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The Metaverse

Do you have a VR?

  • I haven't tried

    Votes: 7 41.2%
  • I've tried it and it isn't worth it

    Votes: 2 11.8%
  • I've tried it and imma buy it soon

    Votes: 2 11.8%
  • I have a VR

    Votes: 6 35.3%

  • Total voters
    17

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
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I am surprised not to see a thread on this but perhaps I have overlooked it. Anyway I wanted to make this thread for discussion about Meta and The Metaverse.

Mark Zuckerberg had rebranded Facebook as Meta and is now pushing this Metaverse which seems to be an attempt to bring what we see in ready player one to reality with people meeting up in digital space even being able to conduct and attend VR lectures and of course virtual games.

I have owned VR for years and have always been an advocate for it. I think it's a great way to game and immerse yourself in a virtual world. Most people however never use VR and it seems to be quite niche in relation to the population of the earth even though the number of actual users are in the millions.

To have one of the biggest corporations in the world push for integrating VR into people's lives is something I see as a positive for VR gamers. The more adoption there is the more developers will dedicate their efforts to producing content.

The problem I think is the mainstream VR headsets at the moment. They are still somewhat cumbersome, you can't read small text as it appears blurry and if you need glasses with different prescriptions for each eye then it can make life difficult indeed.

There are actually amazing VR headsets now on the market that can track your eye movement and have super high resolution allowing you to focus on very small text and of course can be calibrated to work with the individual users glasses prescription. The problem is the $5000 price tag for these things. Most won't buy this even though it has the features which will ensure mass adoption. These need to be made cheaper and I have no doubt they will. Mobile phone technology has vastly improved over the past decade. They are basically mini computers now. VR headsets will also improve to the point where the cheaper models will contain this technology but until that happens I don't think we will see mass adoption.

What do you think of the idea of the Metaverse and are you excited about the future of VR?
 

Dizzi

magical internet cat....
ZD Legend
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Jun 22, 2016
Nope and meta alresdy owned by another company who are gonna ask for a lotta money from zucks...
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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I think VR could potentially work out in other areas of media, but I don't imagine VR gaming taking off. I also don't imagine meeting in virtual space to be successful anytime in the near future, either. The technology just isn't there yet and isn't affordable enough for some people yet. Omnidirectional treadmills, for example, have costed multiple thousands for the last 8 years, and they aren't getting any cheaper. A very high end VR Headset is thousands too, like you mentioned. They don't have full body VR suits yet either, it looks like they have haptic vests, but the cheapest one is like $400.

If VR miraciously takes off soon it is going to be pretty lackluster, people scheduling VR meetups and using Xbox controllers to move their avatars around.
 
Joined
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Location
United States
I just got an Oculus Quest 2 As it's the cheapest option. It's standalone, but I got an offbrand link cable to hook it up to my pc which works pretty well. Resident Evil 4 is really cool in VR. The only downside is having to make a Facebook account to use it.
 

Judgement

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I'm not sure about it yet. On the one hand, it could enhance many things. On the other hand, I feel like it would have consequences we can't even predict at this moment.
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
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It isn't a "metaverse" if it's owned by a company. That scenario was literally the bad what-if ending of Ready Player One an already bad book.


I agree with that but although Mark Zuckerberg seems to be the most vocal about making this a reality and bringing VR to people's lives it doesn't look like the Metaverse will be owned by a single company. I think that's highly unlikely to happen. All the big players will want to be involved in creating their own different virtual spaces. Meta, Microsoft, Apple etc. Smaller indipendents will of course be developing in this space too.

I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft actually became the most prominent Metaverse contributor in the end. They are expanding their gaming library and gaming is going to be a huge thing in the virtual reality space. Meta doesn't have this. It's got Facebook and Instagram and oculus but Microsoft are equipped with some big household names too which could spawn a huge amount of interesting projects.

Headsets are currently developed by a few different companies as well. It's not just oculus, and I expect there will be even more choice in future as these virtual spaces become more popular. This will lead to a great range of options suited for all types of people.
 

Jimmu

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
I've tried out VR but not since Facebook has come forward with their Metaverse stuff. I can see the technology eventually becoming more widely adopted in the future but as of right now there are plenty of barriers to overcome before that can be achieved. Cost is a big one, quality headsets are expensive and out of reach for most people. Comfort is another that annoys me when trying to wear a VR headset - I just don't think in their current form they can be worn comfortably for more than an hour at a time (for me anyway).

I can see how the appeal of seeing real spaces in VR was pretty large during strict travel restrictions but as the world opens back up I am more interested in seeing things with my own eyes in person.
 

Vanessa28

Angel of Darkness
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I got one from my hubby a few weeks ago. Although I do enjoy it a lot I have to agree that it's not comfortable to wear one longer than an hour. It's enjoyable though and I certainly would consider using it more if there are going to be some changes to be able to use it longer than one hour
 
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