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The issue with the "metaverse" is that it's kind of horrifying and no company wants to build it. I say that as somebody building something of the sort! Second
by dale_glass 3y ago
The issue with the "metaverse" is that it's kind of horrifying and no company wants to build it.
I say that as somebody building something of the sort!
Second Life was the big one, and it was as I understand an accident. So it formed organically and became this weird mess of weird subcultures and porn.
Now some companies saw a lot of people logging in and wanted to replicate that, but they missed the very point of it. A sterile imitation of SL is pointless. Grandma doesn't want to put a VR headset or to navigate a 3D space to share cat photos with her friends. It's a lot of effort and nothing to gain.
Metaverses seem to mostly cater to unusual, fringe audiences. The furry fandom is a popular one for instance, because if you want to look like an anthro cat, well, in real life that's kind of difficult, and that's something that gives a reason to put up with the challenges. The people who are into this kind of thing tend to be not quite average in one way or another.
But this absolutely doesn't mix with the SV model of "let's get the entire planet in here". The general area is in my opinion inherently a niche.
- ryandrake 3y ago"Making Snow Crash into a reality feels like a sort of moral imperative to a lot of programmers, but the efforts that have been made so far leave a lot to be desired."[1] -John Carmack in 1999 (!!) and it looks like programmers are still trying to do it. 1: https://games.slashdot.org/story/99/10/15/1012230/john-carmack-answers https://games.slashdot.org/story/99/10/15/1012230/john-carma...
- dale_glass 3y agoYeah, why wouldn't we? I don't think making virtual worlds is inherently a bad idea. It's just like a niche, like writing a chess engine. It's not reasonable to expect everyone to be interested, it's the kind of software that's very interesting to a small segment of the population, while everyone else fails to get the point. Which is why it's weird for somebody like Facebook to try to do it. I think chess is actually a pretty apt comparison. Imagine Facebook for some reason got this idea that everyone must play their chess game. I think obviously the end result would be bad, because they'd try to spice things up and water down the game to make it more palatable to a general audience. But the end result would be that the general audience quickly gets bored, and the actual purists don't find what they're looking for.
- reducesuffering 3y ago"Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus" https://twitter.com/AlexBlechman/status/1457842724128833538 https://twitter.com/AlexBlechman/status/1457842724128833538
- dale_glass 3y agoFunny, but really, there's nothing that weird going on in virtual worlds. It's just a fancier way to socialize, not that fundamentally different from IRC or HN.
- reducesuffering 3y agoVirtual worlds have the potential to matrix the population. Even right now, many people look at screens for 14 out of the 16 hours they’re awake, completely enveloped in a reality fed by AI, other than the occasional shower or food they eat while watching YouTube/Netflix. Eve Online dynamics already illustrate the beginning of all-consuming virtual worlds and how they affect people in real life.
- dale_glass 3y agoNonsense. I mean, I like the space, I work in it, and that's way, way more overblown than I'd ever say myself. We're nowhere near close to the Matrix. It's a 3D chat room with scripting capabilities. Yes, of course such spaces can be toxic, but so can be web forums. And my experience is that so far the spaces that find users are those that give their users creative freedom. Spaces where you're restricted and fed corporate content don't go anywhere.