Does Mark Zuckerberg Not Understand How Bad His Metaverse Looks?

For reference to those who don't understand just how pathetic Zuck's metaverse is, right now, on any number of VR devices, you can freely download VRChat, choose nearly any avatar you want, including definitely copyrighted works that you shouldn't be allowed to, the avatars can have significantly higher detail and fidelity than Zuck's, all of them have legs, you can setup full body tracking through various cheap or expensive ways, you can play silly games with strangers, stay up too late and hang out with random asian kids you can't understand, go literally virtual clubbing (this was awesome during the pandemic), watch movies together, chat about nothing, draw with people much more talented than you, watch impromptu live musical performances, and just otherwise hangout with anyone, VR or not.

And after you are done, you can go "next door" onto Rec Room, play much better designed and built games with more strangers and kids, get absolutely shitmixed by 12 year olds in paintball and lasertag, make some 12 year olds day by helping them beat a big pirate themed campaign, build your own entire worlds using a robust in engine creation kit, and once again do this with both VR and non-VR people.

The only possible innovation Meta could bring in is to make it Adults Only

Maybe the real question is, does Mark Zuckerberg not understand how bad all of Meta looks?

I pay Facebook a reasonable amount of money each year as a small business owner with advertising needs, but their product has become increasingly hard to use with poor returns. We all know from the consumer side how unusable FB is, and frankly even as an advertiser let alone as a consumer, I question the value of Instagram. Then there is Meta for Business (I use in one of my jobs), which I guess is fine for its purpose as a generic messaging board but not good for anything serious.

I'm particularly sensitive after being brushed off yesterday as an advertiser begging them to fix a problem so I can give them more money. Glad I'm not a shareholder.

So yeah, good luck to them with this metaverse "stuff".

No. Zuck's had this problem forever.

It's just astonishing that you can visit Horizon Worlds, have no legs, and get sexually harassed by another person with no legs.

The cartoony art style can work well in VR (see Rec Room), but for some reason it just doesn’t work in Horizon.

I was on the beta and the disconnect between various parts of the world left something to be desired so I never went back.

The tools to create content were fairly well done though.

I would guess that the art direction is still informed by the desire to use this technology for phone calls and work meetings, where a sanitary and boring avatar is fitting.

Why does the Facebook vr world look almost like they copied the Nintendo wii stuff from 15 years ago that was itself using non-cutting and edge graphics at the time?

To paraphrase Updike (IIRC), it's remarkable how bad a robber-baron billionaire can be at understanding something if his idea of robbing even more billions depends on him not understanding it.

Meanwhile in Decentraland.......