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The metaverse is bullshit

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Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#581

Post by names_are_hard »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #336
schleck8 wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's App is not monetizable It is, they talked about introducing ads to the status tab before. I agree on the rest though

The second they turn that on, Signal and Telegram will get an even larger influx of users than they got last year when the FB lawyers tried to weasel in some language enabling that and some other features in the Whatsapp terms of use. I still have not agreed to the terms of use since I continue to be able to opt out and am amused by FB basically chickening out requiring their users to actually agree. The normal cours…

> I still have not agreed to the terms of use since I continue to be able to opt out and am amused by FB basically chickening out requiring their users to actually agree. The normal course of action would be to eventually block access to the app. That hasn't happened.

Me too. Every couple of weeks they show me a popup asking me to accept the new terms and I just click the x and continue about my day. At first they were threatening me that I'd lose access to the app by some date but that date passed months ago and I still have access. I'm amused because I feel like I called their bluff and it turns out they're not as confident as they make themselves out to be. One day they'll probably block me but until then...shrug.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#582

Post by herodotus »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #531
emilsedgh wrote: post #305

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…

> Metaverse is not bullshit. It's a sign of desperation. Ha ha, so, in fact, bullshit. I'm so happy someone called it out. Being a developer, tech-savvy person, I should be all into BitCoin, VR, meta ... but I have recoiled from more or less the last decade of crap (including, I might add, "social" and maybe even phones — although they are great for navigating). Maybe I am just getting old (that is true) or maybe thi…

with you all the way...

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#583

Post by slightwinder »

DeusExMachina wrote: post #227
fredophile wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Billions and billions spent on making movies as polished as possible, yet "I thought the book was better" is what we always hear. How many people watched game of thrones? How many people read all of the published books in a song of ice and fire? The book might be better but movies and TV are a lot more popular.

I could not find much data but it seems that the finale of Games of thrones had 19 million viewers [1], while the books sold 90 million copies [2]. Since I guess the latter are cumulative over all the five books, it looks like books and series have a similar performance. Looking at something similar, the Lord of the Rings had around 80-90 million viewers (very rough estimation from the global box office [3]) while th…

> the finale of Games of thrones had 19 million viewers [1], while the books sold 90 million copies [2]

Isn't this viewers in one country (USA), versus books sold worldwide?

> Looking at something similar, the Lord of the Rings had around 80-90 million viewers (very rough estimation from the global box office [3]) while the book sold 150 million copies [4], so the books seem to have fared better.

Viewerships in Box-Office are limited to a specific timeframe and location. They do not include television, private viewing on streaming-services/DVD/etc., later screenings in cinemas around the world. And the movies only exist for 20 years, while the booksales are from 3x that timeframe.

And finally, those are exceptional successful books and franchises. What about an average book? How many people have seen Forest Gump and how many actually read the book even decades later after the initial hype?

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#584

Post by poetaster »

noir_lord wrote: post #334
fredophile wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Billions and billions spent on making movies as polished as possible, yet "I thought the book was better" is what we always hear. How many people watched game of thrones? How many people read all of the published books in a song of ice and fire? The book might be better but movies and TV are a lot more popular.

Books tap directly into the imagination in a way that films (very) rarely do. The most amazing special effects in the world can't match my imagination for fidelity and if they did, they'd still not be mine . I've noticed that the book to TV/movies I like aren't because they are good adaptations so much as they are close to what I imagined. It's rare that happens but when it does it makes the TV show a deeply enjoyabl…

I had read and loved The Expanse. I also loved it on tv. Lord of the Ring. Hmmm.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#585

Post by simonh »

slightwinder wrote: post #569
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…

> Text is mightier than the Metaverse. "A Picture says more than a thousand words." > Kids can do video calls with their smartphones but prefer texting. Because text is asynchronous, and persistent. Text is a weak medium, but with specific strengths which can beat others in certain situation if they can played well. > We could discuss Hacker News stories with video chat but we prefer text. I guess you haven't discove…

>"A Picture says more than a thousand words."

If I give you a thousand word essay, good luck crating an image that conveys the same information. I mean you could photograph the essay, but then we're back to text again.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#586

Post by polio »

ftwynn wrote: post #460

I'm always surprised that people don't cite the economic and physical limits for the metaverse more often. Light only moves so fast through cables. Average ping time between New York and LA is in the high 60's, and that's assuming a wired connection. I think often about the old talk [1] Web Design - The First 100 Years, that talks about why planes never went supersonic. The alternatives were good enough, and the cost…

If people are avatars, then the amount of information exchanged in a conversation between them is the streaming audio and vectors describing the position of the avatar's bodies; I feel like this would be less bandwidth than is required for video chat, although the expectation of low latency will likely be greater due to the immersion.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#587

Post by emodendroket »

LegitShady wrote: post #287
emodendroket wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are willing to pay thousands of dollars on setups precisely to simulate driving a car in VR. It's not totally implausible that if the VR technology gets convincing enough it could help move some cars too.

Very few people are willing to spend it - that's coming from someone who has spent some money on getting a VR racing setup. Many people who have tried it think its fun but then ask me how much it was and say 'well I'm glad you enjoy it'. Driving a real car down a windy road is 1000x better than the best Vr setup.

Yeah but I'm not going to push my real car anything like I would a video game car because I do not wish to damage it or injure myself.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#589

Post by vadansky »

greggh wrote: post #432
shafyy wrote: post #17

As the article says, it doesn't make sense to have a virtual world that replicates the real world where there is only one "spacetime" entity, so to speak. The author is right, the metaverse is already here and it's called the internet. I disagree with the author that I can see a lot of value in improved social interactions and virtual workspaces in VR once the technology gets there. You can already see glimpses of it…

Depending on your needs, the technology is already there. I already do most of my work in VR with my partner, while he is also in VR from his house about 2 miles away. We need a few desktop screens up for information, a big whiteboard, and the ability to see each others screens. With Immersed and Horizon Workrooms we get all of that already. Before workrooms was really stable we were using Immersed and keeping Mural…

Which Headset? I’d love to do this but most VR owners say the DPI is still not there for small text and it’s too cumbersome to keep wearing for hours.

Re: The metaverse is bullshit

#590

Post by slightwinder »

opyate wrote: post #577
slightwinder wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Text is mightier than the Metaverse. "A Picture says more than a thousand words." > Kids can do video calls with their smartphones but prefer texting. Because text is asynchronous, and persistent. Text is a weak medium, but with specific strengths which can beat others in certain situation if they can played well. > We could discuss Hacker News stories with video chat but we prefer text. I guess you haven't discove…

I'm waiting for the day I can Ctrl-F on a Youtube video, say a key phrase, then the video jumps to the point where someone says the key phrase (or the video is about the key phrase). Meanwhile, text is so much more easily consumable. (Youtube Premium junkie here, BTW.)

Technically, you can already do that today, as many youtube-videos have now autogenerated subtitles. Someone just need to build a tool utilizing them for this. Though, to be fair, the quality of those subtitles is sometimes a bit questionable. And they are not available in all languages. Especially if you want a different language then what is spoken in the video.

But yes, of course this is another case in which text can shine because of its weakness. Simplicity can be beneficial.

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