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Comment by trhway | Hacker News Reader

Back at Sun it was Java. I wonder whether it is a great vision that will propel FB even further up, or a start of a renaming orgy and detached from reality megaprojects in a company overtaken by mid-management types and marking transitioning of FB from an ever expanding superstar into a large undead incumbent.

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I’m imagining it somewhere deep in the unceremonious middle. It’s unfortunate. Are they too big to die? I’m not super-rooting for that, but where is the reality check of the 90s? Where’s the actual disruption? The actual non-Facebook metaverse is a concept I don’t see them nearing. Huge tech != meaningful longevity. Are these companies surviving on market growth alone? Not actual market growth, but literally just access across the planet? Countries from the distant electronic past coming into digital yesterday? It’s free users for a system that is literally not innovating outside of FRL. Are they? What is the offering to humanity? On what merit dare they claim dibs on what they guess is the next plane of reality? Use Facebook messenger on Instagram? Now you don’t have to use Facebook? What a 2021 we’re having! I absolutely love the tech demos, but the ability to have a photorealistic avatar is not what is holding the metaverse back. Are we really just waiting around for a 1:1 representation of our physical identities? Think of the security you could have if we built the privacy in! Should I thank Facebook for having the money to fund the development that everybody else wants to have the money to do? Walkabout Minigolf is literally the most engaging and dynamic social experience I’ve had in VR. It’s low-poly minigolf. Did all the Facebook thinking stem from “how do we own the next App Store?” Because it really feels that way. Is that how we got the App Store?

> Did all the Facebook thinking stem from “how do we own the next App Store?” Because it really feels that way. Is that how we got the App Store?

You sound so dismissive when you put it that way but the App Store makes an absurd amount of money and Their 3 main products have to sit on top of their competitors foundations.

It makes sense for them to try to make their own and the smartphone battle is already over.

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