Getting Married In the Metaverse (nytimes.com) 64
"One couple's recent nuptials in the virtual world known as the metaverse showcase the possibilities of having a wedding unfettered by the bounds of reality," writes Steven Kurutz via The New York Times. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: Traci and Dave Gagnon met in the cloud, so it only made sense that their wedding took place in it. On Labor Day weekend, the couple -- or rather, their digital avatars -- held a ceremony staged by Virbela, a company that builds virtual environments for work, learning and events. Ms. Gagnon's avatar was walked down the aisle by the avatar of her close friend. Mr. Gagnon's avatar watched as his buddy's avatar ambled up to the stage and delivered a toast. And 7-year-old twin avatars (the ring bearer and flower girl) danced at the reception. How the immersive virtual world known as the metaverse, which few of us understand, will change the traditional wedding is, at the moment, anyone's guess. But the possibilities of having an event unfettered by the bounds of reality are interesting enough to consider.
Like a ceremony within a video game, though, it is important to note that any weddings that occur solely in the metaverse are currently not legal. (Even virtual weddings by videoconference, which many states allowed during the height of the pandemic shutdowns, have since been outlawed in New York State and elsewhere.) Still, the metaverse will take these virtual celebrations much, much further, experts say, and offer almost boundless possibilities to couples.
The Gagnons had a hybrid wedding of sorts. The couple were married in person Sept. 4 at Atkinson Resort & Country Club in New Hampshire, where they live, in a ceremony officiated by David Oleary, a friend and colleague of theirs ordained by the Universal Life Church, while simultaneously hosting a virtual ceremony in Virbela. They live-streamed their nuptials for those who could not be there in person. Guests of the virtual ceremony attended via a computer, which required downloading software and then creating an avatar. The events team and software engineers at Virbela, which staged the Gagnons' wedding in the metaverse, incorporated personalized details and images of their in-person wedding venue into the virtual ceremony.
Like a ceremony within a video game, though, it is important to note that any weddings that occur solely in the metaverse are currently not legal. (Even virtual weddings by videoconference, which many states allowed during the height of the pandemic shutdowns, have since been outlawed in New York State and elsewhere.) Still, the metaverse will take these virtual celebrations much, much further, experts say, and offer almost boundless possibilities to couples.
The Gagnons had a hybrid wedding of sorts. The couple were married in person Sept. 4 at Atkinson Resort & Country Club in New Hampshire, where they live, in a ceremony officiated by David Oleary, a friend and colleague of theirs ordained by the Universal Life Church, while simultaneously hosting a virtual ceremony in Virbela. They live-streamed their nuptials for those who could not be there in person. Guests of the virtual ceremony attended via a computer, which required downloading software and then creating an avatar. The events team and software engineers at Virbela, which staged the Gagnons' wedding in the metaverse, incorporated personalized details and images of their in-person wedding venue into the virtual ceremony.
Where this is going (Score:4, Insightful)
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I remember years and years ago saying that at some point we'll all be locked in our own little padded rooms for our "safety" and the only people that interact in meat-space will be the ultra-rich. Sadly, the whole "metaverse" BS is going to get a lot of people on board with it without thinking about how much they might be giving up.
I mean, I'm not above playing around with the tech when it stops sucking ass, but I'm not going to quietly disappear into nothing for it.
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Here [imdb.com] is the movie you're looking for.
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Sorry, wrong one [imdb.com].
Gee, they shouldn't release movies with the same title about the same time...
Didn't Amazon do something like this? (Score:2)
I remember reading a story several years ago about how they created a system that allowed people to attend an in-person wedding virtually, sort of like a zoom meeting, only years before zoom was a thing.
Guests would upload an avatar, choose their "seat", be able to see and interact with the people also attending virtually, see the event live, even send a gift. They sold out of their capacity in a short period of time. It was (and would still be) a cheap way for people to attend a destination wedding.
Re:Didn't Amazon do something like this? (Score:4, Funny)
I remember decades ago people would have weddings in Second Life, and they would get trolled by waves of flying dildos and the like.
I found a video of a similar thing during a Second Life interview: https://youtu.be/ZZEfhC9ss3E?t... [youtu.be]
Now I'm off to scrub my YouTube history, brb.
Re: Didn't Amazon do something like this? (Score:2)
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It was (and would still be) a cheap way for people to attend a destination wedding.
A destination wedding is precisely what it doesn't let you attend, because you're not at the destination.
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Another Solution Looking For A Problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Another Solution Looking For A Problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Weddings are about family, friends, eating, drinking and dancing aka a celebration. This in no way interests me, they are trying to shape the future of society with this bullshit, good luck to all of you who readily participate.
Weddings are about the two people getting married, the rest should be up to them. They want friends and family and dozens of vague acquiantances? Grwat. They want just family? Great? Thy want just the two of them and legal witnesses? Great. They want VR? Great. They may not even have family, and they may be reclusive or currently far away from any friends.
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Misleading title (Score:2)
As was stated in the text they had a real wedding, this was presumably just a bit of a fun gimmick on top.
Move along, nothing to see here.
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Yep, this is no different then the video game weddings that have happened in a number for MMORPGs and other games.
Stop calling them "the metaverse" (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not objecting to the word "metaverse", but the word "the". There's not one metaverse. Every time you say "the metaverse" you prove that you don't know what the fuck you are talking about.
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You may be being a bit pedantic.
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You may be being a bit pedantic.
Well, you know what they say about being technically correct...
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You may be being a bit pedantic.
*screams in grammar nazi*
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I'm not objecting to the word "metaverse", but the word "the". There's not one metaverse. Every time you say "the metaverse" you prove that you don't know what the fuck you are talking about.
Facebook definitely wants you to say "the" with the implication being that it's their particular metaverse that is the metaverse. What a mess.
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Facebook definitely wants you to say "the" with the implication being that it's their particular metaverse that is the metaverse.
Yes, exactly. These tools are doing exactly what zuckerfuck wants them to do, and then they're defending their word choices as if they made sense, or they came up with the idea themselves. Neither is true.
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Zuckerberg is still torn up over dropping "The" from Facebook.
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They also didn't meet "in the cloud"....
This article is just all sorts of buzzword bingo bad.
The 'Metaverse' doesn't even exist yet! (Score:5, Informative)
Facebook made a big announcement saying they want to work towards it as a distraction from their documents being leaked, and I guess it worked since everyone is talking about it.
Maybe I'm wrong, but so far 'metaverse' just seems to be a synonym for any virtual world. Second Life from more than a decade ago likely counts as part of the 'metaverse'.
Honestly, not sure why this is even a story.
"Company facilitates remote relatives to attend wedding remotely in virtual space with avatars" is hardly worth reporting on.
Oh, it's an advertisement. I get it now.
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You already said it... it's not a real story. It's just a distraction from Facebook... er.. "Meta's" terrible privacy practices.
Remember, this is the same company who offered a supposedly university sponsored Covid-19 health survey on their site, and then used the results of that survey to send you targeted ads. They really have no morals when it comes to collecting user data.
But should they? (Score:2)
It's not about if it's possible (people have been getting "married" in video games for decades now). It's if you should be getting married in the metaverse.
The answer is no.
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EVERYONE should be able to get married anywhere they like, so long as they are a compatible species.
This institution should be unflinchingly protected by all governing agencies and laws:
Once you're in, it should take no less than the greater of 1/33 of either person's life or 1 year to dissolve.
It should be painfully complicated to separate friends, pets, children and every piece of crap that you've ever owned in any man
Re: But should they? (Score:2)
Hey man. If I want to marry a dolphin, don't rain on my parade. It's not like it's bestiality.
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That's not new (Score:4, Informative)
People have been doing weddings and all other kinds of things in Second Life for almost two decades now.
Re: That's not new (Score:2)
I did that in Beta
Re: That's not new (Score:3)
Actually I had an IRC wedding in 1997 long before SL lol
Everquest - circa 1999 (Score:2)
Been there, done that..
wait for the first divorce.. (Score:5, Funny)
Meh, wait for the first divorce and the first set of virtual lawyers splitting up their NFTs and Bitcoin; that'll be epic.
Could work for people with physical disabilities? (Score:2)
Poor phrasing on legality (Score:2)
"are currently not legal" would be better phrased as "currently have no legal effect".
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I'm pretty sure getting married in a video game or in VR or over video conference are all legal in my state. I'm all set up to officiate weddings and know how to submit marriage licenses to the county. It's not a big deal.
The key is as long as the parties involved believe it to be a real wedding then it's a perfectly legal ceremony. In my state you don't even need to have a wedding in the traditional sense, but then I'd have nothing to officiate. If that's what you awnt, go down to the county clerk's office
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The witness only has to affirm that they know who is really at the other end. :) As an officiant I don't have to prove them right or wrong.
It'll be interesting if a court ever rules on this, but so far I'm not aware of a case. I think a fair argument in favor of a virtual witness is if you are in person, how do you really know who someone is. Can a witness be intentionally deceived? of course. Can they be mistaken of an identity? That's unlikely but maybe possible. Now how is doing it online any worse? You
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The paperwork plus the intent is what's doing the heavy lifting.
just saying (Score:1)
Why do they get to dictate any form of a wedding to begin with?
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Nope, if a government is going to confer some legal status based on some agreement it seems logical that they should have the ability to set the ground rules. My guess is that those rules here are pretty simple. You probably have to have a registered entity, preside in person, to witness both parties agree to it.
The big problem with marriage (in my mind) is that it is a religious (or quasi-religious) designation that was glommed onto for all sorts of other things. A government that isn't a theocracy really
Re: just saying (Score:2)
Governments do this. Just get married before a justice of the peace.
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Not really.
Yes, you can get married before a non-religious registered entity however the whole institution is based on a few thousand years of various religions, living conditions we no longer experience, divergent expectations and really is ill-suited to modern life in some ways. This leads to all sorts of things like prenups that are really just trying to constrain the basic institution (and do poorly at it) and high divorce rates.
We should leave the ceremony to the priests (or a party planner) and just s
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There exists an institution that addresses all of your issues beyond the secular/partnership ones.
It's called Sharia.
This is news? (Score:3)
I did this in 2006 in Second Life. Met the wife there.
We built an in-world ceremony, had SL friends attend and it was a nice turnout.
We had a real-life ceremony the following year.
It took. Living happily ever after.
Queue honest wedding. (Score:1)
Las Vegas? (Score:1)
"...showcase the possibilities of having a wedding unfettered by the bounds of reality"
Hasn't Vegas been doing this for a while?
If you kill a man in the metaverse (Score:2)
does your avatar have to do time in virtual jail?
If it's in a red part of the metaverse, will your avatar get the chair, with zappy lightning bolt special effects?
Will the same thing happen if you're in a blue part and say that there are only two biological sexes...except the zappy lightning is rainbows and the executioner avatar is a unicorn?
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Zuck would tell you that all of these things are possible in the metaverse.
I have no idea what kind of deranged person would want this, but he'd be technically correct ... I guess.
That's normal (Score:2)
"Even virtual weddings by videoconference, which many states allowed during the height of the pandemic shutdowns, have since been outlawed"
Everybody knows that it has to be done in the flesh by a Preacher of the Church of Elvis, free diploma via internet for only $19.95.
If I learned one thing from Covid (Score:2)
It's that what I need is not more time in virtual reality, it is more time in the real world.
Had quite enough of that, thank you very much.
Again? (Score:3)
1998 called (Score:2)
They want their complete lack of global illumination back
How the fuck is this news??? (Score:3)
People have been getting married in Ultima Online, Everquest, World of Warcraft, Second Life, IRC, etc. decades before the fad of the Metaverse.
Multi-marriage (Score:2)
All people with a residual self-image of a beayooootiful lesbian are invited to join my mutual harem, enforced with scimitar eunuchs.
They both ... (Score:2)
The both work for the company that owns/created this virtual work. Marketing gimmick much?
No it does not "only make sense". (Score:2)
Traci and Dave Gagnon met in the cloud, so it only made sense that their wedding took place in it.
Meeting online may explain a bit about the choice, but to say that because they met online it only makes sense to have their wedding online is total nonsense.
I met my wife in a gas station convenience store. Would it therefore only make sense for us to get married there? Hell, no!
Getting married in metaverse (Score:1)