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The metaverse is already here – it's Minecraft

clivethompson.medium.com

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Re: The metaverse is already here – it's Minecraft

#191

Post by wvenable »

kibwen wrote: post #49
vineyardmike wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a recent interview from mark zuck about the metaverse and someone asked him a similar question. He had an actually really insightful answer. 1) Most american adults watch several hours of TV per day. alternatively, many play a few hours of video games. (The actual per-person-per-day numbers are very high compared to the average 2hr/week i watch tv but whatever). Most of TV and Video Games are about ignoring re…

I'm frustrated that everywhere I look I keep seeing "metaverse" and "VR" used interchangeably. All of the things described above are VR, and none of them are the metaverse. Watching TV or playing a game in an immersive, distraction-free VR environment sounds great, and will happen, and it's not the metaverse, it's just VR. Working in a virtual home office has the potential to be extremely productive, ergonomic, and s…

We got the giant world-wide networked communication interface decades before we got the virtual-reality side of the metaverse. It turns out connecting billions of humans together on a single network was the easy part!

So all the interesting parts of the metaverse going forward are all the VR aspects which is why the discussions are focused on that.

Re: The metaverse is already here – it's Minecraft

#193

Post by Sunspark »

pitched wrote: post #175
Matticus_Rex wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is touch typing (or lack of it) related to working in a home office?

Most office work that I’ve seen requires text entry (email, spreadsheets, proposals, etc) and that’s always today done through a keyboard. Doing that work in VR where you can’t see the keyboard is surprisingly tough, even if you can touch type! I’ve switched out my keycaps for blanks recently to try to force myself to get better at working in VR but I’m still struggling a bit with all the symbols.

Why can't you have printed keycaps in VR?

Re: The metaverse is already here – it's Minecraft

#194

Post by wvenable »

vineyardmike wrote: post #41
clpm4j wrote: post #18

(Aware of the fact that I'm taking time out of my day to read HN) I really wonder how many adults > 25yrs and < 60yrs have the time to immerse themselves in any type of digital world / metaverse experience. If I was a teenager or in college, then yeah I can see it... but there are so many things to do in the 16hrs we have each day, and I already kick myself for not finishing that book, or getting an extra workout in,…

I read a recent interview from mark zuck about the metaverse and someone asked him a similar question. He had an actually really insightful answer. 1) Most american adults watch several hours of TV per day. alternatively, many play a few hours of video games. (The actual per-person-per-day numbers are very high compared to the average 2hr/week i watch tv but whatever). Most of TV and Video Games are about ignoring re…

The problem is that the more you make the virtual world like the real world the less relaxing it is. I don't have the mental energy these days for things that are too immersive.

Some people are just not going to want to spend 8 hours a day interacting with people to go home and interact with other real people in a reality-like medium.

Re: The metaverse is already here – it's Minecraft

#195

Post by whoisthemachine »

Closi wrote: post #107
stormbrew wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not only is it more than just doing things in VR, a metaverse doesn't even require VR. I'm sorry, I think if you want to broaden this term like this you're going to have to stipulate some new boundaries. Else, we've got the metaverse: it's just the internet, and metaverse is just the latest in a long line of silly names for it back to the "internet superhighway". And when Di died or 9/11 happened I had a "shared ex…

I think metaverse is just a fancy name for communicating with people online supported by technology (both present technology, future technology and meatspace communications supported by technology). It’s clear from Facebook’s presentations for instance that they consider text messaging via WhatsApp to class as part of the metaverse. It’s not anything new, but I think the metaverse strategy is basically Facebook sayin…

This was my understanding as well. In many ways, it feels like the "metaverse" is already here and has been for a while, it's mostly Facebook and their ancillary apps + Twitter for me.

Re: The metaverse is already here – it's Minecraft

#196

Post by hellbannedguy »

vineyardmike wrote: post #41
clpm4j wrote: post #18

(Aware of the fact that I'm taking time out of my day to read HN) I really wonder how many adults > 25yrs and < 60yrs have the time to immerse themselves in any type of digital world / metaverse experience. If I was a teenager or in college, then yeah I can see it... but there are so many things to do in the 16hrs we have each day, and I already kick myself for not finishing that book, or getting an extra workout in,…

I read a recent interview from mark zuck about the metaverse and someone asked him a similar question. He had an actually really insightful answer. 1) Most american adults watch several hours of TV per day. alternatively, many play a few hours of video games. (The actual per-person-per-day numbers are very high compared to the average 2hr/week i watch tv but whatever). Most of TV and Video Games are about ignoring re…

Rebut to 1: I watch tv to relax. It doesn't talk back. It's my semi-mute friend. I don't even look at it most of the time. I seem to need mindless taking to drown out my negative thoughts. When the tv is not on, I have my AM radio.

I've never tried VR. Games always put me in a weird mood. I once got 300 Halo 3's at a bankruptcy sale. I couldn't get out of the first room. I tried a few more games, and just didn't get it.

My hope for VR is not being lonely, and bringing more people into my life. And even then--it just sounds awful unless I was in a good mood.

Re: The metaverse is already here – it's Minecraft

#197

Post by GhettoComputers »

colordrops wrote: post #154
GhettoComputers wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Standards of online networking or the metaverse? Its the internet. You can run 3D crap in a browser.

"you can run crap on nand gates"

Which of these "metaverse" applications don't run online?

Re: The metaverse is already here – it's Minecraft

#198

Post by jdshaffer »

me_me_mu_mu wrote: post #118
derac wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm incredulous that having a screen strapped half an inch from your eyes for 8+ hours is desirable. I have an Oculus Rift, my face is sweaty/red in a couple of hours and there is an indent around my eyes. I'm sure newer tech can be much better, especially with airflow and an AR set that lets in natural light. We're not there yet, though.

In thirty years there will be a startup that you can get affordable eye replacements. Keep burning those eyes!

"If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes..." -- R.B. grin

Re: The metaverse is already here – it's Minecraft

#199

Post by imiric »

WorldMaker wrote: post #93
hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not only is it more than just doing things in VR, a metaverse doesn't even require VR. It does not matter because for the public and the media Zuckerberg is redefining the meaning of the word right in front of our eyes. Give it a few years and everybody will believe VR is an inherent feature of metaverse. Just like those of us who had been using the word "crypto" to mean "cryptography" for decades were trying to ex…

Arguably that's probably why Facebook's efforts are doomed to fail before they've even started. By branding and marketing and tying all of their "metaverse" activities to VR they've already lost in a lot of user mindset. The retrending blog post on the Requiem for the HMD [1][2] is more than enough reason to believe that VR (at it exists today, as it existed in 2019 when that blog post was written) is an albatross th…

That Requiem for the HMD article has not aged well. All of those issues are a matter of iterative improvements over what we have today, and the devices will be ready for mass adoption.

Have you seen the leaked Quest Pro design[1]? It's already close to being ski goggle size, and it's only a couple of generations away from something the size of sunglasses.

Displays are getting cheaper, better and higher resolution. UX is being improved, passthrough cameras already exist.

My estimate is that towards the end of this decade we'll see unprecedented adoption of VR/AR outside of the few niche use cases we see today.

Meta is jumping on the bandwagon early, making their brand synonymous with VR, and betting big that this will change how everyone uses computers today, and that it will be the tech to replace smartphones.

As much as I dislike that such a user hostile company is trying to popularize the metaverse/VR, I'm sure they did their research and are confident this will eventually sell like crazy. I think they're right.

[1]: https://nitter.eu/basti564/status/1452366495053488135

Re: The metaverse is already here – it's Minecraft

#200

Post by randomsearch »

“What is so hard for people to understand” says HN commenter: “the metaverse clearly means [my definition of the metaverse] why can’t people see this?!!”

Well, Zuckerberg didn’t give a clear definition, the term itself is made up, and it doesn’t currently exist (otherwise, what would we be building?).

So no you don’t know what it means or how it will turn out, and neither does Zuckerberg. He might have a vision of what he’d like it to be and how he’s going to make money out of it, but he’s very probably very wrong.

It’s obvious a deeply immersive experience will eventually arrive but it seems far from obvious how it will be used, much like predicting the rise of Tik Tok in 1990 based on email and usenet.

The best way to predict the future is to make it. Hackers built much of the early internet, so let’s go build the early metaverse and at least make something insanely experimental and magical and beautiful before the next Zuckerberg comes alone and devalues it.

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