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VR is bigger than gaming, bigger than sports or interactive drama or pornography. It's an alternative world that can be built from the ground up, that will allo

VR is bigger than gaming, bigger than sports or interactive drama or pornography. It's an alternative world that can be built from the ground up, that will allow us to experiment with new forms of embodiment and society. The whole process involves experimenting with, and shedding certain aspects of, one's identity. And Facebook wants to cast our identities in stone - and god help those who maintain pseudonyms. This great team of hackers got wealth in exchange for their dream. It's a shame; they could have kept the dream and sold their product instead.

mwilcox 13y ago
The thing that gets people is that, as backers of the Kickstarter / customers of the developer kit, you ARE an investor. Sure - not an investor in the sense that you own a piece of the company. But you are investing your time and money into the potential consumer success of the product, by buying the hardware and developing a game for that. You are right to feel betrayed, it you feel this disrupts the potential consumer success.
- pekk 13y ago
  as Notch put it, "And I did not chip in ten grand to seed a first investment round to build value for a Facebook acquisition." (His post is worth reading for those who haven't yet: http://notch.net/2014/03/virtual-reality-is-going-to-change-the-world/ http://notch.net/2014/03/virtual-reality-is-going-to-change-...)
toufka 13y ago
VR is powerful precisely because it is communication. And communication with Facebook in the middle is such bad communication. No sane teacher, lawyer, doctor, CEO, judge, politician, etc. would permit facebook to be a third party to important communication. The dream of VR enabling and enhancing these communications has just taken a major step backwards with the least trustworthy name in communication swooping in to commandeer the intellectual property associated with the most promising of these technologies.
WalterSear 13y ago
No it's not. It will be, but it's not. Right now, you can play games on an Oculus. You can't watch basketball games, we aren't watching interactive live drama. It will mature as a gaming platform before any of the other things it is to become, come to fruition.

mwilcox 13y ago

The thing that gets people is that, as backers of the Kickstarter / customers of the developer kit, you ARE an investor. Sure - not an investor in the sense that you own a piece of the company. But you are investing your time and money into the potential consumer success of the product, by buying the hardware and developing a game for that. You are right to feel betrayed, it you feel this disrupts the potential consumer success.

pekk 13y ago
as Notch put it, "And I did not chip in ten grand to seed a first investment round to build value for a Facebook acquisition." (His post is worth reading for those who haven't yet: http://notch.net/2014/03/virtual-reality-is-going-to-change-the-world/ http://notch.net/2014/03/virtual-reality-is-going-to-change-...)

toufka 13y ago

VR is powerful precisely because it is communication. And communication with Facebook in the middle is such bad communication. No sane teacher, lawyer, doctor, CEO, judge, politician, etc. would permit facebook to be a third party to important communication. The dream of VR enabling and enhancing these communications has just taken a major step backwards with the least trustworthy name in communication swooping in to commandeer the intellectual property associated with the most promising of these technologies.

WalterSear 13y ago

No it's not. It will be, but it's not. Right now, you can play games on an Oculus. You can't watch basketball games, we aren't watching interactive live drama. It will mature as a gaming platform before any of the other things it is to become, come to fruition.