The metaverse is bullshit • Hacker News Board

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#301

Post by acjohnson55 » Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 9:50 AM UTC

headmelted wrote: post #169

Jasper_ wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might not know this, but Second Life was not, uh, a wide success. And Second Life is the one we remember from that era. There are dozens of these metaverse things from the mid-90s through the 2000s, none of which achieved the notoriety anywhere near Second Life. Off the top of my head: Sony's SAPARi / Community Place (1994), ActiveWorlds.com (1995), There.com (1998), Habbo Hotel (2000), myCoke (2002), Google Live…

Geocities and Xoom were all the metaverse we needed back in our day. You know what? the internet was better when it topped out at 56k for mortals.

Amen to GeoCities. They had a concept of addresses within neighborhoods. My friends and I all made our own pages, experimenting with web tech.

And remember webrings and Internet Link Exchange?

I'd also say that MySpace and Tumblr carried that vision forward.

It's ironic that Facebook won, with its bland conformity, and now they think they're going to bring us the metaverse.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#302

Post by tgv » Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 9:50 AM UTC

Jasper_ wrote: post #83

AlexandrB wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One way to make money in a metaverse would be to artificially create limitations to what a user can do and then sell them the solutions to those problems. So why not add thirst and hunger meters and then sell food items? Or why not make travel non-instantaneous and then sell faster modes of transit? This is how heavily-monetized games work today and it's not surprising that some in the industry are salivating at the…

If the metaverse is truly a decentralized, collaborative space, how can we add these limitations without others breaking them? If all that's stopping them is code, why wouldn't everyone have all the most powerful items, all the time? If the metaverse ever becomes a reality, I promise I will publish a blog post for people to copy/paste some code to make their own custom overpowered equipment and free food and break th…

> If the metaverse is truly a decentralized, collaborative space

We're talking about facebook here. I expect the metaverse to be designed 100% according to the wishes of ad buyers. And Cambridge Analytica.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#303

Post by MrScruff » Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 9:52 AM UTC

echelon wrote: post #29

gitgud wrote: post #9

> "The metaverse is bullshit because it already exists, and it's called the internet > Being 'inside' a virtual world was never really the important part" Well, the facebook keynote presents a compelling argument how social interaction with VR can be more meaningful than through a 2D screen in many situations. However, what IS bullshit, is the display of obviously fake demonstrations with highly experimental and expe…

Zuckerberg sees that anime fans and furries love spending time on VRchat and he wants to build it out for fans of football and the Kardashians. People that buy Louis Vuitton are going to shell out for NFT metaverse skins and wear dorky headsets. That totally tracks.

What is true is that the amount of time people spend finessing their fictional online persona vs their boring reality is dramatically shifting, particularly for younger generations.

It's now common for some to use stylized/beautified cartoon 'avatars' in a professional context. People communicate using contrived and performative message board speak with coworkers. Even the 'influencers' spend a large chunk of their life editing and constructing an unrecognisable version of themselves.

If you meet some of these people in real life it's obvious why they do so - reality is too dull, too expensive in time and effort to find a way of standing out from the crowd. Online you can pretend to be whatever you want to be. I see this trend continuing.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#304

Post by hammyhavoc » Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 9:53 AM UTC

didibus wrote: post #119

I think the only BS is the way we.all talk about this stuff, same way the cloud is all hyped up. AR and VR are great tech, when it gets good enough that it's a simple comfortable accessory to wear, and it incurs no strain on your eyes, it'll definitely find many uses. And for sure we'll pursue the tech for better full body tracking, walking in-place, simulated touch, and all that, and if all that one day works simila…

As somebody who mixes TV and film, I can tell you right now that the overwhelming majority of consumers don't care about surround sound, even if it adds a lot to the experience. Consumers are easily pleased.

The average consumer doesn't want to immerse themselves and inhabit another world, they want to append to their existing one in an unintrusive way. This is an America-centric fantasy. Internet connections aren't good enough in many places, and a VR/AR headset is going to be inaccessibly priced.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#305

Post by emilsedgh » Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 9:53 AM UTC

Metaverse is not bullshit. It's a sign of desperation.

Facebook has _nothing_ for the future.

* Blue app is already on it's death bed.

* Instagram is already seeing a massive decline in quality and engagement as its getting close to the end of its lifecycle.

* They managed to survive Snapchat, but I think that made them think Instagram is too big to fail. Thus, they didn't go after TikTok. It was a mistake.

* What's App is not monetizable.

* Oculus is not becoming the next PS4/Xbox like they hoped.

Facebook is usually being compared to the likes of Apple, Google and Amazon. It's nothing compared to them. It's not even gonna be able to do a Microsoft/IBM pivot as it has no monetizable developer ecosystem.

I personally think they should've acquired TikTok last year when TikTok was looking to be acquired by Microsoft. They probably would've extended their survival for another 10-ish years (lifecycle of a social media)

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#306

Post by otabdeveloper4 » Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 9:55 AM UTC

rklaehn wrote: post #138

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal experience with my kids shows the opposite.

Lucky you. Any tips how to get the kids to appreciate the real world more? It's not like I am not trying, but I also don't want to deprive them of computer games. I basically grew up gaming and hacking on computers (starting with an Atari 800), and I liked it.

You misunderstand.

Of course they're addicted to screens, like all kids these days.

It's just that they want a quick and easy fix, and certainly not to wear one around their heads.

Addictive screen technology has no "wow" factor for people that had them from birth. Screens are about as exciting and cool as daytime television was in the pre-Internet era. (And similarly, we somehow can't stop wasting hours a day on them still.)

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#307

Post by hammyhavoc » Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 9:58 AM UTC

brabel wrote: post #184

danans wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm old, but I don't see what advantage this has over video conferencing unless the focus of the discussion is on things - like documents, schematics, or 3d models - rather than people. Avatars would feel like creepy cartoons because your brain knows the voice of the person but your eyes see a cartoon image.

In just a few minutes, most people start treating those cartoons as real people without even realizing it. Ask anyone who's tried these things (they are already available: https://www.vspatial.com/ , https://www.oculus.com/blog/workrooms/ )

Tried it. Hated it. "Most"? Get a bigger sample size, then we'll talk.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#308

Post by arisAlexis » Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 9:59 AM UTC

This is a huge ignorant rant and expresses the anger of the unknown that is coming and anger for missing out. For every new technology there are always articles condemning them. People are resistent to change and that has been proven.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#309

Post by clqmay » Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 10:02 AM UTC

Moving (a growing subset of) people into The Matrix is the end goal of the global elites. The agenda is to automate everything and reduce the need for humans. How can you reduce humans and keep the existing ones pacified?

- Promote LGBTQIA+ to reduce overpopulation.

- Give the remaining useless (from the POV of the techno fascists) humans virtual reality toys and a tiny basic income. They'll become fat, lethargic and won't reproduce as well.

- For the tasks that cannot be automated, import poor immigrants who will work in agriculture.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#310

Post by cblconfederate » Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 10:04 AM UTC

Ekaros wrote: post #218

cblconfederate wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe in headgears, even though facebook will try hard to monetize their investment in oculus. Phones were successful because they adopt the unintrusive form factor of a book: you don't need to make time and space away from reality for it. VR/AR requires the time and space to be alone and it wears out over time as the bandwidth of communication is low, probably even lower than in video chat. But turning eve…

I could see AR working if we get glasses that compare to your average or bit cumbersome safety glasses. That is you wear them, maybe not entirely love having them, but they do something useful for you. Overlay video, recipe, map. Provide information about surroundings. That is you are either working or maybe walking around and need to navigate, but don't want to keep your phone out all the time. VR I just don't see g…

Still more intrusive than phones. People don't wear glasses if they dont have to. the glasses would have to provide a lot of value to force people to wear them often. And while we see a lot of cool AR demos for specialized things like learning to cook, i m struggling to think what would be the use of glasses to me, right here sitting on my desk right now. Attention is limited and i could either watch the glasses or my screen. We are not robots (unlike zuck)