About a year ago, I wrote a series of articles examining possible pros and cons. Facebook’s Meta’s metaverse plan. Oculus (which was acquired by Facebook and became Meta) isn’t the only player in that space, so in a way it’s not fair to mention it as such. More and more companies were involved then, and more are now pursuing the Metaverse.
I don’t want to rehash the whole series of articles, but TL;DR about the 4-part series, the shorter version has the safety and environmental benefits that come with lower transportation and storage needs about it. People out of dangerous situations. However, the cost of hardware can get in the way. This assumes the Metaverse is of high quality and not a cesspool of misinformation, human rights violations, and disrespect.
Doesn’t look good on the meta side
Sadly, the Facebook portion of the metaverse isn’t up to the quality that these deeper issues are. Horizon Worlds, the centric VR app, attracted a lot of interest at first, but is losing active users like crazy. Much like VR headsets themselves, people want to try something new, but when the novelty wears off, many stop using it. The company is currently in a “quality lockdown”, pausing while they try to make new features more stable and pleasant.
It’s pretty unclear how the company intends to pull itself out of the doldrums with Horizon Worlds, or if they’re planning something else to bring the overall metaverse concept to life. I’ve tried going to Horizon Worlds to see what that prospect looks like, but apparently they aren’t allowing new users right now or enough for me to test it Whatever their reason, I haven’t been able to get into it to learn about it. But from everything I’ve read I’m not missing out at this point .
It seems unlikely that the new Oculus Pro headset will save it alone. Impressive in terms of hardware and features, the Oculus Pro also has an impressive price tag that none but the most serious of users would consider. It’s hard enough to convince people to spend $300 on a device that does just VR, despite the After all, you can do almost anything with your smartphone. All things considered, $1500 seems like a pretty tough sell.
One possible solution is to not require a VR headset to interact with the metaverse. This is meta’s plan at the moment. If you remember seeing 360-degree videos and photos of him on Facebook a few years ago, that’s probably a pretty good hint at how 2D and 3D worlds overlap. By moving your smartphone or tablet like a “magic window”, you can experience things like VR and Augmented Reality (AR). If the experience can pique people’s interest, it could be a way to encourage people to invest in dedicated hardware.
There is also the traditional video game approach. Navigate the virtual world the old-fashioned way using your mouse, WASD keys, and arrow keys. Desktop computers and laptops can therefore be another entry point into the metaverse. Games like Minecraft and Roblox show that consoles can get you in on the action in much the same way.
Webcams and software such as Zoom are available for productive use of the Metaverse, such as in meetings. Instead of appearing as a 3D avatar that looks like you in a virtual space, you may appear as a floating monitor or TV screen with video from your webcam hovering above your seat at a virtual table. Screen sharing, presentations, and more are also integral to virtual meetings.
Outside the Metaverse of Meta
If Meta/Facebook can’t make the metaverse happen, it won’t be the only player. There are many other niche uses in things like VR technology and virtual spaces.
SketchUp, the popular 3D and 2D design software, has had a VR viewer to check out your designs for a while, but recently it has the ability to actually do 3D designs in virtual space. SketchUp has VR Sketch.
What’s more, professional CAD software works in tandem with VR to help big engineering and construction firms show people what their multi-million dollar projects will ultimately look like. This was a no-brainer, but VR is a natural way to work with 3D designs, and the cost of things like headsets seems dwarfed when millions of people are connected online.
VR and Metaverse games aren’t going anywhere
VR gaming hasn’t hit the mainstream yet, but there’s no doubt that investing in VR hardware will make gaming a reliable use case. Popular titles like Beatsaber, Star Wars and the upcoming Among Us VR show that VR gaming is still viable.
But again, keep in mind that the Metaverse is more than just VR. Roblox and Minecraft are also considered major players in the metaverse, even though most of their games are in 2D. The key thing that makes these online venues part of the metaverse, not just computer games, is that they bring people together from different locations and give them some control over the environment. So even if the Facebook/Meta version of the metaverse fails, the concept isn’t completely dead.
One last thing to keep in mind: VR replaces nothing
It is important to keep in mind that the old ways do not have to be abandoned for the metaverse concept to succeed. The Internet didn’t even involve web pages before, if you’re old enough to remember it. Web pages eventually had video capabilities, but just because YouTube exists doesn’t mean pictures and text (like the one you’re reading now) are dead.
So as you watch things unfold, don’t assume VR and the Metaverse are dead just because the World Wide Web and hypertext still exist. It may not happen in VR as quickly as Meta hoped, but there’s still a lot of potential.
Featured Image: Screenshot from meta video (embedded above) showing how Horizon Workrooms can interact with older conferencing software such as Zoom.
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