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I never understood the metaverse thing. Was Zuck unaware of vrchat? I was always confused why they thought users of a niche market geared towards hackers and ne

I never understood the metaverse thing. Was Zuck unaware of vrchat? I was always confused why they thought users of a niche market geared towards hackers and nerds would gravitate towards the soul-less corporate solution as opposed to the existing one.

buzzert 4y ago
Safety? One of those things people say they want, but don’t actually want.
rolenthedeep 4y ago
He bet the farm on VR being "the next big thing". I very much think he's right on that count. The plan was most likely to try and disrupt the VR market like they did social media, and attempt to capture (hold hostage) a significant share of VR users. But they forgot that users need a reason to use the product. It wasn't fun, the avatars are bland, sterile Mii-like characters that nobody likes, and the disclaimers about legs are absurd beyond reason. They failed at every turn. VRchat was the main competition, and Facebook forgot that they needed to be competitive. Even inside the VR industry, the metaverse is regarded as an abject failure. It's more or less the antithesis of what makes a good VR experience: fun, engaging, immersive. Facebook went with bland, boring, and intrusive. The only good thing Facebook has done in the VR space is getting Quest headsets onto millions of heads. This drastically lowered the barrier to entry for new users, which increases the audience for good developers. The quest hardware isn't good by any stretch, but it's good enough for people to judge whether VR is for them without spending $1000.
- wincy 4y ago
  I finally tried to make my metaverse avatar a few days ago. I couldn’t even make my glasses blue. BLUE. My Memoji looks just like me, which I recall taking minimal effort. My metaverse avatar just looks like a weird pretentious dude with a very effete pose and beard. But at least I can give myself a bindi if I want. Which like, that’s great I’m not knocking on it but I don’t even know what’s going on there that I can’t make my fantasy avatar have the same glasses color I have in real life. Isn’t the promise of VR to make things more interesting than real life?

buzzert 4y ago

Safety? One of those things people say they want, but don’t actually want.

rolenthedeep 4y ago

He bet the farm on VR being "the next big thing". I very much think he's right on that count. The plan was most likely to try and disrupt the VR market like they did social media, and attempt to capture (hold hostage) a significant share of VR users. But they forgot that users need a reason to use the product. It wasn't fun, the avatars are bland, sterile Mii-like characters that nobody likes, and the disclaimers about legs are absurd beyond reason. They failed at every turn. VRchat was the main competition, and Facebook forgot that they needed to be competitive. Even inside the VR industry, the metaverse is regarded as an abject failure. It's more or less the antithesis of what makes a good VR experience: fun, engaging, immersive. Facebook went with bland, boring, and intrusive. The only good thing Facebook has done in the VR space is getting Quest headsets onto millions of heads. This drastically lowered the barrier to entry for new users, which increases the audience for good developers. The quest hardware isn't good by any stretch, but it's good enough for people to judge whether VR is for them without spending $1000.

wincy 4y ago
I finally tried to make my metaverse avatar a few days ago. I couldn’t even make my glasses blue. BLUE. My Memoji looks just like me, which I recall taking minimal effort. My metaverse avatar just looks like a weird pretentious dude with a very effete pose and beard. But at least I can give myself a bindi if I want. Which like, that’s great I’m not knocking on it but I don’t even know what’s going on there that I can’t make my fantasy avatar have the same glasses color I have in real life. Isn’t the promise of VR to make things more interesting than real life?