It’s only 5 p.m. on a Saturday in Los Angeles, but the Zone — a 16-room virtual club on the videoconferencing app Zoom — is already in full swing.
"You’re late!” admonishes a bouncer with a glowing Celtic symbol on her forehead, peering through a pixelated window at a gaggle of new guests tuning in from their homes, making sure they are properly outfitted, both with drinks and in looks. She clicks them into different "dance floor” chat rooms, where revelers in colorful costumes shimmy to a livestreamed DJ set while two fluffy puppets maneuvered by an invisible hand waltz in each other’s arms. In an additional networked room, a man in a pink wig leads a spirited conversation about sustainable farming. At the end of the night, the party’s host invites everyone to the "hot tub” room — swimming attire required. Shirts are peeled off and snorkels pulled on as guests gamely play along.
"Someone has handed Zoom to us, and we’re just playing around,” observes one guest, dressed in a Santa hat, who claims to be the son of a pig farmer turned crypto-investor. "This is the cutting edge, and I’m confident it will bloom into something else.”