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I'm not even angry. I'm just not going to buy a VR device with a Facebook connection, Facebook being involved in platform management, etc. I might consider it

I'm not even angry. I'm just not going to buy a VR device with a Facebook connection, Facebook being involved in platform management, etc. I might consider it if it were an unlocked piece of hardware, but I suspect that's so unlikely, I don't actually need to make up my mind about that possibility. I've also had a couple friends cancel projects they were planning for the Oculus platform, because they're no longer sure that the hardware will remain free, and are looking to avoid Facebook lock-in. So there goes the reason I was going to buy one in the first place. Oh well.

grkvlt 13y ago
> I've also had a couple friends cancel projects they were planning for the Oculus platform This sort of reaction is such an embarrassing load of nonsense. People have cancelled some nebulous 'projects' that they might have carried out? To be honest, the whole 'anger' thing seems like a bunch of gamers and similar people are just upset that all the 'normal' people might get to experience VR technology at the same time as them, and they won't get to be elitist 'early adopters' with the latest kit. Upset because the arcane knowledge that they possess is no longer the passport to an elite club; membership is now open to anyone who wants to use the latest tools and toys. Isn't that what we want? To democratise technology, so that anyone and everyone can have the benefits. No more requirements to understand programming languages, 3D APIs and mathematics, or to study obscure topics to get access to this hardware. If Facebook can deliver VR hardware to the man in the street, brilliant! They managed to do it for interacting on a computer already.
- mikeash 13y ago
  Good lord, speaking of nonsense.... There's no need for a bizarre conspiracy theory in which people are elitist assholes. It's simple: a lot of people think that the Facebook acquisition means that the product is dead, because it will either be transformed into something terrible (VR Farmville!) or the project will be mismanaged until it dies. You don't have to agree with that assessment, but that is the fear, not some ridiculous idea that people are upset because they don't want "normal" people to have access to cool tech.
- DerpDerpDerp 13y ago
  "Planning" in the sense that they had just set aside money to buy the device, and were working on the code that could be done without it in a experimental phase, testing out the libraries they'd use for non-Oculus related parts of the software.

grkvlt 13y ago

> I've also had a couple friends cancel projects they were planning for the Oculus platform This sort of reaction is such an embarrassing load of nonsense. People have cancelled some nebulous 'projects' that they might have carried out? To be honest, the whole 'anger' thing seems like a bunch of gamers and similar people are just upset that all the 'normal' people might get to experience VR technology at the same time as them, and they won't get to be elitist 'early adopters' with the latest kit. Upset because the arcane knowledge that they possess is no longer the passport to an elite club; membership is now open to anyone who wants to use the latest tools and toys. Isn't that what we want? To democratise technology, so that anyone and everyone can have the benefits. No more requirements to understand programming languages, 3D APIs and mathematics, or to study obscure topics to get access to this hardware. If Facebook can deliver VR hardware to the man in the street, brilliant! They managed to do it for interacting on a computer already.

mikeash 13y ago
Good lord, speaking of nonsense.... There's no need for a bizarre conspiracy theory in which people are elitist assholes. It's simple: a lot of people think that the Facebook acquisition means that the product is dead, because it will either be transformed into something terrible (VR Farmville!) or the project will be mismanaged until it dies. You don't have to agree with that assessment, but that is the fear, not some ridiculous idea that people are upset because they don't want "normal" people to have access to cool tech.
DerpDerpDerp 13y ago
"Planning" in the sense that they had just set aside money to buy the device, and were working on the code that could be done without it in a experimental phase, testing out the libraries they'd use for non-Oculus related parts of the software.