Simulation Nation

This week we revisiting the anime cyberpunk classic, Akira.

Set in a dystopian 2019, Akira tells the story of the leader of a biker gang whose childhood friend acquires incredible telekinetic abilities after a motorcycle accident, eventually threatening an entire military complex.

We'll talk about its legacy, if it holds up, and give it our Wow! score. Along the way, we'll also give you a chance to drop your knowledge bombs and make the Trivia Wall of Fame.

Fans of anime? You're not going to want to miss this!

Nationites! Today we are very excited to interview Cam Labine, who has been a writer on Ubisoft's game Watch Dogs Legion for the past five years.

Watch Dogs Legion finds the players in a near-future London that has just suffered a devastating terror attacks caused by a mysterious entity called Zero Day.

Cam will talk about his experience writing for the game, and what it takes to put out one of the most anticipated titles of the year.

If you're a fan of the series, or curious about learning about the process of creating a game at the highest level, you'll definitely want to check this out!

Today we talk with Jonathan Whittaker, who is a Multi-Media content creator with 20+ years of experience directing and producing features, VR experiences and much more. He is also the Co-chair of the VR Department at the New York Film Academy, and a partner at ManInHat, a New York-based production company.

His latest project is a VR experience that aims to demonstrate the roots of structural racism, and serves as a platform to train users to deal with microaggressions in medicine.

This week we are very excited to interview cyberpunk author Mark Everglade.

We'll discuss the evolution of the cyberpunk genre, then talk about his new book, Hemispheres. Hemsipheres is about a world where light itself is used as currency, and corrupt governments work to keep half the world in darkness, that is until a selfish mercenary grows a conscience.

If you're a fan of cyberpunk, you won't want to miss this!

Today we'll be going back into the Nostalgia Zone to Dark City, circa 1998. Dark City is a cyberpunk classic that follows an amnesiac man accused of murder who must remember who he is to free his name, all the while the reality around him keeps shifting at the hands of the mysterious "Strangers."

As always, we will test your knowledge of the film with some trivia, and give it our Wow! score.

If you're a fan of reality-bending 90s movies, then this is a must.

Tonight we cover our first TV series, Westworld. Fans of the show? Come hang out in this live version of a reddit chatboard

We are proud to bring you the fourth episode in our Worldbuilders of Altspace series. This time we'll talk to Karnivore, who hosts Worldbuilding in Unity tutorials and has created some of the most advanced worlds in all the metaverse. Check it out!

This week we have one that is not to be missed. We are returning to a game review with Half-Life: Alyx, widely considered to be the greatest VR game ever made. Half Life Alyx is a first-person shooter that follows Alyx Vance as she goes on a mission to seize a superweapon belonging to the alien Combine. 

Is it the best VR game ever, or empty hype? Listen to the episode to find out what we thought!

Nationites! Today we review Black Mirror's USS Callister. The episode follows a reclusive but gifted programmer and co-founder of a popular massive multiplayer online game who is bitter over the lack of recognition of his position from his coworkers. He takes out his frustrations by simulating a Star Trek–like space adventure within the game, using his co-workers' DNA to create sentient digital clones of them. 

As always, we'll discuss the film, test your trivia, and give it our Wow! score. 

Fans of Black Mirror will not want to miss this one!

As many of you know, Burning Man was relocated to virtual reality this year in Altspace. There were over 150 worlds that were built around virtual Black Rock City, and on this episode we have a very special guest who created some of the those worlds, and helped with many others. You’re not going to want to miss our interview with Worldbuilder Cause about how he does what he does.. 

Then, we teleported to Cause’s Burning Man inspired night club that was literally out of this world— a flying saucer on the edge of a massive reality-bending wormhole, where we heard a live set from DJ Oni. Unfortunately, you just had to be there, and due to the highly reality-bending nature of this event, it was not recorded.

Luckily, though, Cause walks us through his process of building his wormhole, so take a listen!