Welcome to the Metaverse by Luke Franks

02.01.2024

The Story of the Dogecoin Millionaire + Money in the Internet Age - Conversation with Chris Temple - Director of the hit documentary - THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE

You may have seen the headlines back in 2021 about a guy who put all of his money into Dogecoin and became a millionaire...but then...well I'll let Chris tell you the story. THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE is a documentary...

12.22.2023

24 Predictions and Trends for 2024 - Across Immersive Technology, AI, Cryptocurrency, Web3, Gaming & More Happy Holidays!

Luke and Robin lay out their predictions and trends for 2024, which no doubt will be a wild year. We cover Immersive Technology, AI, Cryptocurrency, Web3, Gaming and more. Do you agree and what did we miss? Say hello over...

12.13.2023

A Business Guide to Roblox - Monetisation, Marketing and More with Stephen Dypiangco of Metaverse Marcom

Roblox recently hit 70 million Daily Active Users and the top experiences on the platform have had over 30 billion visits. This week we cover the business side of the hottest metaverse platform of all. Stephen Dypiangco runs Metaverse Marcom...

12.07.2023

How to Consistently Spot Future Trends and Opportunities with Co-founder of Tether & WAX Blockchain - William Quigley

William Quigley is the co-founder of Tether aka the first fiat-backed stablecoin and most traded cryptocurrency to date and the co-founder of WAX - one of the most used blockchains in the world with over 10 million active users and...

11.30.2023

Have We Discovered AGI...? (Also what is AGI?), Markets Are On A Tear Upwards, Roblox Hits 70 MILLION DAU and More

Have we discovered Artificial General Intelligence and is that why OpenAI had a freak out? Despite the CZ and Binance news, Bitcoin is up over 130% - what might be coming next? Roblox hits 70 MILLION Daily Active Users and LEGO...

11.20.2023

This Blockchain Game Has Shot to No.1 | The Humane AI Pin - Genius or Trash? | And Robots Have A Sense Of Touch Now...

If blockchain gaming is lining up to be the next major narrative, then this new game is leading the charge - it's called Pixels and it shot to the top of the charts this week with over 100k daily active...

11.15.2023

This Is The Immersive Technology Company That Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount and Universal All Call First - Conversation with Sol Rogers - Global Director of Innovation at Magnopus

Magnopus are one of Hollywood’s best kept secrets. They are the guys that everyone calls (WB, Paramount, Disney, Pixar, Universal, Amazon Studios) when they need a technology solution for something that’s never been done before. Their incredible work spans across virtual...

10.31.2023

Are We Lining Up for the Next Bull Market Cycle? | Meta Quest 3 Release, RTFKT x Nike Make Waves, Unreal Fest & A World Record in VR

Now that we've had the layoffs, SBF's trial and major corrections across the board...we know what happens next. Are we beginning to see crypto and metaverse sentiments gradually turn positive again? This week Luke and Robin take a sense check of...

10.26.2023

What You Can Learn From Coca-Cola's Venture Into AI Co-Creation (with Sawhorse & VIRTUE)

AI continues to be the topic on everyone's mind but how do you really make best use of it at your company, as part of your campaigns or for your customers? Recently we saw Coca-Cola launch a campaign, which was simple,...

10.13.2023

Founder of Second Life (The Original Metaverse) - Philip Rosedale - Gives his Expert Opinion on the Future of This Space

Philip Rosedale is the CEO, founder and OG of the original metaverse Second Life, which he has been working on for 20 years and is still going strong today. In this episode he gives his unrivalled expert opinion on the current...

10.03.2023

Breaking Down the Meta Connect 2023 Announcements + Epic Games Announce Major Layoffs

The tagline for this episode is 'Return of the Zuck' - we recently saw some major announcements from Meta Connect 2023 that are genuinely quite game changing for the future of the metaverse. We break them down and what they...

09.27.2023

'Your NFTs Are Finally Worthless...?' Or Is It Late Bear Market Clickbait? + The Latest News

Recently lots of mainstream publications including Rolling Stone ran an article referencing that 95% of NFTs are now worthless...but who wrote the article? Is it true and is it a clear late bear market signal? We also dive into the release...

09.12.2023

TikTok Partner with AI Virtual Pets (from the team behind Pokemon Go), Creator League Drama and Nintendo Releasing a VR Headset?

Lots to get stuck into on this week's news roundup. We've been speculating on the return of the Tamagotchi or equivalent virtual pet in the age of AI companionship. TikTok are partnering with exactly that, made by the creators of...

09.05.2023

Drone Home Surveillance Is Here, Google and Adobe Back Location-Based AR Experiences & More News

In this week's news round-up, there's some slightly dystopian suggestions that the NYPD will be using drone surveillance for people's backyard parties over the holidays... We also cover how your business can move first on location-based AR experiences as Google and...

08.31.2023

How People Are Already Making Millions of Dollars on UEFN for Fortnite

The gold rush is on for UEFN creations in Fortnite as Epic Games allocate 40% of Fortnite's revenue (in the billions of dollars) to be paid out to UEFN creators. In this episode we cover how this works and 5...

08.29.2023

The World's Biggest Girl Band Arrive in Roblox! (and Our MKBHD Build in Fortnite is Live!)

This week not only have the world's biggest girl band arrived with their own experience in Roblox (Blackpink the Palace) but we here at BasedAF drop our project for one of the world's biggest Youtubers Marques Brownlee aka MKHBD in...

08.24.2023

Unreal Engine is Powering the Next Generation of Content (with. Haz Dulull Founder of Hazimation)

This is a conversation with the awesome Hasraf ‘HaZ' Dulull who is a filmmaker, vfx and virtual production wizard. He now leads the team at his own studio - HaZimation where they develop and produce feature films, tv and video games...

08.22.2023

Is Grand Theft Auto Set to Become the Biggest Metaverse of All? (GTA Roleplay and More)

Back again for the latest metaverse and AI news, this week we focus on Grand Theft Auto aka one of the biggest game franchises of all time. This week Rockstar acquired CFX.RE the team behind the biggest roleplay and creator...

08.20.2023

Lead AI Advisor to the UN Explains How to Prepare Yourself for the Future (Neil Sahota)

Neil Sahota is the Lead AI Advisor to the United Nations. Unsurprisingly, this was a fascinating conversation. We talk about the UN’s role in coordinating the international response to AI, some of the biggest opportunities ahead of us as well as...

08.16.2023

How to Get a Job at Roblox...in Roblox! & Weekly News Update

Luke and Robin are back for the latest metaverse, ai and tech news, this week talking through how you can get a job at Roblox, whilst being in Roblox. We also cover the PGA Tour Series which you can play...

08.14.2023

This Is What Comes Next For AI - The Simulation | Interview with Fable Studio CEO - Edward Saatchi

Fable Studio are the Emmy Award Winning Studio, who most recently went viral for creating the South Park AI Show runner, which can generate entire original episodes. In this interview, we chat to the CEO Edward Saatchi about where their...

08.08.2023

WTF is a Superconductor And Why Might They Change The World?!

This week Robin and Luke discuss the latest metaverse and tech news, including new releases that could reinvigorate the faltering Meta Horizon World's fortunes. Plus Scientists in Korea have made one of the most ground breaking discoveries of this century....

08.03.2023

The Man Who ‘fell in love with his ai chatbot’ Tells the Real Story

T.J. Arriaga has hit the headlines as ‘the man who fell in love with his ai girlfriend’ on popular app Replika, but is that what really happened? In this interview he explains the true story, how ai companions are taking...

08.01.2023

The Weird Retina Scanning Orbs Are Here! + Getting Feelings for AI & Is This The Start of the Next Bull Market?

Luke considers becoming an Orb operator to get that sought after retina data. We talk about getting feelings for AI and if we'll all have relationships with them AND is this the start of the next bull market cycle? Welcome to...

07.27.2023

What Your Kids Are Doing on Roblox...And Why You Should Care!

They play it all the time and are always asking for Robux but what are they actually doing on Roblox? Is it safe? And how are some kids making 100's of 1000's of dollars!? Follow the show to get more episodes...

07.24.2023

NEWS : AI Can Now Create Entire South Park Episodes! The Simulation is Here. (+Bezos and Gates Want to Put Computers In Our Brains)

Another week means another set of wild stories including the team at The Simulation who've created an AI showrunner to produce entirely new South Park episodes, absolutely wild. We also talk about new brain computer interfaces and zombie games in...

07.17.2023

NEWS : Roblox is Coming to Meta Quest VR! (+ Elon Musk starts xAI to Save Humanity from Terminator Future...)

Roblox the biggest game on the planet with 66 million users per day, is coming to VR! Could this be a major milestone in the metaverse journey? Plus Elon Musk says we need to worry about a 'Terminator Future' when it...

07.14.2023

Esports 101 - A Beginners Guide to the World of Esports

So you know Esports is a massive deal, you keep hearing about the gigantic prizes and the crazy amounts of viewers but perhaps you also have some questions. How does it work? Who are the major teams? What are the tournaments?...

07.10.2023

Inside the Underworld of Metaverse Crime! - NFT Hacks, Crypto Heists and True Crime Stories

Tara Annison has spent the last 4 years as Head of Technical Crypto Advisory at Elliptic - where she has spent her time tracking some of the biggest crypto hacks, heists and malicious activity. In this mind-blowing episode, she tells...

07.05.2023

Is Web3 Gaming the Next Biggest Opportunity? (A Simple Guide)

Gaming has come a long way since the days of blowing on an N64 cartridge to desperately try and make it work again. Now it is the biggest entertainment industry on the planet worth $200 billion globally. We've seen plenty...

07.03.2023

The Dark Underworld of Video Game Skin Trading (+ Azuki $38M Drop and The Sinking Island)

It's an absolute all-you-can-eat buffet of metaverse stories this week. We talk about a major video games and Esports report, which suggests the industry is on track to make $70 billion this year. The Pacific island of Tuvalu is sinking...

06.29.2023

Is This the Fortnite of Sport? Co-Creator of Zed Run Talks Future of Digital Athletes

Chris Ebeling is the co-creator of the massively popular digital horse racing game Zed Run (3.5m races and $60M paid out), who is now working on a new project that could be shaping up to be the Fortnite of Sport. Plus...

06.26.2023

Why The Founder of Metav3rse (1.3M Followers), Roberto Nickson, Shut Down His NFT Project - The NFT Culture Casino!

This is an interview with Roberto Nickson, the founder of hugely popular Instagram account Metav3rse, Eluna AI and the MV3 NFT (which last week he announced has been sunset). He recently posted a very honest blog post on why he felt...

06.22.2023

AI Generated TV Shows are Hilarious & Terrifying... Is AI Out of Control!?

Spongebob ended up in car crash because Squidward thought he was being tracked by the CIA. Peter Griffin and the rest of the Family Guy cast have been plotting to escape after being investigated for murder and AI generated Seinfeld...

06.19.2023

NIKE & Fortnite Major Collab! Top NFT Project Calls it Quits & Cardano Founder Hunts Aliens!?

It seems very clear now that Nike are going all in on their web3 digital sneaker venture .swoosh. Having sold millions of dollars worth of their 'Our Force 1' recent drop, Nike have now released a teaser trailer to their...

06.15.2023

The 10 Most FUN Experiences You Can Have in VR Today! (2023)

There has never been a better time to get into VR than this moment right now and there are hundreds of weird, mindblowing, terrifying and straight up hilarious things that you can do in the virtual realm. In this episode,...

06.12.2023

AI is Sparking a GPU Crisis! Could RNDR Crypto be the Saviour?

Asking ChatGPT to constantly be our new AI brain is amazing but all of that compute power has to come from somewhere. And as we move closer to a fully fledged metaverse with AI fuelling 3D creation, GPU is in...

06.07.2023

Apple Have Arrived with the Vision Pro! So Which VR Headset Should You Get Now!?

It happened! Apple arrived late to the party but wearing the coolest outfit of all, even if the Apple Vision Pro does look a bit like a futuristic scuba diving mask that you definitely can't get wet. So, do you...

06.02.2023

Making Deepfakes Has Got TOO EASY - Here's How You Do It in 3-clicks

Deep fakes are not new of course but recently they have got really REALLY easy for anyone to create without training a model themselves and on a regular computer. On this episode of the Welcome to the Metaverse podcast, we dive...

05.30.2023

Sam Altman (OpenAI) Wants to Scan Your Eyeballs, Microchips in the Brain, Meta Quest 3 and more!

Here's some questions you didn't think you'd ask yourself this week : Would you be up for a microchip in your brain and can Sam Altman of OpenAi scan your eyeballs so that you can prove who you really are?...

05.24.2023

Meet the World's Most Terrifying Robots! (Boston Dynamics, Tesla bot, humanoids that make art and one that escaped on its own)

Introducing the world's most terrifying robots that exist on planet earth today. Scientists warned us but we mostly ignored them and made them anyway, good work humans! I for one welcome our new robot overlords and am looking forward to...

05.23.2023

AI Can Read Our Minds Now!? Intelligent NPC's in Games and Chat GPT as Your Wingman?

There's no need for us to tell you what the show is about today because AI CAN LITERALLY READ YOUR MIND NOW. We chat through what is happening and how it has already been tested in games. We also cover...

05.17.2023

The Virtual Humans Have Arrived! Is This the Future You Imagined!?

The virtual humans are here but what does this mean for us regular physical humans!? In this episode we cover the vtuber origins through to the latest and most hyper real virtual human Ana, who interestingly is made by Krafton,...

05.15.2023

The AI Girlfriend (Caryn Marjorie) Who Charges $1 per Minute! Memecoin Mania and Google Is An AI Company!?

Just another quiet week in the land of AI and the metaverse as we see influencer Caryn Majorie with 1.8 million followers on snapchat release an AI version of herself. She charged $1 per minute to use it and made...

05.10.2023

The Next Chapter of Fortnite - What is The Unreal Editor (UEFN) & Why is it Such a Big Deal?

Since Fortnite's first release in 2017, it is garnered 500 million player accounts and 70 million monthly active users. We've seen Battle Royale Mode, Creative Mode and now the next chapter - the Fortnite Unreal Engine Editor (UEFN). In this episode...

05.05.2023

FORTNITE Joins the ESPORTS OLYMPICS! Everything You Need to Know

The IOC have just announced that Sport Shooting has joined the Olympic Esports Series, with the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF)’s challenge featuring Fortnite. The Olympic Esports series is taking place from the 22nd to the 25th June 2023 and...

04.26.2023

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