"Westworld" believes that there is still a huge fan team, it is rumored that "Westworld" will usher in the fourth season, and will allow robots from a small kingdom into the human world, the combination of virtual and real, how artificial intelligence impacts the human world, Lanyu Cultural Theme Development and Design Institute looks forward to it with you.
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Season 4 of Westworld will once again create a "real-life scene park"
According to a number of media reports, HBO's Westworld will usher in its fourth season. Program director Kathy Bolos said in a statement: "From The West Theme Park to the near-future technologist-dominated metropolis, we have fully enjoyed every transformation of story gurus Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. "We can't wait to see where their vision takes us next." Some of the stills of the fourth season of foreign media spoilers.
Westworld Season 4 Trailer | Source: Web
Stills from the fourth season of Westworld| Source: The Web
In 2021, the concept of "meta-universe" is rapidly becoming popular around the world, and "Westworld" will also accelerate its progress to keep up with the pace of the times, and it is likely to make this IP into a "meta-universe" game. According to reliable sources, Westworld Copyright Company is negotiating cooperation with a VR company, robot company and game company to create a "Westworld" scene in reality, and the first batch of candidate development zones are expected to be the Western United States, Canada and Australia.
At that point, players will experience a drink from Maeve's bar in the field, or have a drink of dolores' milk, or have the opportunity to spend a good night with the machine version of "Tesla's former boss lady" Dalula... Many scenes will appear in front of the experiencer as promised, providing them with an extraordinary experience in it.
Westworld is a 2016 HBO sci-fi series based on the 1973 film of the same name, which tells the story of a giant high-tech Westworld-themed adult paradise that provides visitors with killing and sexual satisfaction, and as the receptionists have autonomous consciousness and thinking, they begin to doubt the nature of the world, and then awaken and rebel against humanity.
Westworld poster | Source: Web
Stills from the third season of Westworld| Source: The Web
In fact, since the third season of "Westworld", the story background has shifted from the virtual Westworld theme park to the real world. The new series features a large number of footage set in futuristic Singapore, London, Paris, New York, and specializes in the production of a large number of high-tech vehicles... These new elements can create the future of an international metropolis. In order to reflect the sci-fi texture of the future world, HBO has invested heavily in creating a cyberpunk world with a full sense of technology.
Realistic photos: Principe Felipe Museum, Spain Source: Web
Stills: Avant-garde mechanical behemoth, futuristic architectural | Source: The Web
Stills: Charlotte Hale's look back in front of "Big Eyes| Source: The Web
Stills: Los Angeles | Source: Web
Stills: Charlotte Hale's home | in London Source: The Web
Stills: Set in the Shanghai Tower| Source: Internet
Mark Harris, a member of the creative team of The Westworld's "immersive" theatrical version, said that this "fascination" is a kind of "passive fascination", thanks to the team's constant focus on storytelling and creating experiences, focusing on the design of details. Mark Harris said: "My work has two principles:
First, it is to let the audience enter a passive state of fascination, so that they can be attracted to the story;
The second is to let the storyteller collaborate with the audience, for example, the storyteller will give the audience a lot of details, which will stimulate the audience to actively imagine and thus immerse themselves in the story. ”
In order to let Westworld fans know more about the film, HBO offers a new VR experience that allows players to become self-awakening receptionists. The game, called Westworld Awakening, was developed by HBO in collaboration with VR developer Survios. In the game, players step into the space of Westworld and play as a receptionist named Kate. In the game, the journey will begin in a Western-themed mansion, while the player's mission is to survive the attack of the human master.
Screenshot of westworld Awakening game interface| source: HBO
In addition, on May 20, 2020, NetEase has already represented the VR game "Westworld Awakening".
Screenshot of the game interface of "Westworld Awakening" | Source: Hurry up game
It is understood that "Westworld Awakening" is licensed by the genuine IP of the American drama "Westworld", and HBO cooperates with the well-known American game company Survios to develop. The game takes on the story of The Bionic Man Rebellion season 2 in Westworld, set against the backdrop of a fierce battle between the Bionic Man and delos. Players will take on the role of Kate, the bionic receptionist, to collect clues, dodge chases, and eventually escape the Delos company that controls you.
Through the VR device, the player can experience the immersive feeling in the game, and the frequency and amplitude of the player's arm swing control the movement speed, so that the player can make a walk, jogging, sprinting, and escaping in the game. The tablet should be the core prop of this game, and the player can interact with the surrounding objects by scanning the tablet.
Back in 2016, HBO set up a "Westworld" VR experience hall at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, and the staff wore the same technological costumes as in the show to lead you to the "Wild West".
Westworld VR Experience Hall Photo | Source: Network
Westworld VR game interface | source: network
According to official reports, this VR experience combines CG content, 360-degree dynamic video and realistic interactive technology, and even invokes Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 engine, which is a huge investment.
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authentic! It was HBO's logical starting point for challenging Disney
In today's "meta-universe", only the understanding of reality can redefine the amusement industry!
Left: Shanghai Disney Castle; Right: Westworld poster | Source: Internet
First, the real verification from HBO
As early as March 9 to March 11, 2018, HBO's world-renowned American drama "Westworld" in order to promote the second season, the 19th century American western town "Sweet Water" "Sweet Water Town", as an offline real immersive interactive experience project, was moved to the most famous film festival, music festival and technology festival SXSW Interactive (South by Southwest) in the United States, the main purpose is to warm up the second season of "Westworld" that will be launched on April 22.
HBO's Westworld featured a cast of 66 local actors to play the hosts who live here. Coupled with more than 40 workers who spent 5 weeks rushing to build and more than 58 suppliers providing supplies, the 2-acre reality of Austin, Texas, recreates the wild town in the play. Even though HBO officially defines SXSW "Sweetwater Town" as a marketing campaign, we see this event as HBO testing the possibility of offline theme parks, in fashionable terms, ip derivatives and monetization, and forming a closed-loop pan-entertainment ecology.
SXSW Sweetwater Experience Hall | Source: Web
SXSW's Sweetwater Town is a live replica of "Sweetwater Town" in Westworld, using an RPG immersive gameplay approach. The experience program, which was originally expected to receive only 3,500 people, was so popular that there was a long queue waiting to enter the "Sweetwater Town" experience, and HBO had to add a new shuttle bus from the next day to meet the needs of those who had no reservations, but who came temporarily. In the end, the experiencers who were lucky enough to enter "Sweetwater Town" had 4 hours in line, which was even more excessive than Shanghai Disneyland.
SXSW's Sweetwater Live Video | Source: https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2026387
This time SXSW's "Sweetwater Town" is a full-life role-play (there was a so-called script kill later). The play is set in the 19th century American West, except that the tourists are human, and every character in Westworld is a bionic person (commonly known as npc in the game) who has a fixed storyline. Players can open "side lines" by encountering and talking with them, and participate in a series of story tasks such as fighting bandits and digging up treasures with the sheriff, in short, Westworld's live-action 1.0SXSW "Sweetwater Town" is like a video game that has been moved to reality.
SXSW Sweetwater Experience Live | Source: Network
Compared to regular video games, Westworld Live-Action 1.0 SXSW Sweetwater provides a thrilling experience of playing the script face-to-face. The scene is set bionic humans are controlled by the program, can complete autonomous actions without tourists, but can not hurt humans, can only hurt each other, and the bullets fired will not hurt human tourists in the slightest. In addition to following the script given by the park, visitors can also act as they please, even disregarding any laws and social morals. As a result, the player experience is more like being in the dark version of Disneyland. In addition to some blunt ticket character experiencers, trying to flirt with the actors who play prostitutes as in the series, and watching the hilarity is not too much to encourage NPCs to fight.
Therefore, "Westworld" live-action 1.0 "SXSW Sweetwater Town", can be defined as "a high degree of freedom of IP sandbox game", which is the rise of the game industry in recent years, sandbox gameplay, no rules, all depending on the player's own preferences!
In order to get closer to the truth, SXSW "Sweetwater Town" recreates the background of the series as much as possible, and each host actor follows the existing script at 100%. If you look around, players will find that Host seems to be doing one thing over and over again, deliberately creating a Westworld-like story atmosphere.
There are more than 40 residents of the town, each with their own independent background story, waiting for the player to understand and discover, and there will be no interaction between hosts beyond the script. The SXSW Sweetwater Project has a 444-page script, which is comparable to a drama novel. Even so, the host still has to adapt to the character setting when facing the player, and from this point of view, SXSW "Sweetwater Town" is like a super-large improv group portrait drama.
Players need to use their own feet, rather than manipulating the keyboard and mouse, holding the phone to discover the story of "Sweetwater Town". The story of SXSW's Sweetwater culminates in a tense gun-to-gun standoff at night, and while the props don't create bloody scenes, the tension of the live-action actors falling far outweighs the shock of the fancy special effects on the screen. The crowd's noisy exclamations and booing stripped the most naked part of human nature to the players themselves. Compared to VR, SXSW Sweetwater Goes a step further, holding the magical scene directly in front of the player's eyes, and you can even faintly smell the smoke in the air.
SXSW Sweetwater breaks the boundary between virtual and real, proving that in the real world, if a virtual content can provide players with a real experience that is difficult to find flaws, then for the player himself, this is the real world!
Second, you only need to define, what is "real"?!
Today, in the "meta-universe" that everyone is looking forward to providing visitors with virtual technology, we may wish to learn HBO's virtual world real imaging method again.
They adhere to the "dramatic scene, drama impulse, drama into the play" of theatrical creation method, relying on IP in the real world and using limited technical expression. Based on the practice since 2016, they have continuously improved the multi-platform and multi-media closed loop of IP experience, firmly grasped the IP world view, and proposed the product concept of "IP real scene park", in this regard, they far surpassed the "IP plastic flower real scene park" of Disney and Universal Studios.
Westworld Sweetwater Town | Source: Network
In Westworld, the topic of what is real has been raised, just like the matrix world proposed in "The Matrix".
What is true? Reality is what exists in the present moment. Westworld is highly similar to the game in terms of content supply, even if host (NPC) has some intelligence, it can provide a sense of freshness to a certain extent, but an old player (regular customer) will inevitably continue to consume game content, which will eventually lead to boredom with the game, and then lose. Therefore, vendors (park parties) need to continuously provide new content for players to consume.
In the main story of "Westworld", one of the main lines on the surface is to add a new plot "expansion pack" to the park, and delos Group, which operates "Westworld", racked its brains to add new content to the park to attract more customers. In SXSW Sweetwater, visitors can spot a samurai who doesn't fit in with the Western style, and asking a host can only get the classic answer of "Doesn't look like anything to me". This is the "Samuraiworld" plot egg buried in Westworld, and it is also the next game expansion film that may appear in the show.
It is based on the "real understanding" that today, 2022, the fourth season of "Westworld" will launch a new round of "virtual light into reality".
Different from the traditional live-action entertainment method, HBO takes IP as the soul and interactive drama as the KEY, combining film and television content, games, and live-action amusement. From the entertainment creativity of storytelling, to the role of personal setting game interaction into the play, and then derivative real-life exploration immersive entertainment, derivative IP peripherals, etc... Most likely, this is a mainstream entertainment direction for virtual reality to enter the real world in the future.
This article was transferred from the Lanyu Cultural Theme Development and Design Institute from the public account Cultural Tourism Qiushi