Virtual Beer in the Metaverse: Heineken’s Self-Parody

The idea of Facebook’s incredibly wealthy founder is, to some extent, a fantastic vision of transhumanism, the belief that one day everyone will live in a digital artifice, disconnected from the real world: Metaverse, or the possibility of leaving behind the weighty realities of the physical for a virtual paradise. So, Heineken invited some real journalists to a corner of the famous Metaverse to attend the launch of a beer made from binary-coded hops, grown and brewed by NPCs (non-player characters). “It’s an ironic joke […] the metaverse [..] it’s just not the best place to taste a new beer” said Bram Westenbrink, global head of the Heineken brand. This “Metaversed” beer seems to have already confused the legless avatars of the virtual universe.