The Metaverse is Amazingly Dumb

Marques made an entire video about the metaverse, but in this clip Andrew gives his opinion on why he likes it (and also why he doesn't).
Watch the full episode: bit.ly/wvfrmep140
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Links:
Who Cares about the Metaverse video: bit.ly/whometa...
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Waveform is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

[@AA_dagr8t]

Metaverse is literally what video games have been in my opinion. Virtual worlds surrounded by other people.

[@samantaluna3870]

Especially online games like Fallout 76, Grand Theft Auto Online, Minecraft, Roblox, and Red Dead Online. They are pretty similar to second life.

[@MultiSneakerLover]

@@samantaluna3870 those are the online games you came up with?😂😂😂😂

[@ca3rice]

Listening to people referring to Meta as the metaverse is like listening to people referring to AOL as the internet.

[@emamousette]

You’ve won the internet today, Robert!

[@spht9ng]

it's the only commercially relevant one. Decentraland has like no users.

[@P4TCH5S]

@@spht9ng that so untrue, people are just ignorant

[@tekmepikcha6830]

omg! this comment tho...👏👏👏

[@dionokeke2148]

That's what meta wants

[@cebo494]

Without a doubt AR is the more practical path forward in the short term. As Marques said in the actual video, the key thing that needs to happen is that they need to be able to do something better than you can do in real life. The by far easiest way to do that is to 'augment' real life, to take the existing real life experience and add more on top of it, instead of having to recreate those experiences from scratch digitally while also trying to add more to them at the same time. The AR triple monitor demo he showed in his video is a clear example of that, and easily the most interesting currently possible VR experience I've seen yet. VR will get there eventually, but for now, my money's on AR.

[@duffdabsduffdies]

I think the fact that good 'transparency mode' is infinitely more important to consumers than 'spatial audio' is evidence to support that take from the audio world, tbh.

[@Thezuule1]

The problem is AR is years behind VR in the short term. Beyond that, the tech to miniaturize the tech the way people would want simply isn't there yet. We need to get XR cloud computing sorted before it's even a possibility imo.

[@acmeoneconnect]

@@Thezuule1 its actually not that far behind

[@VOLightPortal]

"But that's silly, who wants to live in AR. People want to live in MY metaverse because look how many use MY platform Facebook? Most people live their whole lives inside Facebook and you're going to want to live their too. That's why I built the metaverse called Horizon Worlds, just for you." - Mark Z

[@Quicktwosteps]

Psh. Metaverse is just a test run. They're trying to do a dumb level version of a black market or the deep dark web. You guys don't see that?

[@michaelhutcheson5897]

The issue with the metaverse is no one know why they should use it. Until meta provides people with a why, it will never become mainstream.

[@spiritualanarchist8162]

Good comment. People will use zoom for meetings, Kids will use WhatsApp to talk to grandparents, . Gamers will use VR because the experience is cool, etc.Meta just created a cartoon VR world ( with dated avatars,!) without a specific target audience in mind.

[@r.daneel.90]

I really think Mark knows his plan won't work and at this point he's just stuck with the sunk cost. His vision of Metaverse (at least the one he shows) doesn't make sense. I feel like he wants to create a world where people do everyday tasks with a Vr avatar, but that's annoying. So right off the bat we have a hardware problem, where even a Google Glass-sized system would be moderately annoying. And then comes vision and appearance. Cartoon designs arent attractive, I would even say they are somewhat disturbing to many people (like a Black Mirror ep), and will always be compared to games that will look better. But if they will opt for photorealistic models, then what's the point of not using a webcam; cheaper, simpler and you don't have to carry it around. And then the experience outside of interpersonal communication. Whats the goal? to be a videogame? a virtual store? everything? define everything. Why buying food through the metaverse would be better than doing it in 2 taps with Uber Eats. And let's not even talk about the entertainment aspect, it's safe to say that most gamers are not attracted to anything Meta has to offer in terms of entertainment software. It's ridiculous, but it looks like Mark is building his Metaverse, for old people who don't know what games or app stores are, or even internet. Its a booby trap for elderly investors and crypto bros.

[@KiranBHK]

Never bet against a man who is smart enough to make billion dollars

[@ridgemills]

Immersion.

[@mmtransport]

@@ridgemills counter point - people can just immerse themselves in the real world

[@mygamechannel2300]

It can only run 1-2 hours on battery, the project is doom from the start.

[@4G63Tx]

Well said, I completely agree. I don’t see this taking off at all. VR for consoles and PCs are barely starting to gain significant traction and those are systems with specifically defined goals

[@TheUKalti]

There’s an Austrian Start-Up called “Vitablick“ who use VR for special experiences for elders. There clients are retirement castles. People with limited mobility can enjoy the view from a mountain top or a sunset … or visit Paris once again in there lifetime.Alone or as a group. This has social and psychological effects too.

[@katherinelangford981]

We used vr for my mom who was in a nursing home so she could try and see new things. My friend borrowed mine to use the wander app to show her dying grandfather where he used to live when he was young on the other side of the world. Apparently the whole family was emotionally touched by the experience. I think more seniors couod benefit from it.

[@cbonk2]

Meta's marketing team really dropped the ball on advertising Horizon Worlds as the Metaverse. They should be advertising their advancements in AR and VR tech.

[@LeesReviews69]

They should have listened to John Carmack but instead they are trying to make us use a crappy app

[@RanmaruRei]

@@LeesReviews69 what did John Carmack recommend? I mean what would be if they listened?

[@Thezuule1]

They didn't actually do that though. That's a leap that the media made. Horizon Worlds is not the metaverse it's just a social VR app.

[@cbonk2]

@@Thezuule1 Didn't they have a superbowl ad about it or something? Either way, their R&D into VR and AR looks very promising.

[@Thezuule1]

@@cbonk2 there was that FNaF's kind of inspired ad with the puppets. They get into the concept of interconnected experiences and economies and all that which is ultimately what the metaverse entails. Horizon Worlds will be a part of that but so will 1000 other things. Their R&D is pushing the future of VR forward at great cost to them as a business so I have to give them credit where it's due. Blazing this new trail is going to cost a metric butt ton of hot stinky cash.

[@CookiePepper]

He needs to understand more than 50% of people hate him. He should hire some nice person for presentation.

[@r.daneel.90]

And he should also change his reptilian hairstyle, urgently. A good hairstyle would make him 40% less unpleasant.

[@dertythegrower]

Bingo!

[@dertythegrower]

@@r.daneel.90 nah, the dude surfed in hawaii with a hoodie on and his entire face had deep white suntan lotion like a mask. best picture yet of him

[@EricTomlinson]

Hate is a bit much. Curious why people don't like him.

[@wisdomofanowl9702]

@@EricTomlinson I don't understand the hate as well. That is why I made research about Mark and watched a lot of documentaries about him. Not the nicest person but hate is a bit exaggerated. Maybe it's envy or something else I don't know.

[@mattnoh3342]

Metaverse is the marketing term that rich CEOs use to get other rich CEOs to invest in the virtual boy.

[@yodaisgod2]

Zuckerdroid saw Ready Player One and said "Yes, that's what I want." Billions later, basically Second Life in 3D.

[@BeaverMonkey]

He saw Ready Player One and completely missed the point of the movie

[@ilhamwicaksono5802]

Except he already bought oculus like years prior the movie

[@chineduachimalo391]

I feel NVIDIA defines the metaverse best, it's just basically the internet but in 3D. I have always seen VRChat as the metaverse way back before Zuck came into the picture and change the narrative. I see the metaverse as a world that exists along side our world just like the internet does. Before the internet became main stream I knew people would be spending huge chunk of their life on it that's what's happening already. We work online, shop online, socialize online, game online but it still doesn't block your real life experience. Same will happen with the metaverse, it's just going to be a more intuitive and interactive version of what we already do. And when it happens we wont really notice like all cultural change.

[@mikashastewart9719]

its funny how you know more then they do

[@Thezuule1]

The key to that is the metaverse is more than a single app. It's about interconnectedness and it doesn't currently exist.

[@elijahclaude3413]

Exactly this!! Beautifully said. This is what I've been so excited about for years, and am working to build with many other folks who realize it. The key is to build out the interoperability (the ability for you to easily move from one part of the internet to another with all of your data, preferences, etc). Plus their needs to be a concerted effort to design an incredibly intuitive experience.

[@epicvillain8308]

Metaverse is when every single platform is openly connected to each other. Nothing to do with VR alone. It’s a globally open ecosystem that can be connected with every peripheral. Yet these orgs have closed economies and will never give true lenses into their competitors’ platforms from their platform.

[@gdouglass10]

As someone who works in IT mainly in financial institutions I can guarantee VR will not happen in in these businesses, the majority of users don't even enable the camera when in a zoom/teams call. If facebook/meta are hoping VR will be the next thing in business they are in for a very rude ( i.e. expensive) awakening at some point when the $Billions run out

[@davidlewis1787]

The meta verse is basically a very very very very expensive way to remake second life, with the same graphics, for no good reason whatsoever

[@creativestudio101]

Ditto on that! I first used Second Life almost 20 years ago, and yeah, it was and is pretty much the same concept as the much touted "metaverse, with a hell of a lot better graphics... Imagine that, 20 years ago.

[@magickbaz8518]

not so fun fact: i had a coworker who got a VR headset as a freebie for his then just launched galaxy s7. he literally DIED because he was lying on the top bunk of a double deck bed and was wearing the headset playing some game and fell, FACE FIRST and because the VR headset was sp fucking chunky it affected the way his head fell and so it did basically broke his neck as well 😳 such a weird horror story

[@yoanperez172]

I really don't know why people keep talking about meetings in VR. The whole point of Virtual Reality is to be in a different amazing reality, not in a boring meeting.

[@michaelchen2718]

11:15 this is a very real possibility--imagine instead of wearing ANYTHING, each user owns a personal bubble of screens that they can step into. This would actually be so much MORE immersive--if you don't have to wear anything, there is no constant reminder pressing on your face that you are in a virtual space.

[@DrFungus]

I think a lot of us forgot how this all (Facebook embracing the Metaverse) started after all those reports and whistle blowers came out regarding their harmful algorithm and stuff. Remember how most of us thought this whole meta thing was a distraction? And it worked! But at what cost, Mark? 😂

[@pressxtojason]

Your comment is literally the only one I've seen that mentions this fact. It was like a week after the whistleblower released that trove of documents.

[@LukeMartin-qi5uh]

If people listened to how zuck talks when he talks about VR they would hear it's the only time he sounds human. I honestly believe that he is all in on this stuff he is the ultimate enthusiast and is risking billions of dollars (and apparently 10's of thousands of jobs). It's honestly going to go down as one of the greatest bets tech has ever seen whether it pans out or not.

[@joelstroud9434]

15 Billion 😂

[@trumplostlol3007]

Meta did not invent AR or VR. It has nothing but a CHEAP VR headset that was developed by Oculus. And Facebook just changed its name to Meta after ACQUIRING this company. The social networking VR apps came out many years ago, thanks to Rec Room and VR Chat. They have NOTHING to do with Zuckerberg. LOL

[@MaxMiller94]

That shot of Zuck grinning while Marques uses the Quest Pro is a real life version of that meme video where Zuck offers you Sweet Baby Ray's in the metaverse

[@neilfordan]

I think what sparked the social media revolution is that devices are very accessible. With the metaverse, only a few can interact with it, and it's not very appealing.

[@DylanM15]

Eh it's the early phases of it still for sure. The metaverse isn't going to catch on overnight but it will. Social media sites use to be very exclusive. You had to be somebody to have a voice or it was for a specific group of people like Facebook use to be. That's changed with KZbin, TikTok, IG, and Twitter recently, and even Facebook to a point. There is no exclusivity or premium value to the metaverse right now. So it's not catching on super well.

[@abbeyo2195]

I think they key here and now is that VR is novel. It’s a novelty to experience something in VR at the moment, and not something people see as a daily activity

[@CommodoreFan64]

It's been that way since the 90's when VR first came around as a commercial product, so for many I don't see it ever not being a novelty.

[@patrick.egan2]

@@CommodoreFan64 true that it’s been around. But it’s still essentially novel for the vast majority, since most people have never even experienced VR. But I would argue the problem isn’t even one of novelty, it’s just too expensive for most people to justify right now. Until the price comes way down, to the point where most people can easily afford it, you just won’t get wide adoption of it. Zuck’s main mistake is he went all-in too early. Timing is everything, and it’s far too early for an all-in move on VR.

[@Thezuule1]

My family and I and a few of our friends are on our headsets daily. Basically given up flat screen gaming. Small sample size of course but plenty of us are all in.

[@laartwork]

@@CommodoreFan64 VR has only been a true commercial product since 2016. Comparing the 90's VR fad is like comparing Wright Brothers plane to a 747. VR and AR are inevitable

[@drewfromyay882]

I think VR wil be big in the future but the tech isn't there yet. The headsets are too cumbersome. They are expensive. They need to be cheap and the size of glasses. Also Horizon Worlds isn't the metaverse, it's a crappy Wii game. Fortnite, VR Chat, Minecraft and Roblox are all better metaverses than what Zuck is offering.

[@Just-Michael]

I think a good question to ask is, If/ when the metaverse gets good, will people still care? In my experience, I'm already kinda over social media and I've never had any real interest in VR. Like I'm almost 30, I experienced the evolution of social media. Right now, the only social media I use is Instagram and KZbin, and I wouldn't even use Instagram if I didn't have music to promote. I'm already over the virtual experience and want more real life experiences. In the next 5-10 years, will people still care to slap a $1000 headset on and live in Zuckworld?

[@Thezuule1]

I will just point out that socializing with people in a space like VRChat is entirely different to traditional social media txt only communication. If I'm home for the night and the kids are in bed having a couple beers and hanging out in The Great Pug or something is a pretty fun time from time to time.

[@Just-Michael]

@@Thezuule1 And as I mentioned, the hardware is expensive. Getting a VR headset just to play VR chat with the boys is pretty steep. Like I can just get in a discord call and we can play any game that already exists or share screens and watch TV or movies or KZbin or whatever we want. And we can do it all without shithead Zuck being involved. To me, VR is a novelty and doesn't have as much longevity in general. I think it's kinda like the Wii, where motion controls were cool for a couple weeks, and then it wasn't enjoyable outside of a few games. It made regular gaming experiences worse. I never understood when tech reviewers talked about "immersion" in things like VR, curved monitors, devices with little to no bezels, etc. I don't know what that means. I have a curved monitor on my desk and you can't even tell that it's curved most of the time. I've enjoyed things just fine without being "immersed" in it, at least in the ways that are sold to us. And I think Marques is a bit optimistic, talking about VR or AR possibly just being a pair of glasses in the future. Bro, if that clunky headset and controllers can only get an hour of use, how the heck are you going to pack all that tech into glasses? This is a lot more complex than airpods that work for a few hours just playing audio. I dunno, I don't think the idea really has any legs. The small amount of enthusiasts will eat it up but I don't think it will ever catch on among the general public.

[@Thezuule1]

@@Just-Michael when I bought my headset they were $299, wallyworld had them for $199 refurbished. That's not a steep cost of entry which is partly why the device sold so well. You can get in a discord call but in order to do so you need a device that likely costs as much or more than a Quest. Even an entry level phone or desktop is going to set you back $500. VR is something you have to experience to get. You can't explain immersion anymore than you can explain being high. You kind of had to be there. The feeling of loading up something like Quake on my headset, and legit feeling present in that experience I grew up playing on flat displays, is something I can't convey in words in a comment. You just had to be there.

[@Just-Michael]

@@Thezuule1 Quest headsets right now are going for over $500 CAD, and everyone already has a phone and/or a computer so that shouldn't be an issue. A VR headset is extra. I've never done drugs so I can't verify that experience. And I suppose you're an enthusiast, as you really enjoy it whereas I've never seriously considered getting a VR headset. I think it's interesting, but there's nothing I'd realistically want to do in VR.

[@Thezuule1]

@@Just-Michael the biggest problem with VR is you have to try it to get it. If you don't have a friend with a headset or just go out and buy one you'll never know. If you're a gamer you already know what you would do with a VR headset. If you played Guitar Hero games like Beat Saber or Pistol Whip would blow your mind. If you liked shooters Contractors and Pop: One and all this are spectacular. If you like boomer shooters Dr. Beef has ported the entire id software catalog from Doom to Return to Castle Wolfenstein to the headset. There's escape rooms and social experiences and sports and every kind of thing you could want to do. On top of it all you can connect it to your gaming PC and the only limits are the size of your wallet. This is a revolution in the way we interact with computers, and if you're not interested in it now, it won't be long before the tech is so normalized that your grandmother is using it lol.

[@CWafflin]

Im surprised you said the audio wasn't the best. From my experience, the audio when talking to someone on my Quest 2 has always been surprisingly sharp and clear. It almost feels like asmr level whenever I invite my friend over to my virtual place or even in Horizon.

[@manchild.]

"What is the metaverse?" It's RuneScape, but VR

[@TheGlobalProfessional]

😅

[@alphabasic1759]

I completely agree. The meta verse is INCREDIBLY dump. The cases where it’s of valuable are incredibly limited.

[@jorgenkloop3648]

Has anyone ever talked about how those headsets affect our eyesight in the long run?

[@MrX-zz2vk]

Good question 🤔

[@laartwork]

Yeah. Lots of articles. It causes less eye strain than reading a book.

[@Thezuule1]

LED lit displays only emit photons. It is no more harmful to your eyes than any other form of light.

[@ryancy]

I lived through the Second Life mania. Never did I think "This would be great if I just had some contraption on my head". Metaverse just seems like Second Life 2.0.

[@64jcl]

What I have always found odd with VR experiences is that they often end up just being a room with many screens in it. As if we didn't have that already in the real world - except now you have to move about in 3D space to reach the screens instead of Alt-Tab to get to it. Imagine having to move to the "post box" outside your virtual home to read your mails, which would be pointless. It feels a bit like VR haven't embraced the 3D element of the medium in a real way that makes it engaging - except in dedicated games ofc. I can imagine perhaps education in VR being good though as you can demonstrate in 3D what you are teaching whenever there is a 3D representation available. For example in geography there is a no brainer just bringing your class to the place you are talking about to see it and talk about it. Having a 3D model of a famous person say themselves what they said. For science classes it would be immensely useful too and I can imagine all sorts of ways to visualize physics, chemistry and whatnot in 3D spaces where you interact with the elements and do safe experiments in a sandbox. But the fact is that a lot of what we humans do can often be more effectively done on a screen - hence many metaverse experiences often just end up being a lot of virtual screens. This naturally does not make people enjoy it any more than they do the real life experience (which is also boring). So in my opinion it is more important to find what we can do better in VR/AR than otherwise and just chase those points to become the natural way to approach some activity in life.

[@AnubhavVardhanIndia]

Andrew looks like a second cousin of Mark Zuckerberg😂

[@IIIdarksaberIII]

My take on "what the metaverse is" by analogy: it's a user interface for computing and the internet, just like smartphones and laptops. Smartphones as a UI that are lightweight, have gps, fast internet, and good battery enable experiences that would be bad on laptops, like Google Maps navigation. Metaverse is just a different UI that goes in the opposite direction. Smartphones are a tiny portable UI that isn't very aware of your surroundings other than what the camera or limited sensors can detect, whereas VR/AR headsets overlay or replace your surroundings I think each UI is better suited for some things over others. Reading email will never be better in the metaverse. But we'll also never love meetings over a zoom on laptop. Whether the Metaverse becomes good will depend on people figuring out the experiences that are uniquely good or possible in metaverse and making killer apps for it

[@psyberdelicxp6042]

The pitch for VR in the 90s was "recreational mind expansion, true equality, limited only by your imagination!" VR today pitch is "pay extra money to go to work, get your data and everything you think and do sold all within a decent ps2 game. with legs even!"

[@pietroarnoldi]

For me the metaverse should permit you to do something that you can't do at the moment or help you improve some of your skills. I think that It Is quite useless for conference/meeting or for any kind of social interaction but it would be great for sports. If i could revive/ try to replicate my workout in the metaverse, that should be really helpfull for training in any kind of sport.

[@JaceKeller]

I don't even like IRL meetings why would they be more enjoyable with a 2kg device on your head ? It's just plain stupid

[@pietroarnoldi]

@@JaceKeller i never got it.

[@LockheedMartinEnjoyer]

Imagine having a conference call in metaverse and everyone avatar was a talking dinosaur 💀

[@uwo100]

Mark Zuckerberg acting like if the metaverse was a new thing is exactly like Europeans claiming to be the first humans to step on the Americas. People socializing in video games was a thing since 2007, doing the same thing but with a VR headset and crappier graphics isn't a new invention

[@dertythegrower]

Yep. They just copied ValveVR headset, and vrchat.. both of which are way better

[@JottiMusic]

I don’t think the metaverse should aim to replace reality but it should provide something our reality can’t. It’s pretty simple actually

[@nickramirez9680]

Love your music!

[@TheMontegonian]

The first time I heard about the "Metaverse" was from a crypto-bro I met while staying at an AirB-nB in 2021. He saw me playing Genshin Impact and thought I was in the Metaverse, lol. But that's really all it'll be in the near future...a MMORPG, without any plot or missions, and maybe a bit of banking/e-commerce functionality baked in to make it "more than just a game".

[@jimmyallgood781]

The "metaverse" is a very interesting alt+ reality we've already been exploring for years now, VRchat is the groundsRoots metaverse right now, without all the commercialization. "Meta's" metaverse is just Zuckerberg trying to rebrand the name of Facebook, hoping we forget that name while also changing their name to the exact technology, a shady business strategy used to control everything metaverse by trademarking the name etc. Saddens me when all the mainstream medias now days talk about the VR industry and Metaverse, the first thing people talk about is Meta the company. That's what Meta wanted, that's what they achieved.

[@timsliu5017]

Reminds me 20yrs ago when they mocked email.

[@epicvillain8308]

This isn’t “the metaverse” this is a game built by meta.

[@michaelchen2718]

9:19 AND to take it a step further, having truly salient sensory experiences (touch) will be what really solidifies it.

[@ka1sercsgo]

Am I missing something or is this whole Metaverse just VRChat with microtransactions?

[@dertythegrower]

Yepp... that is who they copied, and Valve VR Headset and HTC headset.. they copied it and sell it at a loss, to try and make it popular

[@TheZaibs]

IMO metaverse is just billions of dollars down the drain.

[@misusatriyo]

I personally think that AR/VR tech will only be used for entertainment, education, and professional purposes. I don't see the need to bring down the whole entire internet functions into the metaverse. Every version of metaverse has failed to offer a compelling use case that is more efficient than just using regular desktop or smartphone apps to access the internet.

[@royz_1]

I didn't like a single thing about NFT. But I know that AR is the future. It will suck for a few more years but eventually it will be there.

[@Drenwickification]

Well, MR. I think AR is just a stepping stone towards MR really.

[@AbdElWadoudIkhlef]

Agree with Andrew, the reason I have zero excitement for the current metaverse, it's they came swinging with their freaking boring pitch: "hey, here's new way to attend meeting" like the first thing they thought about is work, they need to attract people with fun & then implant other things, not the other way around. Gaming is what gonna push the medium forward! that & porn of course, cause if video streaming taught us anything, porn is what push technology forward :'D

[@mszerencsy]

VR won’t work. Too many people get dizzy wearing those horrible goggles. It’s an awful experience. You try it once and you never return.

[@Leggir]

I've got a Vive Cosmos Elite wireless. I can on average play for ~4.5 hours per session before changing batteries. It can easily outlast my wife's patience for wasting time in VR.

[@mikemarkong]

VR/AR will only be mainstream if the interface and the ergonomics can be as close to just simply wearing shades. Or at least like pulling out a phone from your pocket. If it takes a person 30minutes to prepare, and clocks out after 1.5hrs because the battery of your VR Headset died, then it won't be suitable for a 8-12hr workshift or a 2-5hr gaming session.

[@sjmarlowgm]

The artificial hysteria over VR and AR technology reminds me of the attempt to push people to use video phone services. A few people use it, but the vast majority of folks still make calls the old way, with their phone against their ear. I'm guessing that for the near future, a small percentage of people will embrace VR gaming and online activities, but most will keep on doing things the way they always have, on a normal computer or a phone.

[@MrUnderScore81162]

I remember when there were people saying that VR was going to change the world pre-2000s, 20 years later and it really hasn't changed much. It's been miniaturized, sure, but it's still janky and needs refinement. It's come a long way from the huge setups that there were in the 90s, but it's still not fleshed out and probably never will be sadly.

[@CommodoreFan64]

I agree until we get Star Trek TNG Holodeck style rooms, and that won't be for a very long time!!

[@MrUnderScore81162]

@@CommodoreFan64 or a version of the matrix where we load our consciousness into the network.

[@Meowhsss]

The Metaverse is having a virtual 3 screen desk set-up 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@moremartin320]

I do think the Metaverse is an interesting Idea and concept. And I wish Mark good luck with it. I was work on delivering hardware to a virtual reality company in the UK, in the 90's. And unfortunately they didn't succeed because of the bad graphic. But I think the main reason was that people only played their game for max 30 minutes. Because they wanted to get the googles off. They were big and not comfortable. To be honest. I really don't see myself having meetings with not real humans in my job as a project manager. It's just not acceptable in my field of business. However we all know that 3D game are a big thing. So I think the gaming industry might benefit from some of these Ideas. But as a human being. We like to have personal contact, taste, food, and smell. Some of my meetings can last long. And we need to enjoy some food and drinks as well. How does a birthday party looks like in the Metaverse? No candles, no cakes, no coffee. No gifts. ... I'm sorry Mark. But I think we are a bit too early for a "synthetic" world. ... I was a happy FB user until, my phone got invided by the agressief FB app, with a lot of puss messages. Everytime I turned the off, they came back in the next update. Which made me uninstall the app. This is some years ago now. I wish Meta good luck on their projects, and I'm sure there will be something useful tools developed in the Metaverse. But for a project manager, and a mum who wants a birthday party for her kid. The Metaverse is just not good enough! I'm sorry to say this!

[@HairyHands]

any metaverse needs to solve a problem for consumers of the service. then the vendor needs to position their services in the market to attract new consumers and grow their business. the fact the metaverse languishes in the trough of disillusionment and is tough to describe in a sentence demonstrates why it's such a tough sell to anyone but investors.

[@tommywong3147]

VR would be great for real estate viewing. I'm surprised they didn't dig into that.

[@YESITSWILL]

Yeah. Going to meetings I hate will be more enjoyable if everyone looks like a cartoon.

[@AJNpa80]

Had AT&T changed their name to Webernet, and offered modems to phone customers to go to some sort of massive proprietary BBS service like Prodigy just as the real cable internet came online, I think 60 years later we would compare it to whatever Facebook is trying to do now. There's gonna be a cool new layer to digital communication getting ever more immersive. There's gonna be Gophers and Aols and Compuserves and Napsters. Remember when the telephone companies thought telephones were all gonna be video phones and they sent out them expensive videophone terminals to public places but there was no one to call when you wanted to try it at great expense and no one wanted to talk to a telemarketer in the nude at even greater expense for the home units.

[@acommon]

I've tried VR quite a bit, and I just don't like it really. That being said, I don't really like most games. My friend is really into gadgets, and has a higher end VR headset. It's cool, but playing mini golf doesn't stimulate me anymore just because it's immersive

[@ampthebassplayer]

For a metaverse to be actually viable, it has to be interesting/accessible to normal people first. It sounds like people are building it purely for monetization, and that's just not something people will line up to experience.

[@EricFroehlich]

VR was created by Jaron Lanier back in 1984 with his company VPL. Jaron designed the first headset and glove to design and navigate within it. He used a modified version of Swivel 3D. William Gibson, a writer, wrote possibly the first novel envisioning VR with his book Neuromancer based on Jaron’s early work. The Mattel game company actually made the PowerGlove as an accessory controller for the Nintendo Entertainment system derived from Jaron’s idea’s. Jaron had his business and patents stolen from him by some corrupt business partner which turned Jaron off to such a degree he walked away from the tech and immersed himself into ethnomusic. He later worked Silicon Graphics and at Microsoft with both companies efforts towards vR and Internet 2.

[@michaelchen2718]

9:30 could it be argued that sound is actually MORE important than sight???

[@GerardoTostado]

All this is is a platform that the government won’t know how to regulate which means these companies will take full advantage of until they can’t. I see companies creating perceived value the same way Fortnite does with skins. Instead of making actual TVs they’ll sell you virtual ones that they can make unlimited amount of with little time and investment while selling it to you for not cheap. As cool as it could be I don’t believe any of us should buy into it in order to not give these things the value they want it to have. With perceived value comes fraud.

[@thomasbdl]

Let’s just call it like it is: Zuckerberg spent $15B to create the most expensive, shittiest video game ever made.

[@Blamkrotch]

The “Metaverse” is literally just a 3d representation of the regular internet that you can visit. Nothing more, nothing less. That’s why Meta said they can’t build it on their own. I get the same vibes of misunderstanding as when people in the early 2000s said “Why would you want a cell phone? Just call when you get home.” Or “Why would I want to check my email on my phone?“… You could “go” to nike and check out the shoes in the virtual store rather than jpegs on a flat page. You can “go” into the naughty p*rn chat room “with” other people. In a few years your grandma that is in hospice could “go” to Christmas in the 3d scanned version of your home and sit on the couch and watch while her grandkids open presents… You CAN NOT get the same sence of realism of being there with them and forgetting where you actually are by looking at a tiny screen while you’re surrounded by hospital equipment. If you look at all the future technology they already have like 1. Codec Avatars 2. Scanned real world environments 3. Waaaay more powerful tech and headsets, it becomes easy to see why they say in the 2030s it will become ubiquitous.

[@ridgemills]

Well said!

[@curtisbme]

Metaverse is ThirdLife. They are making a big bet on something that might be a thing in 5-10 years. But how many companies that move before the technology or market was ready end up being the leader in that space? Usually, they either bail before it takes off or they got stuck on a path that isn't where things go and newcomers take over.

[@oldiesgame3070]

Kirito told me Metaverse technology must go through the stage : NerveGear, AmuSphere ,Medicuboid, Augma and Soul Translator technology so zuckerberg need more study and refrences...

[@skippyzk]

There's 15,766 people using vrchat right now, and that's just on steam. People are running entire businesses and living in vr RIGHT NOW. The metaverse is here. The future is now. yall are just ignorant

[@g600f700]

I am no expert but I think he should start as an experimental project throw maybe 200M, get users feedback and upgrade over time. If this project fails, FB can re-hire the engineers back easily as backup plan. I am all for startups, try new ideas but starts smaller at the beginning.

[@ThatSashaBee]

The idea of a work meeting in VR would give me such a huge disconnect that I’m not sure I’d be able to take any of it seriously. Also currently people are struggling to eat and heat a home so I doubt many are considering VR.

[@someoneout-there2165]

Right. It's one of the worst ideas ever. LOL

[@tp-w23]

Andrew gives me Mark Zuckerberg vibes.. anyone?

[@tp-w23]

David also gives me Joseph Gordon-Levitt vibes

[@kojo5928]

😂

[@ehusby]

The inability to physically walk a distance in fully immersive VR is going to be the final hurdle to overcome for people to get sold on fully immersive VR. AR is much easier to imagine being adopted for limitless applications.

[@joelcoll4034]

What about 3d mapping your house and making an AI automatically morph whatever VR place you are into your house walls so you never run into them?

[@MetaverseAdventures]

I am Imagineering a premium Theme Park (inspired by EPCOT not Six Flags) and am in the process of enabling the online bits so you can ride the dark rides with others. No idea where it will go, but I am getting insanely positive reviews so somewhere I guess but we will see as there is SO MUCH hate for the word Metaverse right now and that what I am building. A Theme Park Metaverse.

[@nhihoang5434]

This might be something I would enjoy as I am into VR but not a gamer.

[@treynolds94]

The metaverse needs to have real world purpose. Such as completing arrands from home in a more emersive experience. Walk around the virtual mall, walmart ect. With friends pick out items and actually have that item you picked out amd paid for ship too you. You can online shop now but there is no social aspect but now you can do best of both world shop at home and walk and talk with friends if unable to get together.

[@wisdomofanowl9702]

Things that people from the past probably say about computers, mobile phones and internet. And yet here we are feeling empty and disabled without those.

[@coolpoete]

I am aged enough to remember being in discussions with my elders at the time when we were asking "What is the Internet?" and the uncertainty of it all.

[@xlectrikx]

Even then there was a ton of true value the internet may one day bring being speculated about. Accessing information about virtually anything, online commerce, communicating with people all over the world… These were all novel advancements that demonstrated obvious value, far before they became a reality. The Metaverse really doesn’t offer a lot of net-new functionality, beyond just walking around and doing normal internet things kn a virtual space and that simply isn’t very appealing to most people.

[@GraysonZimmer]

The real "metaverse" is whatever VR social platform you're using at that moment imo. Also Valve Index mic quality is S+ tier.

[@Thezuule1]

That's like saying the internet is whatever website you happen to be on. The idea is interconnectedness between everything.

[@GraysonZimmer]

@@Thezuule1 I think VR or virtual reality covers the base platform like the word internet. The metaverse here is the website. The issue for me with calling one interconnected system the metaverse is we're far enough away from that where we need to still be hyping up and including competition like Horizons vs VRChat. We still need competition because it's better for the consumer and innovation, not control by one company, especially Facebook.

[@Thezuule1]

@@GraysonZimmer that isn't the intention or how Meta is using the term though. Horizons and VRChat are essentially websites that exist within the metaverse, to whatever extent such a thing exists. The metaverse will be the underlying connectivity between all these individual experiences. Worlds and VRChat will be individual experiences within the greater whole. The metaverse is the framework.

[@DerDudelino]

What surprises me the most about these metaverse pushes: Why not focus on gaming? Make basically The Sims in the metaverse and people will throw money at you, because designing your own home is fun. But companies are the worst clients you can think of for a metaverse push because a virtual office is nothing more than an expense. You need to buy a Oculus 2 for like 500 bucks or so for everyone of your employees which ads up quickly. And Meta obviously wants you to spend money on your virtual office itself which doesn't make any sense for a company :D

[@Rumplestiltzchen]

Imagine it was like the internet where each area is hosted on different servers with a virtual taxi acting as a search engine

[@gordogordito87]

I run into more people who have never even tried VR than people who use it regularly.

[@wisdomofanowl9702]

Cos it's still pricey and still technically at beta stage right now. Wait a several years.

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@wisdomofanowl9702 VR has been in commercial beta since the 90's, and the tech has been around since the 80's, it's had almost 40 years, and it's still not ready. 🤦‍♂

[@wisdomofanowl9702]

@@CommodoreFan64 I used to do 3D assets for VR games since 2014. We have lot of investors who are sincerely willing to bet a lot of money for us when we showcased our stuff. Our main problem is there are few to no big platforms that supports our projects. But now that Meta is paving the way for VR/AR I guess things may change quickly now.

[@abram730]

@@wisdomofanowl9702 Their store is now profitable to develop for.

[@GenusWelt]

Most of the people just don’t care about metaverse, real world verse is still the best

[@iamtafara]

2:24 MKBHD with Zuck : this is fire,, MKBHd in studio : this is amazingly dumb

[@drewfromyay882]

The metaverse isn't going to become a thing until the headsets are wireless glasses at an affordable price. We are at least a decade away from that if not longer.

[@DylanM15]

Honestly if you've seen Ready Player One the Metaverse goal is The Oasis and Facebook is ioi basically. The issue right now is there is not one single place for people to use. Every company wants to make The Oasis but nobody is really even close to that yet.

[@debyton]

Lose the headset display, what will work is the image (2-D or 3-D) being projected within the actual room you are in. This requires a display unit that can traverse the space it is in to follow and address the people involved (like a Romba projector). This display can rotate and move with the viewer (you) to project an image of people and things in a space above the mobile projector. This has been more fancifully depicted in movies like Blade Runner 2049.

[@Dumbstuffwatcher]

I absolutely will never strap a headset on and have a screen an inch from my face. They can assure us it's all fine and tested, I don't trust it not to ruin my eyes even further. Don't care how lightweight it is, it can fit perfectly comfortably over my glasses, still don't care. Not gonna do it!

[@MuvoTX]

Smoke & mirrors, a dog and pony show for an on line environment, where its creator can harvest personal information from its user base.

[@ChrisHaupt]

Howcome you never mention the Nreal Air when you talk about headsets that are as small/light as glasses? I'm very curious about that device

[@qwerty6789x]

Enterprise? Cisco Tele Presence: am I Joke to you?

[@papa.mike01]

Andrew I’m sorry to have to say this, but Zuck’s meta-man looks like you would look in the Metaverse.😅

[@rozdee1780]

It’s just another way for corporations to control reality. And Meta wants to be the overlords

[@malindrome9055]

I actually like the metaverse, ofc not the crypto and nfts, but I think that it can be improved, but I REALLY insist that they work on AR as their first priority, as much as I like VR, they have to do a lot more work to get it used as much as the internet, and then we get philosophical

[@Thezuule1]

NFTs and crypto in general have basically nothing at all to do with VR.

[@safekidda46]

Is nobody going to point out how much Andrew looks like Zuk's avatar on the thumbnail 😂

[@omarthecostar]

The meta verse will be awesome when we are all at senior centers

[@DavidOkwii]

Big fan of the Waveform clips. Something off topic though, does anyone know the mics being used on this video? I am currently looking for a great mic and I find the audio quality produced quite great. Thanks

[@airsicklowlander7756]

I’ve never tried VR, but I’d imagine I’ll be puking within the first 20 seconds

[@0x0michael]

Spatial Computing

[@zwheels654]

My theory is that VR will be prevalent when consumer wireless technology is good enough to have the computation devices and the glasses separate, but functioning together.

[@RanmaruRei]

It won't. Good wireless tech is already on the horizon. But VR has yet many things to improve. It just needs to feel natural and be cheap. I've spent a lot of money on VR (Valve Index and Vive trackers) and I don't regret it, but very few people are ready to spend so much. Also interacting with virtual worlds with controllers sometimes feels very frustrating.

[@brentsmithline3423]

The sad thing is all the people who just lost their jobs just before the holiday season. Some of them this might be the first time they have been let go. Thing is it is very hard when you loose your job because something you have no control over. It can crush you because you did your job, and it was nothing you did that caused you to loose your job.

[@lamarmyers6001]

I agree. If you had a VR Window or Space that you can use vs the bulky eye wear. The VR experience will be much better. We have to create a better feel and experience for the end user. I know we have the technology. We just need to implement that technology so that people will start to take notice.

[@Venaloid]

My understanding is that it's basically a parallel internet, but 3D.

[@thihal123]

VR has not been getting popular. Expand your view beyond the trend in the techworld and see that VR has not really been putting much influence in the broader total world. VR has been hyped in various sectors on and off since at least the 1960s.

[@abram730]

Last I checked they were selling more headsets than Microsoft was selling XBox's

[@tim_arterbury]

From what I understand, the term Metaverse is misused by the general public at the moment. Our confusion may stem from Meta’s marketing, but mostly it is hard to understand because the “Metaverse” does not yet exist at full scale. From what I understand, the way Meta intends for “metaverse” to be defined, is comparable to the definition of the internet as we now know it but applied to virtual 3D experiences. This idea of a Metaverse is a fully open and interconnected network of various 3D worlds/experiences that you can seamlessly transition between while maintaining your identity. This is similar to the way we visit different websites in our browser while maintaining our identity in the form of a website account (Ex: logging into multiple websites via your Google account). In addition, the idea of a Metaverse includes more physical presence than that of a web browser on a phone or computer. In the Metaverse you would interact with 3D avatars representing identities of real people. This 3D virtual interaction is clearly seen today via solutions such as Meta’s Horizon Worlds, but the infrastructure that would allow your identity to transition between Meta’s Horizon Worlds and any other virtual world someone wishes to create does not yet exist. At the current time when people say “Metaverse” I think they really mean some 3D virtual experience via VR or AR technology.

[@RanmaruRei]

Many people believe that VRChat is the closest thing to Metaverse though. And unlike Horizon Worlds I feel my VRChat avatar as a representation of me.

[@christophermichael.w.7577]

I have trouble understanding because of the data that they have collected. You would think that when they are doing the analytics and surveys and compiling info that they would slip in a question like "how would you feel about us changing our name to meta.or maybe should a picture of metaverse and ask" do you like this?