The Verge: On a Friday night in September, more than a million people showed up to an album launch party inside the virtual world of Roblox. American pop star Ava Max held a “virtual fan meetup” in the game to celebrate the launch of her new album Heaven & Hell. It was a relatively simple affair. Max first appeared on a huge screen in front of a colorful dance floor floating in the sky, talking about her inspirations behind the album. Later, she performed a few songs while players ran around amid flashing lights, fireworks, and, eventually, a backdrop that transformed into a cartoonish vision of hell.
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6 comments:
The possibility of holding virtual events in your favorite gaming world is quite interesting. I don’t think it will ever be as comparable to a in-person experience but it is a great way for artists to connect with their fans all over the globe. If an artist has a smaller audience and might not be able to travel to every city in the United States, this could be a great way for them to tour. All of their fans would be able to see their show and they would not have to skip any cities. I think that this will be more lucrative for smaller artists too because they will be able to gain more exposure to people all over the world. Having a concert in many different cities does not allow someone the ease of joining in on the fun as the virtual setting would. In the virtual setting, you would not have to travel downtown to the venue nor would you have to pay for tons of staff to regulate who can come in and who can’t. This would be done electronically.
Roblox is honestly the best thing to have happened to the gaming world after Wii sports, at least in my mind. The server is a place where multiple games can be played with several hundred people and multiple games can be created for people to play. I remember the first time I played Roblox. I was so confused about how to go about it because there is not really a user manual that comes with it, one just has to figure it out. But once I got a hang of it, I have not let go of it. It is the best thing to destress and have fun.
With this love for Roblox, it was no surprise that I literally jumped when Roblox announced that it is planning on holding virtual music events, which is like so exciting. With all the games and the music in the background, probably the pone day that I am looking forward to in this god awful year.
When I first read this headline I laughed, it genuinely made me laugh. But it also made me feel intrigued at the possibility of holding events through this very particular, arguably very niche platform. After I read the article, I gained a much better grasp of what this is trying to accomplish. Overall, it makes me excited for the future of entertainment. Out of the multiple changes that have come out of this year, I hope hosting events in online platforms is something we can carry over. This can benefit large segments of the population that both are unable to perform or to assist a concert. Take for example people living with a disability. Oftentimes access to certain places or having to exist elsewhere from home are reasons to not be able to assist live events. Since these would take place online, they would be able to experience events that they would not be able to experience otherwise.
Although this pandemic has been extremely difficult for everybody, including the live entertainment industry, I love to see what people are coming up with as alternatives. I've been super interested in VR when it comes to production and performance, and although this is a little different, the idea of using games as a virtual meeting space is still intriguing. I wonder if this will spark developers to come up with game engines that are meant specifically for live entertainment purposes. This seems like a great way to bring people together.
I would have never expected an article published about Roblox being a great platform for live events during an international pandemic. I would say that Roblox has more of an association with children, and this may lead it to be a less successful platform to host concerts or events with older audiences. It is interesting to see that Fortnite is working actively to promote live events within its game, but I think its unfair to compare the two. What this article doesn’t really address is that Roblox is pretty much completely community-made, as in all of the little worlds and games have been made by people that aren’t employees with the company, but rather use the platform’s creative tools as a hobby. Because of the structure of the game, it makes sense the Roblox company would not try to promote or create these events themselves. Overall, I think live events within video games are a widely untapped and unappreciated form of performance. So many great things could be accomplished with the tools we have if the video game industry was focused on in this time, and if industries could swallow their pride and get over the reputations video games have.
This is such a good idea. I’m shocked that Roblox is the first online multiplayer game to tackle this. This could genuinely be a game changer for the event world.
Artists could have unparalleled freedom, coupled with accessibility to a much wider range of audiences. I’m just imagining being able to step into my favorite music videos live, with the artist. I would be so excited to see what people would create with this new form of art. The interactive, immersive music experiences people could create might be incredible. Designers would no longer be constrained by the laws of physics or budget. You literally have the power to give audiences any experience you can dream up.
I wonder how flexible the game mechanics would be. How much freedom would artists actually have while working within the constrictions of Roblox (would they be constrained to what the everyday player would have access to)? I’m assuming they'll be able to bend the rules, I’m just wondering how much Roblox will allow.
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