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The metaverse is bullshit

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Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#511

Post by [deleted] »

justapassenger wrote: post #444
dandotway wrote: post #71

Text is mightier than the Metaverse. Kids can do video calls with their smartphones but prefer texting. We could discuss Hacker News stories with video chat but we prefer text. News and politics junkies prefer reading text tweets on Twitter to watching talking news anchors. Once upon a time Amazon was a company that only sold books. Dried ink on dead trees. And in the early internet age this book seller outperformed…

And that’s why text based games dominated the world and no one is playing 3D games?

[deleted]

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#512

Post by redisman »

machiaweliczny wrote: post #465
civilized wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh come on. Usenet in the 1980s was full of people in their 30s, 40s, and beyond. Sure, some people didn't "get" the internet, but millions of demographically similar people were getting value out of it. That isn't happening, and won't happen, with this metaverse BS. And if it does, attentive people of all ages will see it coming many years in advance.

I've read a lot of game reviews on VR and was surprised about demographics. Lots of older (40+) people there. Anyone has more reliable stats? I personally feel that hardware need to be next-gen as I am nauseus but would be happy to have discord alternative to play in VR. Imagine drawing board, fake cinema, sharing games, arranging common space minecraft-like. I think this will work. You login after work and do creati…

That demographic makes sense. If you’re 40 you grew up with the birth of video games, you read the sci-fi and the early hype and failure of multiple VR products along get decades and you have a bunch of disposable income

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#513

Post by charcircuit »

JohnFen wrote: post #385
rklaehn wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea of paying for an unique digital asset, even if it is just unique by social convention, would not be foreign to my kids. If you think about it, land ownership is also just a very well established social convention.

But land ownership gives you an actual, tangible benefit. You get exclusive use of the land. NFTs don't offer anything except bragging rights.

It gives you a benefit in the real world vs a benefit in a virtual world. It's not that different especially for people who spend more time in virtual worlds than the real one.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#514

Post by gfodor »

Oddskar wrote: post #498
gfodor wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup HN is legacy at this point. A bunch of old people yelling at clouds. It’s the new Slashdot. So it goes.

Such hogwash. Because people dismiss the latest lofty vision of a tech behemoth (that has a long graveyard of unsuccessful services behind them) we're now "legacy" and "old people yelling at clouds"? Disregarding Meta entirely, I would say it's completely normal for people on HN to be sceptical of new things. Most new things don't work out. Most new things are either vaporware or snake oil. It's hard to tell the good…

> Because people dismiss the latest lofty vision of a tech behemoth

No, the reason is because many new technologies are dismissed here not due to technical infeasibility, but because posters cannot understand the point or value proposition. When this is happening in response to technologies that many people are using and investing in as early adopters, which provides proof of some kind of value at a minimum, is generally speaking a sign of being out of touch to write it off entirely as doomed to fail, vaporware, etc, because you simply do not understand what people are investing their time and capital in.

For example this comes up continually with VR and AR and crypto, extremely rapidly growing technologies with tons of capital flooding into them. It's one thing to say we can't do something, it's another thing to see entire industries forming around you and tons of capital being allocated and saying it will all fail simply because you don't see the point.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#515

Post by redisman »

mlac wrote: post #472
mox111 wrote: post #416

I think that a lot of the cynicism about this space comes from theorisers who have not yet tried VR for themselves and experienced viscerally + emotionally for themselves, the fact that it is a total game-changer for work and play. The thing with this space is, enough smart people are sufficiently excited by this new media and working on realising its potential, that it will inevitably end up producing value that can…

I will use VR when I can put on my headset, anywhere, and be transported to my "desk". I want to be able to take documents and move them around in VR, read them, put them on my "table", and then have apps that appear as monitors. So I can move and pull up email in front of me, "grab" an attachment, and "put" it into another email that I will compose. And have emails look like a stack of papers that you could actually…

> have emails look like a stack of papers that you could actually process - pick up, hold, throw in a trashcan

For some reason this is a hilarious image in many ways. Perfect example of imagining the future being a better horse. But it also does sound cool

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#516

Post by Karunamon »

pennaMan wrote: post #433
Oddskar wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read this three times and I'm still not sure what your point is.

The point is that this technology forum is in the sad state of being consistently dismissive of novel technology.

I don't think that's an age thing as much as a knee-jerk cynicism thing that's been here since at least 2011.

Don't read HN if you want to be excited about something new, read HN if you want it to be torn apart with constant negativity.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#517

Post by redisman »

satyrnein wrote: post #492
mlac wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will use VR when I can put on my headset, anywhere, and be transported to my "desk". I want to be able to take documents and move them around in VR, read them, put them on my "table", and then have apps that appear as monitors. So I can move and pull up email in front of me, "grab" an attachment, and "put" it into another email that I will compose. And have emails look like a stack of papers that you could actually…

I think the techie fixation with "better desk" as the goal may turn out to be the "faster horses" of VR. Also, while sitting at a desk with a computer describes a disproportionate amount of our work and personal lives, I'm not sure how well that translates for mass adoption.

The reason is that if you’re working in any realistic room people have in their house you’ll be standing or sitting or laying down. I doubt there Will be a better text only device than the keyboard so you have to be able to reach that. You can go minority report but your arms would get tired pretty quick

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#518

Post by Karunamon »

JohnAaronNelson wrote: post #457
mox111 wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like you're speaking from experience here, so it's not for me to tell you you're wrong to feel that way. But from my POV, we've started using VR for work meetings/social gatherings (we're a remote company, myself in Spain, the majority in SF), and we've been able to achieve a level of rapport with each-other that's just not possible via a webcam. We will definitely continue to use it.

That’s super weird. I’d look for a new job real quick if I was required to do stand up with be goggles in. WTF is wrong with people… Rapport is built through authenticity and vulnerability, not fucking avatars.

Neither authenticity nor vulnerability are all that important (or I'd argue, even welcome) in a business context.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#519

Post by 2sk21 »

tailspin2019 wrote: post #459

The Facebook presentation struck me as a vision that’s about 20-30 years out of date, just with “better” graphics. There didn’t seem to be anything new in there and it feels detached from any reality - even a reality in which we might find ourselves in 10-20 years. I’m generally bullish on VR/AR in the long term. But this is not it. What also frustrates me with these types of presentations is how misleading they are…

I agree. Metaverse of 2021 reminds me so much of the "information superhighway" of the 1990s.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#520

Post by charcircuit »

danans wrote: post #113
prawn wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Avatars and eye-tracking. https://www.oculus.com/workrooms/

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.

The benefit is that instead of being a cringe m*le I can be a cute little fox girl. Realistic avatars would be more creepy imo.
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