Do you think DU was really founded to be a "metaverse"...?

[blundertwink]

Is that why it doesn't work as a "game"? Or were they always developing it as an MMO / game, and now they're just trying to cash in on using the "metaverse" buzzword before it was popular?

 

(Edit: i know i've posted about similar stuff before, sry I'm just bored and there's no new information from NQ, so why not dig up some stupid quotes from their founder...?)

 

From one of NQ's employees (reposted by JC):

Quote

GamesIndustry.Biz recently published an article about the much talked-about #metaverse. 7 years ago, Novaquark was founded on the idea of making the Metaverse happen, way before Epic and Facebook made the topic frontpage-worthy (even the Wall Street Journal writes about the Metaverse these days!). In the article for GamesIndustry.Biz I had the opportunity to share my thoughts on the Metaverse on behalf of Novaquark, together with other industry professionals:

 

Some interesting quotes from this article [link] (from JC):

 

Quote

"The devil is in the details," Baillie says. "The particular angle Second Life took was interesting -- you can't deny it was a success -- but the problem is it's not a game. So it's not really fun. 

 

Ah, but DU is a game...? Hmmm. Now I'm confused, because he also talks about how NQ was "founded on the idea of making the metaverse happen". So is DU supposed to be a game? Or is it supposed to be a metaverse? Second Life "isn't fun" but slowly crawling across space for hours is...? 

 

Quote

He estimates about 5% of the player base will get hardcore into creating content -- everything from ships and buildings to corporations and nations -- and give the other 95% things to do.

 

This article was published in 2020 and it wasn't a realistic concept then, it's even less realistic now...whatever content he's imagining that players will make, the tools don't exist. Wtf is he even talking about with building nations -- the only nation that exists is Aphelia and it has no military, controls every market, and levies taxes.

 

Only once has Aphelia been "attacked" and it resulted in bans -- little did we know those early players were fighting back against what would become a hostile, overbearing AI! 

Edited July 22, 2022 by blundertwink

[RugesV]

I think it was founded as a way to collect money from monthly subs and microtransactions. 

 

DU has as much metaverse in it as it does rpg.  But NQ did own the trademark to metaverse at one point in time. 

[Zarcata]

DualUniverse has nothing in common with an actual metaverse. So far I don't see any provider who is building or developing an approach of a metaverse. The market seems to use this word simply as bait for fishing to land as many fish as possible.
If you were to view a metaverse as a dead space where you can build empty buildings to walk around in, then yes. Whereas, there are enough empty and crumbling building ruins in real life too.

There will definitely NOT be a reasonable metaverse in the next 20-30years.

[CptLoRes]

Quote

Do you think DU was really founded to be a "metaverse"...?

Short version:

No.

 

Longer version:

"Metaverse" is not mentioned a single time in the Kickstarter campaign for DU. 

The closest you get is their reference to creating an "online virtual civilization", but even that is used in a different context.

So no, DU was initially not made to be a "metaverse" whatever that means.

 

As for Novaquark "The metaverse company", here is another quote from the Kickstarter.

Quote

The whole point of Novaquark is Dual Universe, and we are not doing anything else.

[Zarcata]

In the meantime, however, they are fully on the Metaverse vision. Likewise, they perform "our games," plural, not just "our game."


Novaquark - The metaverse company
 

Quote

"We don´t just dream about the Metaverse, we build it. One Voxel at the time."

Quote

our Games
DualUniverse
Dual Universe is a forward-thinking online game featuring a persistent and shared universe made with next-generation voxels. As a true precursor to the metaverse, the game world is fully editable, and the game experience is entirely driven by its players. Dual Universe is currently in public beta and reaching the final stretch toward launch.

 

 

Edited July 23, 2022 by Zarcata

[Thunderchrome]

i dont even know what a metaverse is, must be some stupid shit idea from a stupid brain like succerberg the criminal nonhuman piece of garbage.

[Zarcata]

6 hours ago, Niemand said:

i dont even know what a metaverse is, must be some stupid shit idea from a stupid brain like succerberg the criminal nonhuman piece of garbage.

Take a look at the film:  "ready player one"

[CousinSal]

Game, metaverse, whatever.  Doesn't matter what you call it, as shown by NQ they call it beta when it's alpha or even pre-alpha. The question is, will people play it, enjoy it, and sub to it. And will the way NQ monetize DU be enough to keep servers online and also enough to continue development and make a profit.  That's all that matters.

[Zarcata]

20 minutes ago, CousinSal said:

Game, metaverse, whatever.  Doesn't matter what you call it, as shown by NQ they call it beta when it's alpha or even pre-alpha. The question is, will people play it, enjoy it, and sub to it. And will the way NQ monetize DU be enough to keep servers online and also enough to continue development and make a profit.  That's all that matters.

Everything that counts? You can't just go and say you're selling a Ferrari and then offer the buyer a Volkswagen (VW) when you hand it over. 

[CptLoRes]

The hubris from so called metaverse companies is unbelievable, especially the one we all know very well.

 

And yet the fact remains that Lindon Lab was more of a 'metaverse' company in 2002/2003 then NQ is even on the drawing board today.

And you don't see Lindon Lab screaming "look how metaverse we are!" from the roof tops, because to them it is old news.

 

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/History_of_Second_Life

https://www.pcgamer.com/second-life-metaverse-interview/

 

[Zarcata]

On 7/23/2022 at 4:07 PM, CptLoRes said:

The hubris from so called metaverse companies is unbelievable, especially the one we all know very well.

 

And yet the fact remains that Lindon Lab was more of a 'metaverse' company in 2002/2003 then NQ is even on the drawing board today.

And you don't see Lindon Lab screaming "look how metaverse we are!" from the roof tops, because to them it is old news.

 

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/History_of_Second_Life

https://www.pcgamer.com/second-life-metaverse-interview/

 

There are always those who give a great and exemplary performance. Then there are those who can't do anything but shout loudly about what they can do.

In Germany there is a saying: "Big mouth, nothing behind it."

[Novean-32184]

At the time NQ was founded, back in 2014, the term "metaverse" was really not all that well defined yet. JC kind of latched on to the term but never provided a clear vision of how it would fit in the design of DU.

 

I think there was an idea but in the few years following it became quite clear that what NQ was cooking would not be able to fit the "metaverse" theme as it evolved in parallel. Same thing with VR, when NQ started work on DU some choice made were based on the option/possibility to add VR but that too, quickly became clear as being well beyond the possibilities of the engine and the team itself I'm sure.

 

What is unfortunate to me is that NQ never allowed themselves to stop and think about what they might need to change once options like that fell off the table. They never did and because of that, we are now stuck with a pretty limited core game, especially in the context of PVE content and NPCs. 

[CptLoRes]

4 hours ago, Jake Arver said:

At the time NQ was founded, back in 2014, the term "metaverse" was really not all that well defined yet. JC kind of latched on to the term but never provided a clear vision of how it would fit in the design of DU.

That would only be for mainstream media.

The term was defined by Neal Stephenson in the book Snow Crash (1992), which was an essential read for most nerds at the time (decent book and still worth a look).

And in the 90's and early 2000 it was more popular to talk about cyberspace because it sounded cooler at the time, but the name is really interchangeable with metaverse.

 

So the concept is nothing new, and the only thing that changed around 2014 was that facebook bought Oculus and suddenly there was real money involved and people where scrambling to try and get a piece of the pie.

[Zarcata]

11 hours ago, Jake Arver said:

What is unfortunate to me is that NQ never allowed themselves to stop and think about what they might need to change once options like that fell off the table.

I assume that NQ is very aware of what is possible and what is not. Their problem will be that at the beginning they may have been convinced or ambitious to create something that they cannot currently create. So what is left? Give up or try to bring something to the table after all? One must not forget that NQ needs a positive reputation, especially among players, in order to be noticed. If they make major mistakes right at the beginning, no one will take the company seriously.
As a rule, you can only afford to make mistakes if you have already built up a large, profitable company. At the moment, however, it seems to be a very shaky business.

It may also be that NQ is already working on other projects in secret but cannot make them public. 
Considering how many employees there are and the pace at which things are happening in DualUniverse....I really hope there is something else.

[CptLoRes]

53 minutes ago, Zarcata said:

One must not forget that NQ needs a positive reputation, especially among players, in order to be noticed. If they make major mistakes right at the beginning, no one will take the company seriously. As a rule, you can only afford to make mistakes if you have already built up a large, profitable company. At the moment, however, it seems to be a very shaky business.

The alternative is to be completely open about the dev process with your community and explain what is going on, and why things turned out the way they did.

If you do this correctly there is almost no limit to what a community will accept and still be positive towards the game and company.

 

But instead NQ has been the poster child for how to NOT interact with a community.

 

And the truly tragic thing in all this is the "for sure" promises they made during the kickstarter, which is a big part of why I no longer have any respect left for NQ.

 

Quote

In any case, here is what we can promise you:

 

- Absolute transparency about the development progress

- 100% of the funding will go to the development of Dual Universe, more specifically to pay the developers & artists. The whole point of Novaquark is Dual Universe, and we are not doing anything else.

- Engage with the community and listen to your feedback, with new and innovative ways to get you directly involved in the roadmap decisions.

 

 

[blundertwink]

6 hours ago, Zarcata said:

It may also be that NQ is already working on other projects in secret but cannot make them public. 

 

No, this isn't a "secret". Their CEO has posted on LinkedIn about how their focus is new projects. This is the quote from their LinkedIn bio: 

 

Quote

As Dual Universe reaches the final stretch leading up to launch, Nouredine is focused on taking the company's unique voxel expertise and technologies to a wide audience and to an array of projects.

 

It isn't a secret that NQ is working on new projects at all...just as it isn't a secret that Nouredine's posts are all about how great cyrpto, blockchain, web3, and the metaverse are.

 

Like many non-technical people that head technical companies, he has no clue why blockchain is so "great", he's just riding the bandwagon of hype or is mislead by a lack of real technical understanding. Someone like that helming NQ is a problem...just like JC, he's focused on ideas that don't have a basis in reality instead of focusing on the day-to-day grind of finishing their game. 

 

So many "great" facets of blockchain or web3 are silly because a centralized model is far more efficient and effective and far less wasteful...the only benefit offered by these technologies is some vague ramblings about "trust". 

 

This whole metaverse fixation is highly relevant because NQ's leadership is the heart of all their issues...and the leadership seems want to double down on the scammy buzzwords of the day (even as this sector collapses) instead of staying focused on the one product they have. 

 

Any new project they're working on will fail because the leadership is obsessed with concepts that don't work in gaming and are so utterly confident that blockchain is the future without even understanding what problems blockchain actually solves technically. 

[Novean-32184]

43 minutes ago, blundertwink said:

It isn't a secret that NQ is working on new projects at all...just as it isn't a secret that Nouredine's posts are all about how great cyrpto, blockchain, web3, and the metaverse are.

 

It's even worse as he is pretty much making claims this is already part of DU, as in comments like how great of an example the DU economy is with regards to blockchain when it has nothing whatsoever to do with it and all it does is show he is angling for buyers with hype words that do not mean a thing.

A major reason for NQ being where it is has been the consistent overpromising and under delivering. And that has not changed at all. They are still trying to sell something they do not have and try to make claims about their project which are simply untrue and easily debunked. 

[Tordan]

8 hours ago, blundertwink said:

This is the quote from their LinkedIn bio: 

Well now, never believe anything  you read on LinkedIn. It's all fabricated for marketing hype.

[Zarcata]

I'll just say that there is no metaverse yet and none of the providers on the market would even come close to implementing it in the next 20-30 years. Currently, the most that companies offer is games, not a metaverse. SecondLife is not a metaverse either, but a simple game on the internet.

[blundertwink]

15 hours ago, Tordan said:

Well now, never believe anything  you read on LinkedIn. It's all fabricated for marketing hype.

 

There's no other place to go to read statement's from NQ's leadership or learn about the company's objectives...

 

As for it all being fabricated for marketing hype...well, name one concept in DU that isn't stretched to the point of dishonesty for marketing hype  

 

Besides, the way that NQ's leadership is presenting the company is very relevant -- it shows that their focus isn't really in finishing this game to the best of their ability...it's in trying to lob a bunch of buzzwords at the ether in desperate hopes of an acquisition or investor. In other words, they can't stand on their own and they know DU isn't going to make the company solvent. 

 

That matters...it means they are likely all-in on these "other projects" and only giving DU the bare minimum to push it to release. 

 

Finally...there's reasons to believe the CEO when they post about how great web3/crypto/metaverse is -- there's every indication that they were all aboard that bandwagon well before they started at NQ.

 

Their efforts here go beyond just some lazy hype/buzzwords. They've presented at conferences, are lobbying the french government about crypto and blockchain, and they were executive producer for Ghost Recon's infamous "Breakpoint" title, which included NFTs (recently it was announced that Ghost Recon would phase out these NFTs because no one used them, lol).  

[Tordan]

21 minutes ago, blundertwink said:

which included NFT

I have long assumed that DAC were going to be blockchain. Prob why we haven't seen them yet.

[GraXXoR]

But the really important question is why on earth does one poster here always insist on posting in bright green?

[blundertwink]

11 hours ago, Jinxed said:

But the really important question is why on earth does one poster here always insist on posting in bright green?

 

lol, now we are really getting into the nitty gritty, eh? 

 

iirc, @Zarcata does so purely for style points and to make life slightly harder for those that are colorblind 😅

[CptLoRes]

It could be worse..

[Distinct Mint]

9 minutes ago, CptLoRes said:

It could be worse..

Indeed.