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> I probably would not have chosen Facebook as the stewards of the first big VR-world You make it sound as if Facebook will actually be the stewards of the fir

by pron 5y ago

> I probably would not have chosen Facebook as the stewards of the first big VR-world You make it sound as if Facebook will actually be the stewards of the first big VR-world, but all they did was announce something to divert attention from a serious scandal. They might as well have announced that they'll work on colonising Mars, and you'd be sad for missing your opportunity to get prime real-estate on Amazonis Planitia. Facebook are not building a metaverse; they're selling ads and trying to avoid regulation.

zdyn5 5y ago
Love the HN swagger-talk even when it’s misinformed. Maybe they’ve accelerated the rebrand due to PR issues, but they’ve been heavily investing in AR/VR/metaverse for years, with Oculus back in 2014 and in the past few years poaching top silicon talent for low-power ASIC hardware. Their pseudo-AR RayBans commercially deployed few months ago. This has been a long time coming… FB has its issues to fix but no progress is going to come from falsehoods being thrown around.
- pron 5y ago
  They're not building a metaverse any more than anyone who's building VR apps or developing 3D games. It's possible that Zuckerberg wishes they were, and is trying to make himself believe that they are, but a company that is yet to master text communication has no idea how to build a metaverse. What they're doing is working on some VR meeting/chat apps.
  - zdyn5 5y ago
    Except they’re building the most popular consumer VR headsets by far? (Without going into any of the software/platform stuff that’s being developed). Also see ASIC part of comment for AR (they've been on a hiring spree for silicon)… The hardware is probably the most serious technical bottleneck because the sensory experience is kinda janky and isn't super-compelling, so that’s where innovation has to happen first.
    - pron 5y ago
      IBM and Commodore sold many PCs in the 80s. That doesn't mean they built the internet.
    - taylodl 5y ago
      > "Except they're building the most popular consumer VR headsets by far?" While that statement may be true, its significance isn't as much as one may think. Remember the Blackberry? They owned the smartphone market - back when the market was extremely tiny and was primarily comprised of business executives. What made smartphones go mainstream? The iPhone. The same may be true for VR headsets. Is the Oculus the most popular VR headset? I'll take your word that it is. However, I only know a handful of people who have a VR headset at all, and they're all über geeks. Like the Blackberry, the market is comprised of a non-representative sample of the population. Should VR headsets go mainstream it probably won't be the Oculus doing it - otherwise it probably already would have. Will Metaverse make VR mainstream? I doubt it. The public doesn't simply trust Facebook enough for that and the public hasn't been very receptive to VR. I don't see the metaverse going anywhere.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
2pEXgD0fZ5cF 5y ago
I am really puzzled by the amount of people that basically dream up their own story for Facebook and act as if this is coming for sure. Facebook did announce something very vague, didn't show any tech or proof of concept and for the most part it was just "tech visionairy" babble with some buzzwords sprinkled on top. What makes anyone think Facebook has the ability to create even a decent basic game/3D experience? A very basic decent VR experience? Let alone some kind of VR world encompassing MMO? Companies with the most experience and specialized talent in the world in those sectors fail very regularly at the attempts to just create basic decent 3D experiences that don't feel like complete jank. And we have also seen the silicon valley arrogance of non gaming companies with a "It's just <anything related to gaming or 3D> how hard can it be?" attitude fall on their noses plenty of times. The whole "metaverse" announcement gives me the vibes of a mix between Ouya (all the empty PR babble) and Star Citizen (overpromising way too much). > all they did was announce something to divert from a serious scandal This is what it boils down to.

by pron 5y ago

zdyn5 5y ago

Love the HN swagger-talk even when it’s misinformed. Maybe they’ve accelerated the rebrand due to PR issues, but they’ve been heavily investing in AR/VR/metaverse for years, with Oculus back in 2014 and in the past few years poaching top silicon talent for low-power ASIC hardware. Their pseudo-AR RayBans commercially deployed few months ago. This has been a long time coming… FB has its issues to fix but no progress is going to come from falsehoods being thrown around.

pron 5y ago
They're not building a metaverse any more than anyone who's building VR apps or developing 3D games. It's possible that Zuckerberg wishes they were, and is trying to make himself believe that they are, but a company that is yet to master text communication has no idea how to build a metaverse. What they're doing is working on some VR meeting/chat apps.
- zdyn5 5y ago
  Except they’re building the most popular consumer VR headsets by far? (Without going into any of the software/platform stuff that’s being developed). Also see ASIC part of comment for AR (they've been on a hiring spree for silicon)… The hardware is probably the most serious technical bottleneck because the sensory experience is kinda janky and isn't super-compelling, so that’s where innovation has to happen first.
  - pron 5y ago
    IBM and Commodore sold many PCs in the 80s. That doesn't mean they built the internet.
  - taylodl 5y ago
    > "Except they're building the most popular consumer VR headsets by far?" While that statement may be true, its significance isn't as much as one may think. Remember the Blackberry? They owned the smartphone market - back when the market was extremely tiny and was primarily comprised of business executives. What made smartphones go mainstream? The iPhone. The same may be true for VR headsets. Is the Oculus the most popular VR headset? I'll take your word that it is. However, I only know a handful of people who have a VR headset at all, and they're all über geeks. Like the Blackberry, the market is comprised of a non-representative sample of the population. Should VR headsets go mainstream it probably won't be the Oculus doing it - otherwise it probably already would have. Will Metaverse make VR mainstream? I doubt it. The public doesn't simply trust Facebook enough for that and the public hasn't been very receptive to VR. I don't see the metaverse going anywhere.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]

2pEXgD0fZ5cF 5y ago

I am really puzzled by the amount of people that basically dream up their own story for Facebook and act as if this is coming for sure. Facebook did announce something very vague, didn't show any tech or proof of concept and for the most part it was just "tech visionairy" babble with some buzzwords sprinkled on top. What makes anyone think Facebook has the ability to create even a decent basic game/3D experience? A very basic decent VR experience? Let alone some kind of VR world encompassing MMO? Companies with the most experience and specialized talent in the world in those sectors fail very regularly at the attempts to just create basic decent 3D experiences that don't feel like complete jank. And we have also seen the silicon valley arrogance of non gaming companies with a "It's just <anything related to gaming or 3D> how hard can it be?" attitude fall on their noses plenty of times. The whole "metaverse" announcement gives me the vibes of a mix between Ouya (all the empty PR babble) and Star Citizen (overpromising way too much). > all they did was announce something to divert from a serious scandal This is what it boils down to.