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Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?

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Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?

#101

Post by herbst »

ilaksh wrote: post #92
abvdasker wrote: post #60

Second Life allowed for a lot of the NSFW content and interactions that people tend to enjoy both in entertainment and in real life (this is also true of VRChat to some extent). Metaverse will be a sanitized, sterile project for children. Fundamentally the people like Zuckerberg responsible for its execution do not understand what people want, which is why Metaverse has no chance of success.

I have owned land in Second Life continuously for probably ten years or more. Haven't been on recently but very familiar with what you are talking about. NSFW is a big part of it but by no means the only part. Meta has a very dominant position in VR headsets. All they have to do is add add a "teleport friend" button to message notifications inside of Oculus Quest 2 when you are in the default home environment, allow…

I honestly don't know a single person with a oculus. Many with the PlayStation or the HTC one.

I also barely know people that use Facebook. And many that are not willing to create a FB account for whatever reason.

It's just anectotal. But I don't see how this walled garden will find any widespread use around here. Just as I know no one who uses Apples walled garden chats, simply because apple never reached a critical mass and people don't like to be locked out of their friends.

Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?

#102

Post by herbst »

lazzlazzlazz wrote: post #77

There are three “branches” of the metaverse concept today: 1. VR rebranded (Facebook’s approach) 2. a specific family of games that allow you to buy and own land/territory, mediated by the blockchain (see Bit.Country[1] as one of many examples) 3. a term used widely in crypto/web3 world to refer specifically to the fact that we can finally build networks that people can own (buy/sell but also control directly via pro…

This so much! I earned money in second Life. Back then I exchanged it all to bitcoin and lost it gambling, but the fact that SL was rewarding my real efforts in real world money was amazing. Investments I did in current projects (ex. Sandbox) also doing well.

Facebook is going to have nothing of that. Money will flow into one direction only and it essentially never be more than an VR entertainment hub.

I honestly feel insulted in some way that zuck claims the word metaverse for something that will fail horribly anyway.

Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?

#103

Post by herbst »

88913527 wrote: post #25
rhizome wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever anybody thinks "metaverse" means now, what it really means, Facebook is going to change it permanently or go out of business. They have to be able to define away every negative aspect of their new metaphorical identity or they'll be used to undermine every future development of FB. Meta was created out of a life or death situation (perceived or otherwise), so they have to gain control over their future so th…

We're all talking about the Metaverse instead of whatever else is going on with Facebook. So it changed the public narrative. However, the latest earnings report was fine, so rumors of Meta's demise are quite exaggerated. Their other web properties will remain profitable for a long time. I see many others here calling out FB's pending decline, but I don't see anyone offering a clear thesis for how it happens. It coul…

IMO Facebook's actual death is mostly visible in RL.

The only people in my circle left on Facebook were the party seeking folks. Now with Corona the organisation of parties changed enough to render facebook irrelevant. Now left are mid 30 single moms who likely spend more time on Instagram anyway.

Then there is WhatsApp. I can tell it had bad news again when I get a sudden rush of 'x is now using telegram'. I can't remember the last time someone asked me for a WhatsApp number.

Instagram is similar, once a daily driver for some it now looks and appears like a ad platform where most content wandered elsewhere (tiktok for that matter)

Sure this is anectotal, but in my environment Facebook actually is visible dying.

Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?

#104

Post by herbst »

alex_young wrote: post #86

Remember when they were going to fix the entire financial system with a new crypto currency centralized amongst a few nodes? That was only a couple of years ago. Seems unlikely that this grand idea is any more likely to actually happen.

Or when they wanted to bring 'free walled garden intranets' over the whole world and the related countries like India pushed them away.

Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?

#105

Post by jrootabega »

It's not different. The first couple attempts to pioneer something will always fail just due to being new and unfamiliar. When it's computers you also have the nerd/weirdo stigma, which was still around in the early 2000s. Not to mention the sexually charged content of second life. If the average person back then was connecting to second life for polite, socially acceptable content, it would have taken off. Later, giant megacorps, who always recognized the potential in the tech, figure out when their masses will be ready for it. It's almost more about getting the people ready for the tech rather than getting the tech ready for the people.

Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?

#106

Post by cblconfederate »

Would you prefer that Facebook throws its money somewhere else? I 'd rather it be VR goggles than more spying tech.

Second Life has figured things out. A 3D world in a 2D screen is much easier to build and interact with than a 3D world in VR goggles with your hands tied. High fidelity and Sansar both tried it , and both failed, and were scrapped despite "enormous potential". The Oculus Quest is great, but my main use of it is to view Street View imagery exactly because it doesnt require much control or interaction with other users. I had tried Second life in VR briefly, it was indeed nice to walk butn difficult interactions made you feel like an incapacitated person. Future VR can make some interactions compelling, but they won't reach the expressiveness of clicks and keyboards.

VR is here to stay for a few million users, it's not going to become mainstream even when the FOV and resolution increase. It's an uncomfortable blindfold that creates stress and anxiety (as any blindfold should). This is nothing like smartphones, which are unobtrusive and adopt the age old tried-and-tested form of a book. AR is a cool looking gimmick as well. I will wait for neural implants until we can talk about VR worlds again.

Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?

#108

Post by higeorge13 »

MrRiddle wrote: post #94

I am completely guessing here, but I assume average device used to visit Facebook is an $150 Android phone. Metaverse would require multiple times more expensive equipment. Until the whole world gets a lot more prosperous, average user simply won’t be able to use the product. The product that relies on number of users.

I came to write exactly this. The app ecosystem grew due to the insane numbers of users having a >50$ smartphone everywhere in the world; and this is what made fb and the rest of companies what they are at the moment. The price barrier to enter the vr/ar world would be considerably higher and almost unreachable in the 3rd or developing world, which is fb’s main audience.

Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?

#109

Post by mattdesl »

keyle wrote: post #45

If you strap enough rockets to a pig, it will fly. If you throw enough cash at a problem, it will be "solved". I remember google wave. Remember that? The noise it made when it came out. What a mess. And then we got slack and discord and we must admit it somewhat solves the same ideas. So I don't know. We might very well be in VR goggles in 10 years surrounded by 25 virtual screens, 5 notification systems and parallel…

Probably worth noting: many of the recent “metaverse/web3” (not Metaverse) developments, for example ERC721, are also RFCs and open protocols. Yet unlike typical web RFCs we’ve seen in the last decade, they are generally not only decided upon and ultimately driven by a small handful of browser monopolies.

Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?

#110

Post by satyrnein »

herbst wrote: post #101
ilaksh wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have owned land in Second Life continuously for probably ten years or more. Haven't been on recently but very familiar with what you are talking about. NSFW is a big part of it but by no means the only part. Meta has a very dominant position in VR headsets. All they have to do is add add a "teleport friend" button to message notifications inside of Oculus Quest 2 when you are in the default home environment, allow…

I honestly don't know a single person with a oculus. Many with the PlayStation or the HTC one. I also barely know people that use Facebook. And many that are not willing to create a FB account for whatever reason. It's just anectotal. But I don't see how this walled garden will find any widespread use around here. Just as I know no one who uses Apples walled garden chats, simply because apple never reached a critical…

I think you may already be living in an alternate reality!
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