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Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?
91–100 of 381 posts
Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?
#92Second 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 some movement in the space, and they will have by far the most popular version of the Metaverse. If they want to start doing brand deals, place some store portals near the door.
You really think that won't start taking away a ton of business from VR Chat and the rest? They will win by default. They completely control the experience. From the moment you turn the headset on, you are already IN their Metaverse. It's just a shit Metaverse with no features. But regardless of what Zuck understands, there are too many highly paid geniuses around him absorbing some of his billions to not take advantage of the situation.
Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?
#93Second Life required you were at least 18 at one point. It was meant more for social gatherings and meeting spots and I think (though I'm not 100%) that they shifted toward "virtual" office spaces with a focus on community building and digital trade using real-life currency. The metaverse, as I understand it, is just Facebook Games but in VR, for kids and bored adults. I think the outcome will be the same, though. I…
You used the lowercase metaverse. THAT metaverse is a broad concept definitely not specific to Facebook. It encompasses things like Second Life and Meta's attempts, but the more pure connotation is something like the world wide web but with virtual spaces and avatars. Not controlled by any particular company.
The strange thing to me is that web browsers do support VR, and they used to even support navigating seamlessly between VR pages without exiting VR mode. But for some reason the seamless navigation was removed. And browsers are almost never even mentioned in these discussions of the Metaverse, even by people who seem concerned that some proprietary platform will take over.
This type of utter failure to understand or recognize the significance of various technologies even by groups like HN, makes me seriously support the idea of AI taking over control of the planet.
Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?
#94I 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.
Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?
#95Only goofy asocial types think that you can actually replace actual human interactions with virtual reality. Would you rather actually meet your friends, or have your virtual avatars meet up in some fake VR world?
That's an important point. Matthew Ball, the venture capitalist, made the insightful comment a few months back that COVID-19 changed that. It is now possible to use a virtual world without being considered a loser.
By the way, I'm a goofy introvert myself, so I hope people don't see that as an insult or anything :).
COVID-19 might've made remote work mainstream, but I don't think it will fundamentally change the way we interact with other people in our social life. I think given the choice, most people would rather go out to pubs, restaurants, parties, etc... to experience other people face to face rather than be stuck in a virtual world. The virtual world was a last resort. Even during lockdowns people had underground parties (I've even been in a few!).
I personally grew up spending much of my high school years in IRC chatrooms, having virtual friendships with anonymous people. But I'm an introvert, and most other kids did not share my experience so I'm a bit skeptical on the mass appeal of these virtual worlds.
Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I wouldn't use a non-FOSS platform or experience You are in the extreme minority, if smartphone trends are to be treated as any kind of indication. So your actions likely would not matter to Meta/Apple/Google.
you replied to this message using open source code and an open protocol.
I used a locked down phone to do it. I can't even get root on this phone, and this is the more open platform, compared to the only other alternative.
Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I wouldn't use a non-FOSS platform or experience You are in the extreme minority, if smartphone trends are to be treated as any kind of indication. So your actions likely would not matter to Meta/Apple/Google.
I'm with him in that. And I am glad I am able to clarify this for you, Android OS is built upon a FOSS project ( AOSP ) and that is by and large the most popular OS in the world. There's ton of community projects that prove that millions use and contribute to FOSS mobile software. Oh and there's no way in hell this corny Horizon Workrooms will ever, ever take off. To me, Meta is a more nefarious hint at the collectio…
Whether meta fails or succeeds is not related to the openness of the solution. People do not care. They will literally pay thousands of dollars for a device they do not own if you show them shiny things.
Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?
#98The biggest difference is, that it ties together existing, living communities like fortnite, facebook and so on. It ist supposed to connect allthe communities you use instead of just creating a new one. So as long as people use any service that is part of the metaverse, the metaverse diesn't really need a hype of its' own.
The metaverse is supposed to become the operating system of the internet owned by Mark Zuckerberg.
Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?
#99If 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…
Remember when Google worked on a second Life killer? I think it was called lifely or so.
Re: Ask HN: How is the “metaverse” concept different from the Second Life boom?
#100My question with the metaverse concept is always, "Why? What's the point?" I can think of two parties that have their own answers: 1) A certain group of people who like computers and grew up reading sci-fi think it would be cool; some even tell themselves it's very important, but for vague reasons that they can't really articulate 2) Centers of capital are interested in it as yet another platform for consumption, att…
I agree. At this point Zucks metaverse sounds just like another XBox Home Screen, in VR. A place were you want to spend as little time as possible, on your way to use the real apps.