I'm pretty much of the same mind here. A huge part of the backlash (and a large number of the comments here) seems to revolve around gaming (hardcore or otherwi

I'm pretty much of the same mind here. A huge part of the backlash (and a large number of the comments here) seems to revolve around gaming (hardcore or otherwise). Valve, for instance, would have been okay, but EA, Sony and even Microsoft have been mentioned as better/more suitable. And I firmly believe that, while I get the appeal of gaming VR, it rather misses the larger picture. I no more want to see this sort of tech tied to gaming, even philosophically, than I want to see it become a dongle for Autodesk software (which, by the way, would be a much more meaningful application than gaming). I want holonovels and walkthroughs and avatar space for those whose meatspace experience isn't great. Many of the dreams we dreamed when ubiquitous computing meant that you got a punchcard with your bill and a handful of people owned something like a TRS-80 or an Apple ][ are on the verge of becoming very real (and not in quite the same way that strong AI has always been "almost here"). FB has an intrinsic interest in the avatar space part of that, but they're also as good a bet as anyone to diversify into the other realms.