5 ms·

And, how Walmart envisions shopping in the metaverse. (Jan '22) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6UYGwPaLf8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6UYGwPaLf8

phatfish 4y ago
Made as much sense in 1995 as it does in 2022.
bitmover 4y ago
It’s telling that they turned the comments off.
pkage 4y ago
All the worst parts of shopping with the added benefit of a headache afterwards. Also I'm very uncomfortable with Walmart knowing what's in my fridge and recommending putting the gallon of milk back.
helloplanets 4y ago
That's not a satire? The vibe of that is just so eerie, especially the transitions between departments. And the player literally having to aim and throw the jug of milk back to its place? What on earth.
- thinkingemote 4y ago
  its like the shopper is totally powerless, worse than a robot, but a kind of trapped slave in the machine. You can almost see them looking at their hands like "what am i doing, what's going on?"
jgalt212 4y ago
Did Walmart actually think this was worth their time, or did they fear FB would raise their ad rates if they did not at least make an effort on the metaverse?
danjc 4y ago
This really showcases the ridiculousness of the metaverse. Mimicking the world in VR is good for games but inefficient for productive tasks. We already solved efficient online shopping, without needing to implement constraints like physics.
- dale_glass 4y ago
  I think it more showcases that everything needs adapting to a new medium. Amazon doesn't draw a 2D plan of a virtual shop and make you browse the shelves. Spotify doesn't pretend to be a tape deck. I'm not sure what a VR shop should look like, but it's almost certainly not a VR version of a real one, because a real shop is built around real world constraints and conveniences. I think there are cases where VR shopping could make a lot of sense. Shopping for clothes, for instance. You can take your own measurements, put them into your profile, then test what it would look like. Shopping for furniture could also make sense if you could generate a quick map of your house. You can then see how the sofa will look like, and whether you'll get it through the door. But a plain virtual Walmart, yeah, that's silly.
  - foobarbecue 4y ago
    Right. From Microsoft Bob to VR supermarket, skeuomorphism is mostly a bad idea. Another example like your clothes shopping: AR furniture shopping on the other hand, where you can visualize how a new couch would fit in your living room, is already quite useful.
jimmySixDOF 4y ago
Thats a little dated and you should really point to the kmart in vrchat to see how the kids are doing it but fwiw Shopify are doing a few interesting lab things with AR this is just one example there are several.... https://twitter.com/DavidMarakXR/status/1586997483049287680?t=pdtumVGioygAGgRxKose_A&s=19 https://twitter.com/DavidMarakXR/status/1586997483049287680?...
unknown_user_84 4y ago
On first impression this struck me as, totally insane. The department transitions felt like I was living in the Wal-Mart matrix. After the omnipresent cyber-greeter mentioned the oil change, it felt like it made even less sense. I started thinking, how could this ever make sense. I could see a setup where there are booths or something with VR headsets at the front of the store, and the rest of the building is a warehouse. This would eliminate the whole public store, except for the area with the headsets. Still not sure how much sense this makes. Or how much I'd want to put on a public use VR headset in a Wal-Mart. But it makes a little more sense then doing this at home. *edit: I was really hoping they'd throw the milk across the store.
lelandfe 4y ago
https://vimeo.com/166807261 https://vimeo.com/166807261 This can only make me think of this nightmarish Hyper-Reality video from 2016.

phatfish 4y ago

Made as much sense in 1995 as it does in 2022.

bitmover 4y ago

It’s telling that they turned the comments off.

pkage 4y ago

All the worst parts of shopping with the added benefit of a headache afterwards. Also I'm very uncomfortable with Walmart knowing what's in my fridge and recommending putting the gallon of milk back.

helloplanets 4y ago

That's not a satire? The vibe of that is just so eerie, especially the transitions between departments. And the player literally having to aim and throw the jug of milk back to its place? What on earth.

thinkingemote 4y ago
its like the shopper is totally powerless, worse than a robot, but a kind of trapped slave in the machine. You can almost see them looking at their hands like "what am i doing, what's going on?"

jgalt212 4y ago

Did Walmart actually think this was worth their time, or did they fear FB would raise their ad rates if they did not at least make an effort on the metaverse?

danjc 4y ago

This really showcases the ridiculousness of the metaverse. Mimicking the world in VR is good for games but inefficient for productive tasks. We already solved efficient online shopping, without needing to implement constraints like physics.

dale_glass 4y ago
I think it more showcases that everything needs adapting to a new medium. Amazon doesn't draw a 2D plan of a virtual shop and make you browse the shelves. Spotify doesn't pretend to be a tape deck. I'm not sure what a VR shop should look like, but it's almost certainly not a VR version of a real one, because a real shop is built around real world constraints and conveniences. I think there are cases where VR shopping could make a lot of sense. Shopping for clothes, for instance. You can take your own measurements, put them into your profile, then test what it would look like. Shopping for furniture could also make sense if you could generate a quick map of your house. You can then see how the sofa will look like, and whether you'll get it through the door. But a plain virtual Walmart, yeah, that's silly.
- foobarbecue 4y ago
  Right. From Microsoft Bob to VR supermarket, skeuomorphism is mostly a bad idea. Another example like your clothes shopping: AR furniture shopping on the other hand, where you can visualize how a new couch would fit in your living room, is already quite useful.

jimmySixDOF 4y ago

Thats a little dated and you should really point to the kmart in vrchat to see how the kids are doing it but fwiw Shopify are doing a few interesting lab things with AR this is just one example there are several.... https://twitter.com/DavidMarakXR/status/1586997483049287680?t=pdtumVGioygAGgRxKose_A&s=19 https://twitter.com/DavidMarakXR/status/1586997483049287680?...

unknown_user_84 4y ago

On first impression this struck me as, totally insane. The department transitions felt like I was living in the Wal-Mart matrix. After the omnipresent cyber-greeter mentioned the oil change, it felt like it made even less sense. I started thinking, how could this ever make sense. I could see a setup where there are booths or something with VR headsets at the front of the store, and the rest of the building is a warehouse. This would eliminate the whole public store, except for the area with the headsets. Still not sure how much sense this makes. Or how much I'd want to put on a public use VR headset in a Wal-Mart. But it makes a little more sense then doing this at home. *edit: I was really hoping they'd throw the milk across the store.

lelandfe 4y ago

https://vimeo.com/166807261 https://vimeo.com/166807261 This can only make me think of this nightmarish Hyper-Reality video from 2016.