I think one of the big drivers for the failure of the metaverse is Facebook itself. Facebook (and other social media) kind of killed off IRC and other public c

I think one of the big drivers for the failure of the metaverse is Facebook itself. Facebook (and other social media) kind of killed off IRC and other public chat rooms. Facebook users in general got used to the flow of Facebook, and forgot about chatrooms. Now Facebook is trying to build public chatrooms But In VR™ and no one is interested. They trained their users to not engage with exactly what they're trying to sell them now. The flip side of this is that people want to express themselves. Look at the absolute lawless insanity of VRChat, you can be a 2 pixel tall anime character or a fucked up Sonic OC (do not steal), or basically anything you want. There's tons and tons of creativity and expression. Meanwhile on the metaverse, you can pick from a dozen or two outfits, and you can customize a small range of features of your avatar. It just reeks of corporate blandness designed by committee. Expression is severely restricted so as to not upset advertisers and shareholders. It also just isn't fun. Interactions are limited, the mini games are bleak, and it's ugly in a way that is just ugly instead of charming or endearing. As a whole, the VR industry is mostly focused on standalone games and experiences. I make industrial training simulators, which is a fantastic use of the technology. There's people making movies exclusively for VR ("experiences") and there are so many excellent games already out there. The core problem is that a majority of people don't want to just wander around in VR to meet random people and play lame, buggy carnival games in an ugly space designed to take your money. People that do want to hang out in VR are generally Very Online people who are generally against Facebook. On top of that, there is already a very successful platform with wide adoption and vastly more and better features. Facebook just can't compete. The metaverse is a 13 billion dollar monument to corporate hubris. Legs.