5 ms·

Second Life required you were at least 18 at one point. It was meant more for social gatherings and meeting spots and I think (though I'm not 100%) that they sh

by junon 5y ago

Second Life required you were at least 18 at one point. It was meant more for social gatherings and meeting spots and I think (though I'm not 100%) that they shifted toward "virtual" office spaces with a focus on community building and digital trade using real-life currency. The metaverse, as I understand it, is just Facebook Games but in VR, for kids and bored adults. I think the outcome will be the same, though. I can't imagine how anyone at Facebook thought this idea would work.

BoorishBears 5y ago
I'm shocked people are taking "Meta" at face value. To me it's a way to signal to outsiders that Facebook is still cool and hip. That's it. Now when recruiting they can play the Meta-not-Facebook angle. Now if they can pad earnings calls with the amazing success the metaverse is seeing (so what if it's losing us money, that's the future!) - It's like an inverse Alphabet. Where Alphabet silently serves as an umbrella for moonshots, Meta is a moonshot that's an umbrella for boring old Facebook
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- cm2012 5y ago
  They are spending insanely on r and d on this compared to companies their size. 10b a year.
  - BoorishBears 5y ago
    Their market cap has risen over 70B since the announcement, so I think they'll be ok (Yes I know market cap != war chest, but expenditure on Meta is nothing compared to the "soft power" it provides FB)
  - manquer 5y ago
    honestly I am not sure how actually are they spending that kind of money. I dont see a ton of fb recruiters hiring for VR skills, I dont see a lot of training/certifications /open source libraries /platform Sdks for other devs etc that feels like $10B a year kind of budgets are behind VR/AR. That's a lot of money, Hard space companies like SpaceX or Blue Origin which have big hardware expenses spend only 1-2 billon/year and have thousands or tens of thousands of staff working and their progress is visible . Does FB have 20,000 + engineers working on metaverse? even if so, doing what exactly ?
    - crakhamster01 5y ago
      > Does FB have 20,000 + engineers working on metaverse? At least 10k as of March https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/12/22326875/facebook-reality-labs-ar-vr-headcount-report https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/12/22326875/facebook-reality...
    - retrocryptid 5y ago
      you're looking in the wrong place. i have reality labs recruiters calling me frequently and my linked in feed is a never ending cascade of sponsored posts about how working ar FB^H^HMMVRS is so much fun.
      - manquer 5y ago
        > FB^H^HMMVRS No sure what this meant I am sure FB is recruiting, my point is not that reality labs is fake , I am sure it is real and they do recruit, it just that I don't see recruitment that would signal that large a number of investment. I wasn't saying from a personal engineer anecdotal experience, but as some one working in recruitment tech, I keep an eye on industry patterns. I could be wrong in my impression but I think they are just doing bit of creative accounting on existing expenses to show high spends on their flagship project.
- nowherebeen 5y ago
  > Meta-not-Facebook I am going to start using this term to satisfy people that argue its not called Facebook anymore.
  - brundolf 5y ago
    "The artist formerly known as Facebook"
    - dreamcompiler 5y ago
      s/artist/criminals/
  - jackTheMan 5y ago
    Meta-pk-Facebook = Meta-previously-known-Facebook would be better, because in case of the Meta-not-Facebook, 'not' might be strong enough to remember that way.
- aerosmile 5y ago
  Nailed it.
mherrmann 5y ago
> The metaverse, as I understand it, is just Facebook Games but in VR, for kids and bored adults. I don't think that's true. Search for "Horizon Workrooms" to see an (IMHO) significant product they have in the collaboration tool space.
- legostormtroopr 5y ago
  That’s the most dystopian thing about this - the best, most aspiration use for VR they can show case is… meetings, but in VR.
  - futuroptimist 5y ago
    Isn't this just the natural progression of technology? I don't understand how having a more effective way of communicating with remote coworkers is "dystopian".
  - mherrmann 5y ago
    What's wrong with that? That meetings are necessary in modern working life is a fact. So might as well have products and services that make them better on some axes. And it doesn't necessarily have to be just office meetings either. University lectures or tutorials this way also sound pretty cool to me. You could have a student from Taiwan, the US, Germany and Sweden sit in the same classroom and interact, without having to travel thousands of miles. I think that's very cool.
    - gsich 5y ago
      So, voicechat?
    - krageon 5y ago
      > That meetings are necessary in modern working life is a fact. No, the fact is that they happen. Whether or not they are necessary is a matter of opinion.
    - Jackpillar 5y ago
      Literally just do zoom
retrocryptid 5y ago
fwiw, SL launched the "teen grid" in 2005. later they merged it in with the main grid and disallowed youngsters from entering "adult themed regions"
ilaksh 5y ago
You used the lowercase metaverse. THAT metaverse is a broad concept definitely not specific to Facebook. It encompasses things like Second Life and Meta's attempts, but the more pure connotation is something like the world wide web but with virtual spaces and avatars. Not controlled by any particular company. The strange thing to me is that web browsers do support VR, and they used to even support navigating seamlessly between VR pages without exiting VR mode. But for some reason the seamless navigation was removed. And browsers are almost never even mentioned in these discussions of the Metaverse, even by people who seem concerned that some proprietary platform will take over. This type of utter failure to understand or recognize the significance of various technologies even by groups like HN, makes me seriously support the idea of AI taking over control of the planet.

by junon 5y ago

BoorishBears 5y ago

I'm shocked people are taking "Meta" at face value. To me it's a way to signal to outsiders that Facebook is still cool and hip. That's it. Now when recruiting they can play the Meta-not-Facebook angle. Now if they can pad earnings calls with the amazing success the metaverse is seeing (so what if it's losing us money, that's the future!) - It's like an inverse Alphabet. Where Alphabet silently serves as an umbrella for moonshots, Meta is a moonshot that's an umbrella for boring old Facebook

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
cm2012 5y ago
They are spending insanely on r and d on this compared to companies their size. 10b a year.
- BoorishBears 5y ago
  Their market cap has risen over 70B since the announcement, so I think they'll be ok (Yes I know market cap != war chest, but expenditure on Meta is nothing compared to the "soft power" it provides FB)
- manquer 5y ago
  honestly I am not sure how actually are they spending that kind of money. I dont see a ton of fb recruiters hiring for VR skills, I dont see a lot of training/certifications /open source libraries /platform Sdks for other devs etc that feels like $10B a year kind of budgets are behind VR/AR. That's a lot of money, Hard space companies like SpaceX or Blue Origin which have big hardware expenses spend only 1-2 billon/year and have thousands or tens of thousands of staff working and their progress is visible . Does FB have 20,000 + engineers working on metaverse? even if so, doing what exactly ?
  - crakhamster01 5y ago
    > Does FB have 20,000 + engineers working on metaverse? At least 10k as of March https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/12/22326875/facebook-reality-labs-ar-vr-headcount-report https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/12/22326875/facebook-reality...
  - retrocryptid 5y ago
    you're looking in the wrong place. i have reality labs recruiters calling me frequently and my linked in feed is a never ending cascade of sponsored posts about how working ar FB^H^HMMVRS is so much fun.
    - manquer 5y ago
      > FB^H^HMMVRS No sure what this meant I am sure FB is recruiting, my point is not that reality labs is fake , I am sure it is real and they do recruit, it just that I don't see recruitment that would signal that large a number of investment. I wasn't saying from a personal engineer anecdotal experience, but as some one working in recruitment tech, I keep an eye on industry patterns. I could be wrong in my impression but I think they are just doing bit of creative accounting on existing expenses to show high spends on their flagship project.
nowherebeen 5y ago
> Meta-not-Facebook I am going to start using this term to satisfy people that argue its not called Facebook anymore.
- brundolf 5y ago
  "The artist formerly known as Facebook"
  - dreamcompiler 5y ago
    s/artist/criminals/
- jackTheMan 5y ago
  Meta-pk-Facebook = Meta-previously-known-Facebook would be better, because in case of the Meta-not-Facebook, 'not' might be strong enough to remember that way.
aerosmile 5y ago
Nailed it.

mherrmann 5y ago

> The metaverse, as I understand it, is just Facebook Games but in VR, for kids and bored adults. I don't think that's true. Search for "Horizon Workrooms" to see an (IMHO) significant product they have in the collaboration tool space.

legostormtroopr 5y ago
That’s the most dystopian thing about this - the best, most aspiration use for VR they can show case is… meetings, but in VR.
- futuroptimist 5y ago
  Isn't this just the natural progression of technology? I don't understand how having a more effective way of communicating with remote coworkers is "dystopian".
- mherrmann 5y ago
  What's wrong with that? That meetings are necessary in modern working life is a fact. So might as well have products and services that make them better on some axes. And it doesn't necessarily have to be just office meetings either. University lectures or tutorials this way also sound pretty cool to me. You could have a student from Taiwan, the US, Germany and Sweden sit in the same classroom and interact, without having to travel thousands of miles. I think that's very cool.
  - gsich 5y ago
    So, voicechat?
  - krageon 5y ago
    > That meetings are necessary in modern working life is a fact. No, the fact is that they happen. Whether or not they are necessary is a matter of opinion.
  - Jackpillar 5y ago
    Literally just do zoom

retrocryptid 5y ago

fwiw, SL launched the "teen grid" in 2005. later they merged it in with the main grid and disallowed youngsters from entering "adult themed regions"

ilaksh 5y ago

You used the lowercase metaverse. THAT metaverse is a broad concept definitely not specific to Facebook. It encompasses things like Second Life and Meta's attempts, but the more pure connotation is something like the world wide web but with virtual spaces and avatars. Not controlled by any particular company. The strange thing to me is that web browsers do support VR, and they used to even support navigating seamlessly between VR pages without exiting VR mode. But for some reason the seamless navigation was removed. And browsers are almost never even mentioned in these discussions of the Metaverse, even by people who seem concerned that some proprietary platform will take over. This type of utter failure to understand or recognize the significance of various technologies even by groups like HN, makes me seriously support the idea of AI taking over control of the planet.