine, Andal, Betty and Luceo – based on real-life performers – will bring their own unique personalities and musical talents.
Characters who attract a following in manga have been known to attract an even bigger following in anime, then get a further boost as playable video game characters. Well documented since at least 1995, this trend has evolved into a specific subculture called “ACG,” short for “Animation, Comics and Games.” While still developing in the English-speaking world, ACG’s prevalence throughout eastern and southern Asia is unchallenged. K-Pop, for example, has engendered an ACG culture replete with fan clubs and fan cafes.
Is X World Games just adding another dimension to ACG? Technologically, that may be true but it would be oversimplifying the relevance of Dream Idols. Passive entertainment is part of the experience, but what makes this project unique is the way that it syncs up two other key elements: fan economics and Web3 attention value.
How it comes together
At its core, Dream Idols is a 360-degree, multi-sensory metaverse experience. 3D virtual reality (VR) concerts featuring original songs will be rendered in 4K resolution accessible through Oculus, Pico, Vive and other VR gear kits. The characters will also make themselves available to meet the fans during scheduled live-streamed events.
A competitive fan economic model leads to active participation. The aggregate of all fan engagement will determine the destinies of each character. The Dream Idols community will participate in SocialFi functions and events, and fans are given in-universe incentives to invite friends to build fan clubs supporting one of the Dream Idols.
Three tiers determine how big a fan an individual supporter is. Most will be casual participants, but a small percentage will be “Super Fans,” and only one in 10 Super Fans will be “Genesis Producers,” with all the rights and privileges thereof. While the whole goal of a fan is to persuade others to join in their passion, invitation codes ensure that the economy is driven by individual merit, whether the rewards are claimed as NFTs or other in-universe assets.
However it’s denominated, what flows back to the fans is attention profit – their individual rewards for contributing to their favorite character’s popularity and reputation. Also, the more a fan can influence others to follow that character, the more influence they have on the character herself: career planning, set list building and so on. The fans in essence become the Dream Idols’ producers.Dream Idols – and the entire ecosystem that X World Games is creating to support the project – opens any number of new opportunities for development of both content and technology. Still, the experience of it is better demonstrated than explained. Watch the trailer by visiting DreamIdols.Fans.