Unless you’re brave enough to endure the crowded NYC commute to watch the famous New Year’s Eve Ball start its descent at exactly 11:59 p.m., we have all made it a national tradition to gather around the TV with friends and families to watch the ball drop. As we unite to countdown the final moments of the year, and cheers to a new year of health, happiness, opportunity, and all of our hearts’ desires, much of NYE has centered around the traditional lowering of the Ball and the New Year’s Eve parties featuring the televised event as the star.
In particular, this year has been a high-intensity emotional time, as we battled the coronavirus outbreak together and learned to navigate a new normal. Though we have united to “ring out the old, [and] ring in the new” each year, this year particularly begged the call to unite the world to fight the pandemic. As we continue to battle this new world, much of quarantined life and public shutdowns has casted us as characters in Groundhog Day. However, the rise of the metaverse has unlocked a new world for us to explore.
In fact, for those of us sick of watching the ball drop on TV, we are now in the zoomer’s realm––a digital universe that embraces the virtual 3D experience. No longer do we have to crowd the Manhattan subways or bear the difficulty in landing one of the seemingly limitless yellow cabs that dominate the NYC roads. No longer do we have to spend another New Year’s Eve watching the Ball drop on TV. This year, we can party in the Metaverse to the tunes of Paris Hilton.
Specifically, Paris Hilton has created a virtual island––Paris World––in the digital, on Roblox. As an online, virtual world, Paris World already offers visitors the opportunity to embrace their imagination and experience real life in digital form in the metaverse. In fact, guests can attend virtual hangouts, experience digital replicas of her Beverly Hills estate and mansion, stroll through Hilton-inspired boardwalks, drive luxury sports cars, and sail Sunray yachts. Specifically, Paris World exists as a for-profit island, meaning that it collects payment for purchasing virtual clothing or attending Paris World’s specific attractions.
Indeed, Hilton joins the metaverse party along with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Tommy Hilfiger’s ready-to-wear fashion for digital avatars, and Nike’s platform called Nikeland for visitors to compete in dodgeball tournaments and try on Air Force 1 sneakers. Specifically, the music industry has embraced much of the metaverse’s offerings, as artists such as Lil Nas X and Travis Scott have held concerts for virtual concertgoers. The mania for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as an easy, unique, and non-interchangeable unit of data has proffered the fantastic, whimsical world of the metaverse––and one that you can explore this New Year’s Eve in Paris World, dancing to an electronic set DJed by Hilton herself!
Works Cited:
https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2021/12/29/why-i-decided-to-spend-new-years-eve-in-the-metaverse/
on court with steph 