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A better question: why does a VR headset require an account at all? Should my monitor require an account? Should my keyboard? It's a peripheral, not a platform

A better question: why does a VR headset require an account at all? Should my monitor require an account? Should my keyboard? It's a peripheral, not a platform.

kevincox 6y ago
You want it to be a peripheral, Facebook wants it to be a platform.
TrackerFF 6y ago
Maybe FB wants to collect data from sensors, and other type of usage?
- whywhywhywhy 6y ago
  They can do that without an FB account, Instagram and WhatsApp certainly funnel data into a shared storage that FaceBook can read too without me specifically connecting the accounts.
avarun 6y ago
Not sure if you know what device you're talking about. The Oculus Quest is very much a platform, not a "peripheral". There's no device that the Quest connects to to be used as a peripheral. It's a completely stand alone computing device that serves as a platform for third party software, the same as your phone which requires an account.
- saxonww 6y ago
  I know the blog post refers to "Oculus devices" and does not in any way imply that the account is required only for the Quest. I agree that the Quest is not the same as their other headsets. I disagree that any of these should require an account.
- ryandrake 6y ago
  Nothing in the announcement limits this to the Quest. It says Oculus "devices" including peripherals. What is the justification for requiring an account to use a peripheral that you plug into your computer? Even if it were just the Quest: How is it reasonable to require an account to use a "stand alone computing device"? I have many stand alone computing devices in my home without the need for an account with their manufacturers. I was already skeptical of my Oculus Rift when after buying it I learned I needed to create an account just to download drivers (WTF!) No other device on my computer requires an account to obtain drivers. I would love to hear the justification.
  - crakhamster01 6y ago
    I'm not sure I follow this line of thought. Without an account, what would all the game purchases you make be associated with? What about friends lists? Support requests? The Oculus, and the vision for the product, is more akin to consoles than it is your run-of-the-mill PC.
    - IanSanders 6y ago
      I disagree. Take oculus Rift as an example. You own a game (on a different platform) which supports VR (including your device). You plug your Rift in, calibrate the sensors/room and start playing the game. You shouldn't even need internet connection. For support requests, use the serial number, like everywhere else. Consoles work offline just fine.
  - IanSanders 6y ago
    >I would love to hear the justification. "We require you create an account so that we can protect your personal data."
- not_zxc 6y ago
  Not the OP, but I was wondering the same thing. I also don't know which devices I'm talking about. The thing is: to sell me stuff, you don't need to know my name. You don't need to keep tabs on me. You may offer it, but I may decline. Plenty of mortar-and-bricks-stores work this way: there are loyalty cards for tracking, but customers who forego them do not have to register to make a purchase. Point in fact: there are also internet shops that allow such options. Sure, they need a bit of data to send the parcel and the confirmation/invoice/etc. But that doesn't require everyone to create a username/password combination - and some internet shops blissfully do not require that. They get paid and ship the purchase to the address specified, and that's it. In this case, it seems purchases could be tied to the Oculus device specified during the purchase. While I can certainly imagine benefits to tying purchases to a user account (e.g., ability to use on multiple Oculus devices), I don't see a reason to require logging in. Am I overlooking something?
  - wlesieutre 6y ago
    > In this case, it seems purchases could be tied to the Oculus device specified during the purchase. While I can certainly imagine benefits to tying purchases to a user account (e.g., ability to use on multiple Oculus devices), I don't see a reason to require logging in. Am I overlooking something? If (when) the device fails, you would lose all of its associated software licenses and have to buy them again
8bitchemistry 6y ago
Unfortunately things have been moving this way, even for peripherals such as mice: https://insider.razer.com/index.php?threads/i-need-an-account-to-use-my-mouse.16873/ https://insider.razer.com/index.php?threads/i-need-an-accoun...
- boobsbr 6y ago
  The amount of people defending Razer is incredible. They fully buy the idea that internet connection and accounts are necessary to use a mouse, or simple features like changing the dpi.
fomine3 6y ago
I would call Oculus Rift as "just VR headset" but Oculus Quest would be reasonable to call as "standalone VR computer", not peripheral. Is requiring account for a "computer" reasonable is another question.
- just-ok 6y ago
  Well, both Linux and Windows let you have offline accounts (though the latter heavily discourages it, and I can’t speak for macOS), so there’s precedent in the desktop world for that functionality. Of course, why would Facebook bother to support it?
moksly 6y ago
Considering how TVs can come with bloat, accounts and build advertising these days I wouldn’t be surprised if you ended up needing an account for your monitor. I mean, my Nvidia card has had one for years because I didn’t realise I could’ve installed the drivers without creating one. What did a graphics card ever need with that? My mouse required one.
- _Microft 6y ago
  It used to work to start the Nvidia installer, let it unpack (other unpacking tools could most likely extract the archive as well) its contents, exit it and instead let Windows search the unpacked files for the correct driver by using the Windows driver selection dialog. I'm not sure if this still works or if there are other things beside the driver that one would like to have installed nowadays.

A better question: why does a VR headset require an account at all? Should my monitor require an account? Should my keyboard? It's a peripheral, not a platform.

kevincox 6y ago

You want it to be a peripheral, Facebook wants it to be a platform.

TrackerFF 6y ago

Maybe FB wants to collect data from sensors, and other type of usage?

whywhywhywhy 6y ago
They can do that without an FB account, Instagram and WhatsApp certainly funnel data into a shared storage that FaceBook can read too without me specifically connecting the accounts.

avarun 6y ago

Not sure if you know what device you're talking about. The Oculus Quest is very much a platform, not a "peripheral". There's no device that the Quest connects to to be used as a peripheral. It's a completely stand alone computing device that serves as a platform for third party software, the same as your phone which requires an account.

saxonww 6y ago
I know the blog post refers to "Oculus devices" and does not in any way imply that the account is required only for the Quest. I agree that the Quest is not the same as their other headsets. I disagree that any of these should require an account.
ryandrake 6y ago
Nothing in the announcement limits this to the Quest. It says Oculus "devices" including peripherals. What is the justification for requiring an account to use a peripheral that you plug into your computer? Even if it were just the Quest: How is it reasonable to require an account to use a "stand alone computing device"? I have many stand alone computing devices in my home without the need for an account with their manufacturers. I was already skeptical of my Oculus Rift when after buying it I learned I needed to create an account just to download drivers (WTF!) No other device on my computer requires an account to obtain drivers. I would love to hear the justification.
- crakhamster01 6y ago
  I'm not sure I follow this line of thought. Without an account, what would all the game purchases you make be associated with? What about friends lists? Support requests? The Oculus, and the vision for the product, is more akin to consoles than it is your run-of-the-mill PC.
  - IanSanders 6y ago
    I disagree. Take oculus Rift as an example. You own a game (on a different platform) which supports VR (including your device). You plug your Rift in, calibrate the sensors/room and start playing the game. You shouldn't even need internet connection. For support requests, use the serial number, like everywhere else. Consoles work offline just fine.
- IanSanders 6y ago
  >I would love to hear the justification. "We require you create an account so that we can protect your personal data."
not_zxc 6y ago
Not the OP, but I was wondering the same thing. I also don't know which devices I'm talking about. The thing is: to sell me stuff, you don't need to know my name. You don't need to keep tabs on me. You may offer it, but I may decline. Plenty of mortar-and-bricks-stores work this way: there are loyalty cards for tracking, but customers who forego them do not have to register to make a purchase. Point in fact: there are also internet shops that allow such options. Sure, they need a bit of data to send the parcel and the confirmation/invoice/etc. But that doesn't require everyone to create a username/password combination - and some internet shops blissfully do not require that. They get paid and ship the purchase to the address specified, and that's it. In this case, it seems purchases could be tied to the Oculus device specified during the purchase. While I can certainly imagine benefits to tying purchases to a user account (e.g., ability to use on multiple Oculus devices), I don't see a reason to require logging in. Am I overlooking something?
- wlesieutre 6y ago
  > In this case, it seems purchases could be tied to the Oculus device specified during the purchase. While I can certainly imagine benefits to tying purchases to a user account (e.g., ability to use on multiple Oculus devices), I don't see a reason to require logging in. Am I overlooking something? If (when) the device fails, you would lose all of its associated software licenses and have to buy them again

8bitchemistry 6y ago

Unfortunately things have been moving this way, even for peripherals such as mice: https://insider.razer.com/index.php?threads/i-need-an-account-to-use-my-mouse.16873/ https://insider.razer.com/index.php?threads/i-need-an-accoun...

boobsbr 6y ago
The amount of people defending Razer is incredible. They fully buy the idea that internet connection and accounts are necessary to use a mouse, or simple features like changing the dpi.

fomine3 6y ago

I would call Oculus Rift as "just VR headset" but Oculus Quest would be reasonable to call as "standalone VR computer", not peripheral. Is requiring account for a "computer" reasonable is another question.

just-ok 6y ago
Well, both Linux and Windows let you have offline accounts (though the latter heavily discourages it, and I can’t speak for macOS), so there’s precedent in the desktop world for that functionality. Of course, why would Facebook bother to support it?

moksly 6y ago

Considering how TVs can come with bloat, accounts and build advertising these days I wouldn’t be surprised if you ended up needing an account for your monitor. I mean, my Nvidia card has had one for years because I didn’t realise I could’ve installed the drivers without creating one. What did a graphics card ever need with that? My mouse required one.

_Microft 6y ago
It used to work to start the Nvidia installer, let it unpack (other unpacking tools could most likely extract the archive as well) its contents, exit it and instead let Windows search the unpacked files for the correct driver by using the Windows driver selection dialog. I'm not sure if this still works or if there are other things beside the driver that one would like to have installed nowadays.