#nft's

[bogleech]

Ok but I have seen you talk about this so many times, even referencing it in your old cartoons, so I gotta ask - when and how did you fall in love with neopets, like that?

Wait, is it that obscure now? I didn't know a single person from its inception to roughly 2010 who didn't have a neopets account. It was the single biggest gaming-esque name on the internet for years. Celebrities casually mentioned playing it, it got mainstream marketing tie-ins, it had plush toys people waited in line to buy up and a TCG made by the same company as Magic the Gathering. It's not that I especially "fell in love with neopets" like it's a niche thing but that there was a time it was almost outselling Pokemon, so it's just another huge cultural phenomenon that was a big part of everyone's lives during my teens to twenties, and hits my special interest in creature design since it has THOUSANDS (beyond the pets alone) ranging in quality from extremely creative to just plain heinous. I personally only got invested in it when they introduced the mutant pets, though, because it started out having almost like a "rule" against making any pets that were "ugly." They'd joke about it as a prank for instance, and originally only featured the mutants as part of a storyline they never intended players to actually adopt. They even had a fake alternate version of the site with fake "adoptions coming soon" and somehow didn't anticipate the userbase genuinely wanting the slime creatures.

The Chia and Aisha were my favorites but mainly the chia because that kind of "scuzzy" creature was already my own design aesthetic, polar opposite of the site's established style and reminded me of if Jeff Goldblum got fused with a tardigrade instead of a fly:

Is that just me? I feel like the tardigrade similarity jumps right out but I think it was an accident and they were possibly actually thinking of the rotting giant from Nausicaa:

The fact that they intended its design to be unlovably ugly and were surprised anyone wanted it only made it more sympathetic. Eventually they made mutants available and I got fully invested into playing, at the time having to spend hours a day on their little flash games until I could afford a mutant after months of labor. But then a couple of years later they just abruptly decided they really didn't feel like having its design around anymore and "updated" it, which back then was automatic for all pets owned by all players with no going back:

It had unfortunately been fairly common that they'd just completely, totally redo a pet like this with no warning and no user poll to make sure it's what anyone wanted. You just had to pray they never did it to your favorites.

All the other mutants in that earlier image would also get completely changed or never released at all. They still kept some of the other "gross" mutants and would make even grosser, so that wasn't even part of the reasoning. Just the random whims of mad gods I guess. I think what killed the game for a lot of people was actually when they did this to basically everyone at once, standardizing almost all the pet artwork so they could wear clothes in their new dressup system. It wasn't as drastic as replacing a sludge guy with some kind of hairy leaf guy but it did eliminate hundreds of technically unique designs from the site, and I found someone else's examples they put together so I thankfully don't have to do it myself:

If anyone's not familiar enough with neopets or didn't figure that out from the last paragraph, the ones on the right are just recolors of the same exact art as all members of their species with added accessories (now wearable items) Players used to work hard to get pets they wanted based on their unique poses and personality, but you could only keep the original art for a small number of these. The customization feature kind of attracted a different new fandom, from what people say, but it never approached a fraction the site's peak, which is probably how the brand wound up getting sold to some NFT bros who aren't even involved in the site itself and supposedly never even spoken to its remaining staff outside some business emails? This is unrelated to the brief period it was bought by scientologists and the siterunners had to fight back against their propaganda leaking into it. I really didn't expect to turn this response into a mini article, I should really just make a thing on bogleech.com about it sometime. Some of my tumblr mutuals to this day are people I met through the neopets fandom and probably have equally lengthy memories/complaints.

#neopets #pokemon #scientology #nft's

[421flawlesslabs]

#black digital art #nft's #adobe illustrator #product design #dogs #frenchie #french #french bulldog #digital art #digital illustration #digital artist #digital artwork #nftcommunity #nftcollection #nftcollector #adobe #Spotify

[csolarstorm]

The news has been going around that The Pokemon Company is hiring a "Corporate Development Principal" with knowledge and ties to the blockchain, Web3, and the metaverse.

As much of a nightmare that blockchain Pokemon would be...this doesn't necessarily indicate intent the way we think it does. It's entirely possible that The Pokemon Company just wants industry information. Unfortunately these things are part of our current market. Square Enix is apparently still really into the idea of blockchain games. If this indicates anything, it's that like other video game companies, TPC wants knowledge of current trends.

Pokemon typically plays it pretty safe with the main games. They had to be convinced to even bring them to Switch. (And with the dip in quality control they may have been right.) So if they did somehow dabble in NFT's, I'm guessing it would just be more side merchandise, and it would take a lot of success to get anywhere close to being a part of the main games.

All the same, I have an exit strategy should NFT's infiltrate the main series. I've been really discouraged with the franchise lately.

Edited: Took out part about the "Corporate Development Principal" being a purely financial position. It actual seems to be related to advising the company about what direction to take, which is why all these outlets are so afraid.

#Pokemon #The Pokemon Company #blockchain #NFT's #nft #metaverse

[metfidao]

#Join MetFi #MetFi #Web3 #DeFi #MetFi Opportunity #MetaVerse #NFT's #MetFi DAO #Vimeo

[ausetkmt]

From private “clubstaurants” to NFT reservation tokens to concierge services, getting a table is a lot easier if you’ve got the money.

Credit...Jonathan Carlson

Published Oct. 15, 2022Updated Oct. 18, 2022

As long as there have been high-status, celebrity-studded restaurants, there have been people clamoring to get into them, working contacts, making phone calls, greasing palms. Lately, though, it can seem like every restaurant in New York is that kind of restaurant.

In the pandemic era — with hours cut back in many cases, and a public eager to eat out once again — the competition for tables has reached a frenzied pitch on electronic reservation platforms.

“Without over-embellishing, within five seconds basically all reservations are taken,” said Steve Saed, who started #FreeRezy, a free electronic forum where people could swap reservations among themselves. “It’s like winning the lottery to eat at these places,” he added.

But a new generation of tactics have emerged to help would-be diners jump the line, including latter-day concierge services, NFTs granting holders special privileges, members-only credit card perks and private “clubstaurants.” What they all have in common is that they will cost you.

“However many years ago, it was slip the host or hostess $20 and bypass the line,” said Alex Lee, the chief executive of Resy and vice president of American Express Dining. He runs the companies’ Global Dining Network, a program that offers a select group of Amex members (Amex owns Resy) access to certain restaurant perks through the reservation platform.

The program, he suggested, is just the natural evolution of that furtive $20. For an annual credit card fee in the hundreds or sometimes thousands, Global Dining Access members can obtain priority reservations at hot restaurants across the United States. “The first thing customers want is access, right?” Mr. Lee said.

But at certain members-only restaurants, a reservation alone is not enough.

Haiku, a private Japanese restaurant in Miami, makes a slightly different calculation. The restaurant accepts members by invitation only, for an annual fee, and asks them to commit to at least four reservations annually for a 10-to-12-course kaiseki-inspired omakase menu. The restaurant declined to discuss either the application process or the price.

Jeff Zalaznick, a partner at Major Food Group, was only slightly more forthcoming about plans for the New York debut of ZZ’s Club, which will feature a members-only Carbone. Like the first ZZ’s in Miami, which offers members access to a Japanese restaurant, a sushi bar, a bar and lounge and a cigar terrace, ZZ’s Club New York will bring the Major Food Group experience to the financial and social elite. (Like Haiku, Major Food Group would not disclose the fee or the application process.)

But given that the original Carbone — which recently lost its Michelin star — is already impossible to get into, is it really necessary to have an even more exclusive version just two miles away?

“One of the great things about being a private member’s club, is the fact that you really can tailor everything on the food and beverage side to your customers at an even higher level than you can, obviously, when you’re just a public restaurant,” Mr. Zalaznick said.

This means knowing what members want, and how exactly they want it: How do they take their steak? Do they prefer still or sparkling water? What is their standing order, and with which modifications?

Diners can have all those things at the London import Casa Cruz, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, but for a stratospheric price tag. The top-floor dining room there is reserved for the 99 members of the restaurant’s “investor group of partners” who have paid between $250,000 and $500,000 to join.

“I think there’s a demand for curation,” said Noah Tepperberg, the co-CEO of Tao Group Hospitality, which next year is opening a private club in the River North neighborhood of Chicago, in collaboration with the restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You.

In the grand tradition of private clubs — from New York City’s Union Club to San Francisco’s Bohemian Club to the recently rebranded ’Quin House in Boston — these exclusive clubstaurants require not only cash but status.

“Restaurants began as places to show off status,” said Andrew P. Haley, an associate professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi. Generally, this took place in public, where discerning diners could be seen demonstrating their discernment.

The members-only clubstaurant, on the other hand, confers another kind of status, suggested Megan J. Elias, the director of the gastronomy program at Boston University: “You can be a connoisseur among a very small number of connoisseurs.”

Mr. Saed said he’s not surprised that access is being monetized.

“Part of it tracks to the types of people that are renting in New York now,” he said. “With rents pushing over $4,000 to $5,000, I think that the proportion of people that are living here that have the discretionary income to spend are kind of more here.”

Still other restaurants — the public kind — are leaning into patronage-style programs, aiming to give certain customers premier access, while remaining open to the rest of us.

Under normal circumstances, it can take weeks or months to get into Dame, the West Village fish-and-chips sensation. But there is a workaround: Front of House, a platform designed to help restaurants sell “digital collectibles,” also known as NFTs, that grant holders special access.

Instead of lining up at 4:30 p.m. on a Monday, the one day Dame takes walk-in diners, a devoted diner could pay $1,000, which buys them the ability, with at least 24 hours notice, to book a table once a week through the end of 2022. (20 such tokens have been created; 11 have been sold so far.)

Stephanie Dumanian, a cosmetic dentist in Manhattan and a fan of the restaurant, was trying without success to make a reservation for her husband’s birthday when she found Front of House. She bought a token in July, and has been three times since. “It’s been great,” she said. “I feel like I’m supporting a local business.”

Colin Camac, a co-founder of Front of House, said the platform is simply expediting intimacy.

“I think one of the best things in the world is going into a place just like Cheers, where everybody knows your name, where they know what you like, where your martini is sitting there as soon as you walk in,” said Mr. Camac, who is also a regional director at Resy. “It’s an easier way to be part of that community if you don’t have the time to really invest in it.” In other words, anyone can be a regular, for a price.

“It’s kind of a trade secret in the concierge space that you have to build relationships, and spend a lot of time doing it, in order to deliver these very hard to get reservations,” said Peter Adams, the founder of Table Concierge.

His start-up is for people with money but not time, and a would-be diner doesn’t actually have to be a regular to get treated like one. “You could do this on your own,” he said, but he streamlines the process “so you don’t have to wake up at 8 a.m. or book at midnight.”

For a price — usually $50 per reservation per person, but it depends on the difficulty — Mr. Adams works his connections to open doors that appear closed to the rest of us. (White glove service means he will go as far as going to a restaurant in person to negotiate on a client’s behalf.)

With a week or so warning, he puts his success rate at 90 percent. You want Lilia? He’ll get you Lilia, nevermind what Resy says. “We can get you in anywhere other than Rao’s,” he said of the exclusive Italian restaurant in East Harlem.

Though he added: “But if you want to give me $10,000, I can find a way to get you into Rao’s.”

#The Era of NFT Reservations and Paywalled Restaurants Is Upon Us #nft's #non fungal tokens

[crypto-shrypto]

Bill Gates slams cryptocurrencies and NFTs for their high-risk nature and environmental impact

On June 14, Bill Gates spoke at the TechCrunch Sessions: Climate 2022 for a wide-ranging discussion that included an update on progress in mitigating climate change since his book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” was published in 2021. Bill Gates, the billionaire, has slammed cryptocurrency and NFT projects such as Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC). Gates stated that he prefers to invest in assets with tangible outputs, such as farms or factories, or “a company where they make products,” rather than cryptocurrencies or NFTs.

#TechCrunch #stablecoin #silicon valley #NFT's #NFT projects #elon musk #Cryptocurrency #cryptocurrencies #cryptoshrypto

[elalmadelmar]

95% of NFTs are worthless, and most of the most expensive ones are priced between $5-100 where they were once drawing millions US$ apiece

Not a moment too soon, and fully deserved 😎

In conclusion-

#nft #nfts #crypto #crypto schadenfreude #eadm originals

[oneofthebestcontent]

Revolutionizing Healthcare Education Through the Metaverse with BitSource Technologies explores the cutting-edge integration of virtual reality and advanced technology into healthcare education. This innovative approach, spearheaded by BitSource Technologies, leverages immersive experiences within the Metaverse to transform medical training. By creating lifelike simulations and interactive learning environments, this initiative revolutionizes how healthcare professionals are trained, offering realistic scenarios and hands-on experiences, ultimately enhancing the quality and efficacy of healthcare education.

#Healthcare Education #Healthcare #Education #Metaverse #techology #bitsource #BitsourceiT #block chain #blockchain #NFT's

[one-time-i-dreamt]

Mr. Krabs sold the Krusty Krab to make NFTs.

#dream #text #mr krabs #spongebob #krusty krab #nft #nfts #spongebon squarepants

[e32c-af6f]

People who believe NFT's are of value collectively losing their sight as a result of this delusion can only benefit humanity.

#NFT's #Do not reproduce #You are a blight

[hindbodes]

Please don't screenshot he's a NetNavi.

#NFTs #NFT's #Megaman NT Warrior #shitpost #I am a god

[probablyasocialecologist]

“Dead NFTs: The Evolving Landscape of the NFT Market” is a new report from dappGambl, a community of experts in finance and blockchain technology. Upon analysis of 73,257 NFT collections, the authors found that 69,795 have a market cap of zero Ether (ETH), the second most-popular cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin. In practical terms, that means 95 percent of NFTs wouldn’t fetch a penny today — a spectacular crash for assets that reached a trading volume of $17 billion amid a frenzied bull market in 2021. The study estimates that some 23 million investors own these tokens of no practical use or value.

[...]

The “Dead NFTs” report observes that the nearly 200,000 NFT collections “with no apparent owners or market share” identified by the study caused carbon emissions equivalent to the annual output from 2,048 houses, or 3,531 cars.

#nfts #non fungible tokens #cryptoart #bitcoin #cryptocurrency

[421flawlesslabs]

https://linktr.ee/flawlessclub

#linktree #black digital art #nft's #adobe illustrator #tech

[trainsinanime]

People keep saying that NFTs are worthless now, and always have been, but that's not true. Yes, there has been a lot of criticism and video essays and websites around the topic. But the truth is that even now, NFTs are actually worth something, at least in Germany.

Specifically 10€ worth of groceries.

German supermarket chain Kaufland has a deal where they give you a 10€ gift card if you give them your old (have to have owned them for more than three months) NFTs, which will then get displayed on their "wall of lame". It's 10€ per person, no matter how many NFTs you give them, but still, 10€ is a really good deal at this point no matter how many NFTs you have. If you stick to store brands then you can stretch this pretty far.

Now, some might say that this is just a cynical marketing ploy, an attempt to promote the supermarket chain by appealing to all of our Schadenfreude about one of the most controversial tech topics ever until AI came along. And that's because that's absolutely true.

But on the other hand it is also very funny.

#nft #crypto #kaufland

[weakzen]

lmao adobe/pantone charging a subscription fee for color palettes & replacing those colors with black on old pieces of artwork if you don’t pay up

#truly a blessed year for digital illustrators #between this #and csp moving to a subscription service #the rampant unending art theft by nft grifters #and '''''''''ai art''''''' grifters #on top of the already rampant unending art theft by multinational billion dollar corporations #nothing but love for MY dystopia

[outside-lookingin]

NFT auction.

We’re here to say there is art that was created that is up for sale for those well to do collectors.

#art #auction #NFT #NFT's #NFT art