Another movie article, yet another movie I wanted to re-watch, and, since it also covers games, this time, the more social ones, together with AI, then, it just happened to be the perfect follow-up to my WarGames article.
Just so you know, I had forgotten that AI was involved in this one, I just picked it, cause I remember a game being a big part of it, I mean, its been 10 years since I originally watched it, just cause synchronicity just seems to follow me, this happy coincidence came to be.
Its also a good exercise to see what stuff I didn’t get when I was younger, specially with the subject matter, and, now older and wiser, oh boy, but that’s a bit too spicy to talk about, that’s between me and the intrusive anti-tech thoughts.
Also, an excuse to watch anime.
In The Land Of Oz
It sure ain’t Kansas, this land is a fully digital one, a centralized global hub, in which EVERYTHING digital is connected to, a metaverse if you will.
In this movie, in their infinite wisdom, the entire world has decided to centralize absolutely everything into Oz, ranging from social media, to government and critical infrastructure.
A digital world which you can access from most devices, if its digital, you are in, all you need to do, is to create an avatar, tied to your real identity, and, in you go to take advantage of every service within Oz, it even has an auto-translation feature which allows you to hang out with people from all over the world, oh my, how convenient!
In the movie, we follow Kenji, a high school student, now that summer vacation has come, together with his buddy, they are getting ready for their summer part-time job, doing some minor debugging for Oz.
But, a girl shows up, a quite popular one in fact, and asks them for a favor, but, only one of them can help, since they are simps, they decide to leave it to rock-paper-scissors.
In this movie, in their infinite wisdom, the entire world has decided to centralize absolutely everything into Oz, ranging from social media, to government and critical infrastructure.
A digital world which you can access from most devices, if its digital, you are in, all you need to do, is to create an avatar, tied to your real identity, and, in you go to take advantage of every service within Oz, it even has an auto-translation feature which allows you to hang out with people from all over the world, oh my, how convenient!
In the movie, we follow Kenji, a high school student, now that summer vacation has come, together with his buddy, they are getting ready for their summer part-time job, doing some minor debugging for Oz.
But, a girl shows up, a quite popular one in fact, and asks them for a favor, but, only one of them can help, since they are simps, they decide to leave it to rock-paper-scissors.
Kenji wins, and off he goes with the girl, another part-time job opportunity, this time, all he has to do, is to pretend he is her fiance, in front of her entire family, most importantly, in front of The Matriarch herself, her grandma.
Summer seemed to be going pretty alright for Kenji, he gets to take it easy, and gets to hang out with one of the popular girls, what could possibly ruin this idyllic summer?
Well… Late at night, our boy receives a pretty strange email from an unknown sender, a long string of numbers, and, for some god forsaken reason, he thinks its a brain teaser, and solves it, sending it back in the morning.
The very next day, he gets his account hacked, and, using his avatar, the hacker absolutely wrecks Oz, prompting Japanese authorities to be on the lookout for him, remember kids, never open suspicious emails.
But, this isn’t just some account hijacking, its far bigger, that hacker, its an AI, programmed with the desire to acquire knowledge at any cost, simply stealing accounts isn’t enough, it wants to completely take over Oz.
The more accounts it takes, the more services are rendered offline, and, since everything is connected to Oz, well…
False emergencies, messing with GPS, controlling traffic lights, manipulating bank details, messing with patient records, the more accounts it takes over, the more potential damage. It starts with minor annoyances, but it can become an absolute disaster.
Yet, people won’t take this lying down, Kenji, now allied with the proud descendants of The Takeda Clan, will fight against the AI, man vs machine, spirit vs algorithm.
The Summer Wars have begun.
Summer seemed to be going pretty alright for Kenji, he gets to take it easy, and gets to hang out with one of the popular girls, what could possibly ruin this idyllic summer?
Well… Late at night, our boy receives a pretty strange email from an unknown sender, a long string of numbers, and, for some god forsaken reason, he thinks its a brain teaser, and solves it, sending it back in the morning.
The very next day, he gets his account hacked, and, using his avatar, the hacker absolutely wrecks Oz, prompting Japanese authorities to be on the lookout for him, remember kids, never open suspicious emails.
But, this isn’t just some account hijacking, its far bigger, that hacker, its an AI, programmed with the desire to acquire knowledge at any cost, simply stealing accounts isn’t enough, it wants to completely take over Oz.
The more accounts it takes, the more services are rendered offline, and, since everything is connected to Oz, well…
False emergencies, messing with GPS, controlling traffic lights, manipulating bank details, messing with patient records, the more accounts it takes over, the more potential damage. It starts with minor annoyances, but it can become an absolute disaster.
Yet, people won’t take this lying down, Kenji, now allied with the proud descendants of The Takeda Clan, will fight against the AI, man vs machine, spirit vs algorithm.
The Summer Wars have begun.
A Bright Dystopia
Cyberpunk with a summer palette indeed.
Although the movie touches upon technology encroaching on daily life, and, it can be considered a cautionary tale regarding the dependence on technology, that isn’t the true focus of the movie.
Oz is what Zuckerberg wanted his Metaverse to be, a true hub for absolutely everything, destroying all privacy boundaries, thankfully, in our world, the project was a laughable failure.
Let me remind you, that this movie came out 2 years before Ready Player One, but the concept of a Metaverse has been around since the 90s, although the movie itself never refers to Oz as a Metaverse of sorts, in execution, it might as well be one.
While watching the movie, the more you think about Oz and how it could theoretically work in real life, the more nightmarish and dystopian it becomes, the prospect alone made me shudder.
Although the movie touches upon technology encroaching on daily life, and, it can be considered a cautionary tale regarding the dependence on technology, that isn’t the true focus of the movie.
Oz is what Zuckerberg wanted his Metaverse to be, a true hub for absolutely everything, destroying all privacy boundaries, thankfully, in our world, the project was a laughable failure.
Let me remind you, that this movie came out 2 years before Ready Player One, but the concept of a Metaverse has been around since the 90s, although the movie itself never refers to Oz as a Metaverse of sorts, in execution, it might as well be one.
While watching the movie, the more you think about Oz and how it could theoretically work in real life, the more nightmarish and dystopian it becomes, the prospect alone made me shudder.
Of course, the movie takes a lot of liberties regarding technology and how it portrays it, with the digital realm being overly exaggerated and surreal, but, when you pay attention at how it actually is portrayed in the many PCs and phones in the movie, you realize its just a fusion of Second Life, and Worlds.com, which were around at the time, so they were likely inspirations.
There is also the over the top animation Mad House was so well known for, before Ufotable took that crown from them, its obvious, there is no way those fights would actually look like that, and that hacking is not as entertaining as its shown, but its fun to not care, at the end of the day, is an abstraction they decided to use to make the movie entertaining, instead of throwing more incomprehensible tech jargon than your average Arch user.
Going back to what the movie is actually about, The movie is about human connection in the digital age, as, despite all the tech involved, at the end of the day, what helps to beat the AI are people working together.
Although the movie has enough themes and concepts to focus entirely on making a social commentary on technology, it decided to focus on the human aspect instead, which in retrospect, goes a long way in keeping the movie fresh and interesting so many years later.
And, its surprising how relevant this movie is today, even though some of the tech shown is on the older side.
There is also the over the top animation Mad House was so well known for, before Ufotable took that crown from them, its obvious, there is no way those fights would actually look like that, and that hacking is not as entertaining as its shown, but its fun to not care, at the end of the day, is an abstraction they decided to use to make the movie entertaining, instead of throwing more incomprehensible tech jargon than your average Arch user.
Going back to what the movie is actually about, The movie is about human connection in the digital age, as, despite all the tech involved, at the end of the day, what helps to beat the AI are people working together.
Although the movie has enough themes and concepts to focus entirely on making a social commentary on technology, it decided to focus on the human aspect instead, which in retrospect, goes a long way in keeping the movie fresh and interesting so many years later.
And, its surprising how relevant this movie is today, even though some of the tech shown is on the older side.
Digital Dreams
I got a word count to hit, so… Bear with my stream of consciousness writing until I believe its enough.
Would something like Oz truly exist? The potential is there, there have been attempts after all, I mentioned one earlier, and, the whole cancer that is Web 3.0 really likes the concept of a Metaverse.
As contradictory as a Metaverse is with the whole “decentralized” thing they like to push, it is what is.
Still, if there is one thing to give them, watching those projects fail is entertaining.
Would something like Oz truly exist? The potential is there, there have been attempts after all, I mentioned one earlier, and, the whole cancer that is Web 3.0 really likes the concept of a Metaverse.
As contradictory as a Metaverse is with the whole “decentralized” thing they like to push, it is what is.
Still, if there is one thing to give them, watching those projects fail is entertaining.
Although most people already live connected to the internet in one form of another, the move to a completely digital life is far away, the pandemic proved that most of the population ain’t ready for that kind of lifestyle for extended periods of time, yet.
Of course, the fact that Second Life and IMVU are still around (somehow), and the success of VR Chat, does keep the illusion of a potential Metaverse being achievable alive.
The state of Worlds.com also shows how it could potentially be, with big companies having the “interactive tours” and all the immersive ads being passed on as servers, knowing how bad ads can get, if anything, it keeps this nightmarish reality from happening earlier.
The more you think about it, the more you wonder wtf are they thinking, expanding social hubs beyond being digital hangouts with occasional mini-games, would be missing the point, but, tech bros being out of touch? Say it ain’t so!
Would you consider something like Second Life, IMVU, Habbo Hotel, Worlds.com, VR Chat, etc. Games? Or, are they just glorified chat rooms?
Sure they have mini-games and what not, but, at their core, its just a bunch of people hanging out in a slightly more involved chatroom.
If you think about it, they are the same as this very forum, only changing the format and the ways the interactions happens, at the end of the day, at its core socializing is the same, what changes is the methods.
They are popular for a reason, leaving aside the many controversies which are bound to happen in such environments, they are still going strong, regardless of payment model.
It is the same with MMOs, even though they offer more than just being social hangouts, the social aspect is what keeps them alive for far far longer once the gameplay reaches its logical tedium filled conclusion.
The biggest appeal of these kind of games is the community after all, to make friends with people from all over the world, and make some memories.
The moment more things get added on top, as well as the removal of privacy, the incorporation of annoying everyday things like banking and school, and the obvious government overreach that’s going to happen, already make a Metaverse almost unachievable in practice.
And, we know the more centralized things get, the more catastrophic damage is when things go wrong.
Just like Summer Wars, there is a lot more that I could talk about, but, this is an article in a gaming forum, not one of my scientific journals.
Would you give the movie a watch? If you look past the themes on the surface, there is a lot to think about, specially in this day and age, now that the internet sucks, and social media wants to gamify itself, at the expense of the users of course.
It may be a story about family and connections, but its also a cautionary tale about the centralization and digitalization of the everyday.
Never forget what matters, “convenience” ain’t worth it.
Of course, the fact that Second Life and IMVU are still around (somehow), and the success of VR Chat, does keep the illusion of a potential Metaverse being achievable alive.
The state of Worlds.com also shows how it could potentially be, with big companies having the “interactive tours” and all the immersive ads being passed on as servers, knowing how bad ads can get, if anything, it keeps this nightmarish reality from happening earlier.
The more you think about it, the more you wonder wtf are they thinking, expanding social hubs beyond being digital hangouts with occasional mini-games, would be missing the point, but, tech bros being out of touch? Say it ain’t so!
Would you consider something like Second Life, IMVU, Habbo Hotel, Worlds.com, VR Chat, etc. Games? Or, are they just glorified chat rooms?
Sure they have mini-games and what not, but, at their core, its just a bunch of people hanging out in a slightly more involved chatroom.
If you think about it, they are the same as this very forum, only changing the format and the ways the interactions happens, at the end of the day, at its core socializing is the same, what changes is the methods.
They are popular for a reason, leaving aside the many controversies which are bound to happen in such environments, they are still going strong, regardless of payment model.
It is the same with MMOs, even though they offer more than just being social hangouts, the social aspect is what keeps them alive for far far longer once the gameplay reaches its logical tedium filled conclusion.
The biggest appeal of these kind of games is the community after all, to make friends with people from all over the world, and make some memories.
The moment more things get added on top, as well as the removal of privacy, the incorporation of annoying everyday things like banking and school, and the obvious government overreach that’s going to happen, already make a Metaverse almost unachievable in practice.
And, we know the more centralized things get, the more catastrophic damage is when things go wrong.
Just like Summer Wars, there is a lot more that I could talk about, but, this is an article in a gaming forum, not one of my scientific journals.
Would you give the movie a watch? If you look past the themes on the surface, there is a lot to think about, specially in this day and age, now that the internet sucks, and social media wants to gamify itself, at the expense of the users of course.
It may be a story about family and connections, but its also a cautionary tale about the centralization and digitalization of the everyday.
Never forget what matters, “convenience” ain’t worth it.
Is Pretty Well Done and I Send You Greetings 
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