This is definitely a weird one.
I know my posting has slowed down, as my life has gotten very busy and I'm working on multiple projects. I'll get back into the groove soon, I just have to figure out how to balance everything. Til then, my goal is one article every other day, minus the LBI articles. Anyway - I was scrolling through the magical land of Reddit last night and came across something that make me laugh out loud.
Playboy has secured a collaboration with The Sandbox, which is one of the biggest NFT metaverse games. I'd bet that literally everyone on the planet has heard the Playboy name, but if you haven't... It was very popular in the 90's and early 2000's for adult content. They had a magazine subscription where you could pay monthly for nude model magazines. I never really saw the appeal, honestly.
On top of being one of the largest distributors of adult-themed content, they had the man, the myth, the legend Hugh Hefner smoking tobacco pipes with tons of barely-clothed women. As founder of the Playboy brand, he became very rich and lived in a huge mansion with tons of women known as "Play Mates". He was a polarizing icon that many men envied, mostly because of his multiple very attractive girlfriends.
Hefner passed away in 2017 at the age of 91 in the Playboy Mansion of E. Coli and was buried next to Marilyn Monroe.
Spending eternity next to Marilyn is an opportunity too sweet to pass up.
The Playboy Brand kinda died with Hefner, and out of nowhere they are building a Playboy Mansion in The Sandbox. Yeah, I know... Everyone wants to build something in the metaverse. Funny enough, this is not the first time the Playboy brand has attempted to dip its toes into web3. Back in 2021, they dropped 2 different NFT collections called Liquid Summer and Rabbitars. Both of which were nothing more than just JPEGs, as most big brands like to create and sell.
Rabbitar holders and land owners in The Sandbox will supposedly get some special perks at the Playboy MetaMansion. We've heard things like this time and time again from companies trying to hype up sales of their NFTs. Maybe it is actually true, but I can't imagine there being too much to do in the MetaMansion. Think about this for a second... The whole playboy brand was built on high-quality photos of nude female models. Now they have pixelated model avatars that look like they're made of Legos. Lol.
At first I was like... What is the appeal here? Are they targeting die-hard porn enthusiasts? Are they targeting the nostalgia factor that some men that used to subscribe to their magazines might experience? Like what is the target audience? Clearly this is a grift to get some cash flow with little to no effort. Why would you pay models when you could just use a program to whip up some pixelated models?
You know me though, I'm all about some nostalgia. I don't really relate to the nostalgia factor here because I was never really interested in the whole Playboy thing... But you're crazy if you think your boy Nifty is not going to check out the magical MetaMansion! I am a fan and supporter of The Sandbox, but I've never spent any money on it, nor do I own any land. I've done my fair share of playing the game though, mainly because they did 2 different Alpha tests with chances to win free crypto. I love any opportunity to get some free crypto.
I don't imagine that the Playboy Mansion in the metaverse is going to sell for $100 million like the real mansion did... But I could be wrong. There's tons of brands capitalizing on the metaverse boom, so I'm sure they were sitting in a board meeting like... "we gotta do metaverse stuff to stay afloat". I get it, that's just business. When you can make money with little to no effort, why not?
Are you dying to see some pixelated models wearing bunny ears?