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Comment by hn_throwaway_99 | Hacker News Reader

Except there are 2 major differences:

1. Even if FB isn't forced to divest their recent acquisitions, the regulatory environment will make it much more difficult to do the equivalent of buying Instagram in the future.

2. Any good ideas on how I can short "The Metaverse"? I still think the Metaverse is bullshit and will continue to be bullshit for the near future. The very first time I got on Facebook I was pretty enthralled - I was connecting with friends that I hadn't seen in years, and I really liked reconnecting. I have heard basically nobody say they are looking forward to the Metaverse, besides aging tech giants trying to push it.

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I'm sorda looking forward to the Metaverse. Or rather, I'm pleased that FB is baiting the rest of the tech giants into an arms race on VR hardware and software development.

I'm a huge fan of VR gaming. The state of the art is incredible right now, but it'll get so much better the more money is shoveled in.

I'm skeptical about Metaverse and collaborative VR in general:

* much higher barrier to entry (requires specialized hardware)

* much more difficult to produce content (3D worlds to build from the ground up vs text and images of the real world)

* less cool than most video games (YMMV, there might be good VR games, but toons with amputated legs flying around are not cool, and that's what we saw in the Facebook demo)

* several safety and social acceptance issues (basically, you don't see the real world when you're using a VR headset)

* VR is not fun to spectate (checkout twitch, there is not much VR content)

* VR has been around for many years already, and it stays... a niche game accessory.

Add to that space requirements and lots of people find them nauseating to use.

I agree with you, but I find it important to note that it seems like the people who are most into VR gaming also hate the broader concept of the Metaverse.

That is, VR gamers just want to play games, including collaborative games. They don't want to sign in to Facebook to do it, they don't want to "live" in the metaverse, they don't want some shyster hocking their NFTs in VR while they're just trying to play a game.

This whole Metaverse BS just completely feels like Second Life 2.0 (Third Life??)

The thing doesn’t even exist. It’s all just smoke and mirrors at this point. Not even that—where is the tech demo?

It came out a couple months ago.

https://www.oculus.com/horizon-worlds/

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