The ink of a scholar is holier than the blood of a martyr - The Prophet Muhammad
This article features Canibus, Ras Kass & Standard Combo
Customization has been the thread connecting my favorite video games of 2023. My style of gaming is to pick 2-3 single-player experiences and squeeze every ounce of fun out of it. Last year my favorite games were Returnal and Horizon: Forbidden West which I invested 150 hours each. This year, I’ve been grinding Need For Speed: Unbound and Armored Core 6: The Fires of Rubicon. There are a lot of video game stories from 2023 that I don't have time to focus on in this article. Such as PlayStation releasing the PSVR2 for high quality VR gaming experience. This year also had great remakes such as Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space. Starfield released to mix reviews but pushed procedural generation to the next level. Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom refined game world exploration by allowing the player to create anything they can imagine in the game. Recently, Cyberpunk 2077 released it's 2.0 DLC expansion starring Idris Elba. I'll be revisited these topics in future articles. As someone who is still hyped about the metaverse and its potential impact on our lives as our next-gen interface for digital connectivity. I’m always on high alert for trends in video games that I would like to continue in the next-gen. For example, Need For Speed: Unbound and Armored Core 6 has excessive customization options, which are a feature that should continue to evolve. In this article, I want to explore them more and figure out where they apply to the metaverse. As usual, remember to like, comment, and subscribe to help Medallion XLN create the new internet.
I’ve been playing alot of Need For Speed: Unbound and Armored Cored 6: Fires of Rubicon
Every one has a different idea of what the metaverse is supposed to be. That paradigm is beneficial because we can all bring those ideas together to determine which solution is the best. To ensure we’re all on the same page, I will take some time to outline some high level ideas about how I view the metaverse. My definition has multiple layers, the base layer is a digital space that uses avatars to interface with digital objects. In a conversation I had with Standard Combo of the LootMMO NFT project, from episode 9 of my podcast, he said that Discord was a kind of metaverse. Then he explained that users have an avatar that they use to go in and out of different chat rooms, worlds, and communities. A layer on top of that is digital sovereignty, meaning owning your digital footprint as a single sign-on that stores all relevant data about one's self in the avatar object. When the decentralized avatar interfaces with different apps, the avatar lends just enough data to fulfill the task, but when the avatar logs out, it takes related data with it. Then a layer on top of that is the user interface, whether a webpage, mobile app, console game, XR, VR or AR. In Medallion XLN's vision of the metaverse, the user interface is interchangeable, and the digital space and avatar components fits the consensus of what a metaverse is. The only difference is our focus on data privacy, user ownership, decentralization and digital sovereignty. To be clear, I don’t consider stand-alone VR games to be the metaverse, those are just VR games. The games in the metaverse use the avatar to traverse between applications. Another layer on top of that is items owned by the avatar can be transferred between apps as well, unless specifically banned by that app. Shout out to the Loot NFT project for the deep philosophy surrounding each Loot Bag.
Watch the full podcast with Standard Combo
Most people play video games to engage in power fantasies. My two games of the year, Need For Speed: Unbound and Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, both fulfill the power fantasy of me being rich enough to drive beautiful and fast cars and or pilot giant Mecha and rain fire and brimstone on my enemies. Customizing vehicles to my heart's desire, then street racing around the city while outmaneuvering a gang of police cruisers and helicopters or flying through the city at Mach speed while firing laser cannons from the back of my overpowered Mecha. Need For Speed: Unbound provides the feature of customizing the look of the main character. It provides a base model whose face and head can be customized to reflect the player. What stood out to me was the ability to dress the in-game avatar with real street-wear fashion brands. This got me thinking that it would be cool to dress my metaverse avatar with the same clothing I wear in real life. When I buy outfits in the metaverse, those same outfits should appear on my doorstep in real life. It’s crazy how many customizations I can make in Armored Core 6, and what’s crazy is how dramatically these changes affect the gameplay. In that same podcast, Standard Combo talks about min/maxing and game balancing. Armored Core is the perfect game to demonstrate how to min/max. I love how every feature drastically affects my gameplay. There is an option to swap the missile launcher over the shoulder for secondary weapons. The trigger that usually fires the missiles toggles the secondary, which is then fired by the back trigger. It breaks my brain to figure out how to play like that every time. There are options to make tank builds to unleash powerful heavy weapons, and fast builds that favor swift maneuvering over powerful attacks, then everything in between. Honestly, this entire article was just a reason to talk about how much I love playing these two games.
AC6 is such a cool game
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