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Comment by baby | Hacker News Reader

Serious question: do you really think that someone who is enthusiastic about VR would refuse to get the best headset out there because they would have to create an account on some service online? I can’t fathom how that would stop anyone who is truly interested about playing VR. It’s like telling someone they will need a PS account to play the playstation or a Xbox account to play the xbox, they’d probably be fine with that.

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> Serious question: do you really think that someone who is enthusiastic about VR would refuse to get the best headset out there because they would have to create an account on some service online?

As someone who had to make this exact decision. Yes. So there definitely are "someone"s who'd do exactly this.

But if you are asking if the average consumer would do so? Unfortunately the answer is they probably don't mind using Facebook.

I understand what you're saying, but with Facebook it's different, because it's tied to your real identity, which changes the context a lot compared to other services.

In my case, because of that, getting a Facebook account is hard, if not impossible, because those "real identity" checks are obscure: I attempted twice to sign up for work-related reasons, and I failed both times despite providing IDs and pestering support. I have literally NO idea why I cannot have a FB account.

However, even if I could, I hate Facebook so goddamn much that if this was my only option I would rather not use VR altogether. And I love my Oculus Rift, especially for game development.

I am royally pissed off, and I will gladly go forward with a class action lawsuit.

So, just to understand what you say correctly, I will ask: Do you think it is ethically tenable to require these VR interested, enthusiastic people to sign up to FB (known to be privacy nightmare), so that they are able to use the product they spent lots of money on? Is it acceptable to force them to do this, just because they are sufficiently interested in VR? Is it in general OK to force people to connect with a third party, which has nothing to do with the actual product?

I am not sure whether you are trying to justify this move, or whether you are questioning that it will have an economic impact or really what the point is.

I think it's fine yeah, I think it's fair to recognize that Facebook has had some privacy issues, but 1) it doesn't mean that it'll impact you if you just create a simple account and 2) it doesn't mean that FB will have more privacy issues in the future

I wouldn’t have bought one. At least I get two years use.

I currently own a HTC Vive (+wireless) and the Oculus Go. I was planning to sell both and buy the new Oculus Quest 2. I will not do this now. Bummer.

Is the Quest really better than the Vive pro? or the Valve index?

It's certainly a lot more affordable.

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