Searching for friends in Mark Zuckerberg’s deserted fantasyland | Hacker News Reader

Searching for friends in Mark Zuckerberg’s deserted fantasyland

nymag.com

16 pointsfnordpiglet8 comments

Wow, this is a good longform article AND a dark, sad peek into VR. Thank you for the heads up: I won’t be visiting there anytime soon.

Agreed! I enjoyed this article immensely and feel I have a better grasp of what's been going on with that tech than I did before, as someone who does not yet participate in VR.

That was hilarious. A great read. I say this for those like me that dont read the article and go straight to the comments.

I actually think that there is a market for something like Horizon Worlds but it won't be made by Facebook/Meta. It'd be made by a gaming company first and foremost and it'd be enhanced by having a VR set, but not required to have one.

Meta is an A/B testing company. Their entire culture centered around 2D A/B tests. To build a world that people enjoy, gaming companies spend years in development before even announcing it. Meta's culture is the opposite of that.

They can't even innovate new features in their own app. All their main Instagram features are exact copies of features in other popular apps such as Snapchat, TikTok, etc. The creation culture at Meta is severely lacking.

When you A/B test, you're only making mostly minimal changes. Often, you need to take a leap of faith and build something from the ground up without the comfort of incremental testing. You need a complete vision to create something from the ground up, something that A/B test culture does not value.

Sony had a similar product a decade ago, but on flat screens - PlayStation Home. It was a virtual space where PlayStation users could create an avatar, visit shared spaces and have their private ones as well. A key difference is that is was running on a platform people already had, and most of the users already had a common interest in using it. I wonder if it was made today, with VR compatibility, the popularity and longevity would be different.

I remember. It was done at a time before the creator economy exploded. So I think if they do it again, put more resources, add creator economy elements, it could work.

But yea, I have no confidence in Meta producing a video game - which is what a "metaverse" is.

The question is, was it predictable, did Mark realize it from the beginning? Definitely he does it now. I think "Second Life" was similar, then it degraded to just adult entertainment at selected locations. It was 2D, but popular from start.

Has it struck anyone else that HW avatars creepily resemble chess pawns? Freudian slip on Zuck's part, maybe?

The very last arbiter of reality I want is Merc Fuckerberg.

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