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Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

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Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#151
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

World-of-Warcraft-like MMO games allow for "character customization", but on a moment-to-moment basis, character models are mostly static. You can read an explicit display of emotion if they choose to "emote" one, but there are no continuous subtle cues about how a person is continuing to feel about something. Now, one of the interesting things about VR is that, provided your perspective is attached to an avatar, the…

Except you're face is going to be covered with virtual reality junk, and all it does is display something a normal monitor or TV can. Reading your facial expressions requires nothing more than a webcam. And the whole thing I think is just a gimmick that doesn't add much value (both VR and facial expressions.) Additionally video game characters look really creepy when they try to do facial expressions.

1. The face-reading parts would be inside and part of the virtual-reality junk. (And, helpfully, would also enhance eye-tracking.)

2. Modern graphics technology has all it needs to generate realistic expressions on characters. Modern video-game characters instead look creepy because they're replaying a small pre-made library of expressions that don't usually fit the situation very well. If the character's face just mimicked the tension in the muscles of your own face moment-to-moment, this problem would disappear.

3. The argument that facial expressions (or body-language in general) doesn't add value is refuted explicitly by the fact that people prefer meeting in person, to meeting over video-chat, to speaking over the phone, to having a text conversation. The only thing each rung of that ladder adds to the previous is body-language-based interaction.

But these are all beside the greater point: the feeling of being in the same room with someone is necessary for the emotional regulation of your relationship with them. Skype doesn't give you that. VR, eventually, can.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#152
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best thing? There is really no other company you could think of who would be a better partner? Like google? Or Microsoft?

Google wouldn't be any better, and I might argue worse. They are more likely than not to just shut it down. Microsoft or Apple would be better though IMO. Alternately Valve might have been nice.

Valve would have been ideal in terms of 'companies who have lots of money and not a lot of people to justify their spending to', but I imagine that $2Bn is outside their price range. Last I heard they were working on their own VR though.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, from Carmack's twitter 1m ago: https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/448629403740692481 For the record, I am coding right now, just like I was last week. I expect the FB deal will avoid several embarrassing scaling crisis for VR. Glad to see Carmack is still being Carmack. EDIT: By the way, if anyone is wondering why people are having a negative reaction to this Facebook deal, I think one way to understand it…

> scaling crisis for VR. That's supposing Facebook knows how to scale production of electronic items... apart from the cash, they have no relevant experience about that. If it had been Google or Microsoft there would already be people who know how to make it scale to mass production.

Facebook has the buying power to put together a solid hardware production team. I don't think Google has much internal hardware production knowledge right now, aside from the knowledge they bought when they acquired Motorola. Before that, they mostly made things through hardware partners like HTC, Samsung, and LG. I think they produce the Chromecast internally, but it's not much fancier than a USB stick. I'm sure they are quickly learning, but Facebook is also already buying up hardware companies and they have been building their own custom servers for internal use for years.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#154
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And ridiculous.

It's emotional, but common, what is the proper reaction if one of the greats thing is bought by one of the worst? The only scenario worse than this i can image is Oracle. How would you feel if SpaceX, if you invested in it's technology, would have been bought by John Deere? This is more tragic than the acquisition of Bell Labs by Alcatel.

As an investor I would be overjoyed.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, let me play devil's advocate: Perhaps Facebook are thinking "What's the one thing that could truly set us apart from all other social media sites, and place a prohibitively high barrier to entry on this otherwise very easy to enter field?", and perhaps the conclusion they've reached is to take social media to the next level, and have it simulate life in virtual reality. Perhaps Facebook are going to aim to have…

I think anyone that was even mildly creeped out by Secondlife or Playstation Home will be about 10x more creeped out by VR versions (not even adding in the Facebook angle). VR "Presence" cuts both ways. Yes it massively amplifies virtual experiences but disruption, incongruities and annoyances are amplified to the same or perhaps a greater degree...

I think it will be more mainstream and captivating and thus effective than SecondLife. For one thing, you will be invited to join existing friends rather than jump in and deal with randoms.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#157
post #67

I hope that this illustrates for some that the distaste over this deal is more than a few "irrational" / cynical malcontents on Hacker News. A lot of people have a serious problem with Facebook the service, the cultural shift, and the company. On another note, I was so looking forward to Minecraft on Oculus. I sincerely hope that Valve picks up the torch here.

And yet most of them still have accounts, the irony.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#158
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, nice to see Notch take a stand and provide some sliver of redemption today for the thousands of nerds (myself included) upset about the Oculus Facebook deal today. I can't imagine the Oculus team ever reaching their fundraising goal if backers knew the founders were going to sellout before ever reaching the vision they shared to get people to back it in the first place. EDIT: Notch seems to have just confirme…

> nice to see Notch take a stand taking a stand against Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and now Oculus ? I know that Notch wants to develop games with passionate people, but he has to understand that this acquisition was the best thing that could happen to both VR and Oculus. Anyway, Notch has been infamously known for his quick rants (see the "youtuber he insulted" issue)

> he has to understand that this acquisition was the best thing that could happen to both VR and Oculus.

Let's wait a while before making such bold statements, shall we? It may have been the best thing that could happen to Instagram, but decent technology (good enough to attract John Carmack) might have had a brighter future without a new owner with possibly different interests.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#159
post #140

"And I did not chip in ten grand to seed a first investment round to build value for a Facebook acquisition." The community raised $2.5 million, which (in part) enabled Oculus to build the first round of prototypes. That's great. I'm sure that the Kickstarter money was burned through a long, long time ago. And as far as I know, Oculus has delivered on every backer reward it offered. So backers got to do two things: t…

There are literally hundreds of product design firms that could have helped them with this that you never hear about, that are well versed in bringing mass produced technology products to market.

Facebook doesn't have any of that: all it has is money, which I am certain that Oculus wouldn't have any trouble raising on its own.

Source: a family member works for one, and is in China right now, producing headphones for Dr. Dre.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#160

What company isn't creepy these days? Google, Facebook and Amazon are a few companies of many that come to mind when I think of all the user data they hold, what they know and what they could use it for. Thems the breaks unfortunately. I admire Notch standing up for what he believes in, but I just can't see how Facebook is creepier than anything else or affects the acquisition of Oculus. It's not like the gaming devi…

I just can't see how Facebook is creepier than anything else

For one, there's no accounting for taste, and two, why can't it just be creepy along with the other creepy things out there, and not even bother with ranking them? It's just as easy to avoid creepy companies, period.

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