Minecraft founder brings story to the party

The Future. A recent party in L.A. called “.party()” aimed to bring the immersion of the metaverse to a real-life event. We know, that sounds like an oxymoron, but the event put on by Production Club could reinvent the nightclub for the digital era by bringing together larger story-driven gamification to the ritual of going out on a Friday night… although we’re sure escape rooms and murder-mystery dinner parties would like to have a word.

Play for Soulvation
Markus Persson (who goes by the moniker “Notch”) may have invented a sort-of metaverse with Minecraft, but he’s determined to get people hanging out IRL with his new narrative-driven party.

• Fast Company reports that Notch hosted a 1,800-person party at the Los Angeles Coliseum last Saturday called “.party()” (named after a coding joke referring to running a “party function or subroutine”).
• This “experiential nightclub concept” featured an algorithmically-designed laser show projected on the dome of the Coliseum that transports people to evolving digital environments to match the story.
  • It’s like ILM’s StageCraft tech used in The Mandalorian, but for parties.

• It also featured a ton of notable DJ acts, including Justice, Zedd b2b Alvin Risk, and Starya.

And for those wondering, the premise of the party is “a group from the future travels back in time to save the souls of the human race from being imprisoned in a future blockchain hellscape. They need to get people out of this dimension to achieve Soulvation.”

We are the metaverse
The party was developed by Production Club, the creative studio behind the viral “Micrashell” suits back in 2020 and the projection mapping used in Skrillex’s touring production of “The Cell.”

The party seems to be a direct response to all the buzz about the metaverse. Production Club CEO Corey Johnson said, “the metaverse doesn’t offer human connection. At the end of the day, people love to be slammed into a room together. I think grounding the experience in the physical, then extending it into the digital, is what we’re aiming for.”

Maybe, after years of COVID, we’re all just in need of a few good parties.