Hacker News Reader

Comment by govg | Hacker News Reader

Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft are arguably "metaverses" by any reasonable standard of the word. They started as video games but have evolved into mediums where people can interact with each other and spend time consuming other content. Especially so in the case of Fortnite with all their concerts and things happening in game, literally the only difference is that one is in VR and the other is in your screen.

View on HN

It appears you’re redefining the word “metaverse” to mean social media. That’s not the same metaverse that everyone else is talking about, which involves putting on VR goggles and zoning out from the real world.

VR and social media are absolutely not the same thing. One takes over your sensory inputs and 100% of your attention. The other you can do on your phone at the same time as other things.

I always thought a metaverse was defined as a virtual 3D world that is composed or federated across multiple apps or servers from different sources (that's what the "meta" part signifies, right?), so the OS-like and/or protocol-like things that structure the composition or federation are the core of a metaverse. So under this definition it doesn't depend on AR or VR, it can just be rendered to 2D displays like regular video games.

Sure, but that’s not the metaverse that Meta is trying to sell. They are trying to sell VR specifically.

>The other you can do on your phone at the same time as other things.

So far!

If you work in VR, and meet in VR, why would you need a phone?

> which involves putting on VR goggles and zoning out from the real world

Is that all Metaverse is? Minecraft but in VR?

If you're being nice. If you're not, it's Habbo Hotel but in VR.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com