Because the metaverse is a stupid idea. Reminds me of that 3d web browser protocol that came out in the 90s. where you had to naviagte 3d paths to go to the next link, like walking to street signs.
The metaverse already exists, imo. It just isn’t called that and doesn’t belong to zuck. It’s all the multi-user VR experiences that exist today.
Indeed, that is what is so baffling for me. It is called, marketed and perceived as something very different. It is Second Life, World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV and others. You have a certain core in which the audience is interested in and then social constructs form around them. These modern Metaverse things try to skip the entire core part, but then it just becomes a chat app.
I think there’s also a problem of trying to make the online space “for everyone”. These virtual worlds have existed for decades now, even back in the 90s with stuff like Worlds. Gaia Online had player homes and a town square type chat space back in the mid 2000s and definitely wasn’t the only one. Apparently Garrys Mod had a similar space with GM Tower in the late 2000s. Every MMORPG has had this to some extent.
You can argue that the tech wasn’t and still isn’t there yet for non-stylized online spaces, but at the end of the day, people who want these spaces will use the ones that already exist. There’s not some huge barrier to entry that Meta (or any of the modern chat focused ones) are somehow eliminating, and hard focusing on VR creates even more of a barrier to adoption.
I don’t think there’s many people out there going “oh, if only it was more like this” or “if the graphics were better then I’d use it”. That’s not how digital social settings seem to work. In the real world looks can matter for purposes of safety. Online, as long as you’re comfortable at your computer or in your house you’re set.
The only thing that seems to matter is the core draw (as you said), and the communication methods offered (text chat of different forms, voice chat, 2d or 3d graphical ability to “emote”).
https://markpescecodex.com/2019/02/03/twenty-five-years-ago-today-vrml/
Somebody still runs a demo site setup for it, I’m trying to find a link.
I don’t know, I will never use it but it’s quite cool that this much money is being poured into VR development. I prefer to think of it as the money being spent rather than hoarded, and I’m definitely fine with that.
Except that Facebook is spending a lot of it on getting their screen in front of as many eyeballs as they can.
Watching the Zuck salivate at the advertising implications of the pseudo mind reading capabilities that gaze tracking might bring is creepy as fuck.
Getting their screen in front and collecting all the data they possibly can reach
I thought of getting a jailbroken Quest only to find that this is no longer possible to be done, so no Quest for me then
It’s so frustrating that some of the best RnD is locked behind a subsidized purchase pushed by a company that ethically just… doesn’t pass. And no amount of money can get you that tech without all the strings attached.
They’d rather leak money like a siv than lose out on data-mining your eyeballs.
It has a lot of neat experiences that many people don’t know about.
For instance, the first thing I did with my VR rig when I got it last November was experience a VR documentary where I was on a British bomber flying over Berlin during WWII.
Then I took a White House tour with the Obamas.
VR’s neat. FB just kind of sucks at it.
What blows my mind is that they completely squandered the opportunity that COVID provided for VR education. They could have, and imo should have, given away their hardware to every school/student and then created immersive education software that they could charge the schools for. Imagine learning Magic School Bus style… Chemistry and biology from the point of view of a molecule, travel the universe, be present at major historical events, or just take a walk around ancient Rome to see how they lived. They could have gotten a whole generation hooked on their system… Kinda like Apple did in the 90s. If they want the “metaverse” to work, they need to build an infrastructure that allows users to build their own stuff. Like just make a “city” but allow users to fill it with their own buildings, bars, houses, virtual work places, etc
I think the problem is their software sucks, so it wouldn’t be useful for any real usage. Even now.
True… But you’d think for $45b they could have developed some good software
Good!
It is. It’s just sad when you think about what other things vould’ve been accomplished with 1billion dollars a month for 2 years straight. It’s america so probably more wars, but still.
Jesus wept!
