{"id":2871,"date":"2022-01-28T10:45:18","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T09:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2022\/01\/28\/i-traveled-to-facebooks-soulless-but-popular-metaverse-so-you-dont-have-to-kotaku\/"},"modified":"2022-01-28T10:45:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T09:45:18","slug":"i-traveled-to-facebooks-soulless-but-popular-metaverse-so-you-dont-have-to-kotaku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2022\/01\/28\/i-traveled-to-facebooks-soulless-but-popular-metaverse-so-you-dont-have-to-kotaku\/","title":{"rendered":"I Traveled To Facebook&#039;s Soulless (But Popular) Metaverse So You Don&#039;t Have To &#8211; Kotaku"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cfbc967f0983488262956e73eca9483a\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3859091246952232\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- blok -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3859091246952232\" data-ad-slot=\"1334354390\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<\/div>\n<p>The metaverse is supposed to be the future, so it\u2019s got the world buzzing with excitement. Hilariously, though, the prominence of the \u201cfuturistic\u201d buzzword has caused <em>old <\/em>footage of digital worlds to explode on social media, largely driven by the fact that nobody really understands what the hell the metaverse actually is. And because the average person doesn\u2019t know what the metaverse is, footage of shabby, lifeless digital universes that look worse than <em>Roblox<\/em> can pass off as unreleased cutting-edge tech. <br \/>In late January, for example, a reupload of a 2019 Facebook\/Meta trailer <span><a class=\"sc-1out364-0 hMndXN sc-145m8ut-0 eRdxJX js_link\" data-ga=\"[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;https:\/\/twitter.com\/keano81\/status\/1485582987949449220&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/keano81\/status\/1485582987949449220\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">went viral on Twitter<\/a><\/span>, showcasing an awkward social virtual reality app called <em>Horizon Worlds<\/em>. Everyone thought it was a new announcement from Facebook, except it wasn\u2019t. Somehow, <span><a class=\"sc-1out364-0 hMndXN sc-145m8ut-0 eRdxJX js_link\" data-ga=\"[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tldr\/2022\/1\/5\/22868323\/walmart-metaverse-shopping-video-viral-old&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tldr\/2022\/1\/5\/22868323\/walmart-metaverse-shopping-video-viral-old\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this metaverse fakeout<\/a><\/span> has happened more than once within the last year!<\/p>\n<p>But going back to the viral ad: it <em>tried<\/em> to paint <em>Horizon <\/em>as this open and free place where folks could happily do anything and everything, while surrounded by friends all over the world. The happy-go-lucky vibe was out of <em>The Good Place, <\/em>the tweet noted, except of course, the TV show has a nefarious twist that makes the whole thing even weirder. The footage felt very artificial and ended up making a lot of people online kind of uncomfortable. Everyone depicted in the ad was a floating torso of endless smiles, sexless and toothless.<\/p>\n<p>But was the actual experience as off-putting and sterile as the ad made it out to be? I decided to jump in and see for myself. First launched in closed beta last year, <span><a class=\"sc-1out364-0 hMndXN sc-145m8ut-0 eRdxJX js_link\" data-ga=\"[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Horizon_Worlds&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Horizon_Worlds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Horizon Worlds<\/em><\/a><\/span> is a free social app that was made available to everyone last month. I spent a few hours hanging out with other people in its oddly bleak worlds, playing bad games and talking about random things. It was a strange experience, but one that I figure many might share as they take their first steps into the nightmare that is the online <span><a class=\"sc-1out364-0 hMndXN sc-145m8ut-0 eRdxJX js_link\" data-ga=\"[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;Internal link&quot;,&quot;https:\/\/kotaku.com\/nft-crypto-metaverse-decentraland-party-concert-1848393089&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]\" href=\"https:\/\/kotaku.com\/nft-crypto-metaverse-decentraland-party-concert-1848393089\">digital metaverse<\/a><\/span>.<br \/>After making an avatar and getting walked through a short, but informative tutorial, I was dropped into <em>Horizon\u2019s <\/em>main hangout hub. I got on at around 1 in the morning, so I wasn\u2019t sure how many people would even be here. Plus, how many people really wanted to hangout in Facebook\u2019s pseudo-matrix? The answer was: A lot of people. Maybe I shouldn\u2019t be surprised, given how well the <span><a class=\"sc-1out364-0 hMndXN sc-145m8ut-0 eRdxJX js_link\" data-ga=\"[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;Internal link&quot;,&quot;https:\/\/kotaku.com\/the-quest-2-vr-headset-had-a-hell-of-a-good-holiday-sea-1848314548&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]\" href=\"https:\/\/kotaku.com\/the-quest-2-vr-headset-had-a-hell-of-a-good-holiday-sea-1848314548\">Oculus Quest fared this holiday season.<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gotta catch 493 of &#x27;em!<\/strong><br \/><span>While the new entries in the series have adopted a larger third-person camera that can be controlled, these remakes follow the spirit of the originals.<\/span><br \/>When I first arrived I saw a few groups of people hanging out in different parts of the area. I ran over to the closest group, which also contained a Facebook community guide. <span><a class=\"sc-1out364-0 hMndXN sc-145m8ut-0 eRdxJX js_link\" data-ga=\"[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;https:\/\/youtu.be\/x4m_frynPt8?t=813&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/x4m_frynPt8?t=813\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">These are users <\/a><\/span>who help coordinate events within the app and introduce new players to <em>Horizon<\/em>, while helping with tech issues too. The app uses proximity chat, so as I got closer I could overhear their conversation. It was odd.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c&#8230;so that was how he fell. It was hard. He broke a leg. And he was in a coma for a few weeks,\u201d said one person.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh my god,\u201d was the community guide\u2019s reaction to the story. <br \/>\u201cYeah, he woke up finally. It\u2019s a miracle he\u2019s even here playing with us,\u201d the storyteller concluded his tale before, apparently, the subject of his story responded.<br \/>\u201cI could have died,\u201d then he started laughing. <br \/>I barged into their group and remained quiet until the guide waved to me and asked how I was doing. I explained that I was fine and also asked how the person fell, as I had missed that part. But before I could hear the story, two more people ran in and the conversation changed as folks introduced themselves and joked about their floating avatars not having legs.<\/p>\n<p>I spent time running around to the various pockets of people in this hub. One person asked me if I knew how to build anything using the game\u2019s creation tools. I explained that I just started playing and thanks to the power of VR, I watched them physically react with sadness. It seemed nobody could help them build their palace.<\/p>\n<p>Another group had people talking about ghosts. Apparently, a player had logged in earlier and left after saying they heard a ghost. Since then, the group had continued to share ghost stories. At one point a kid, I assume, ran up to us and did the <span><a class=\"sc-1out364-0 hMndXN sc-145m8ut-0 eRdxJX js_link\" data-ga=\"[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;https:\/\/knowyourmeme.com\/memes\/sheesh--2&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]\" href=\"https:\/\/knowyourmeme.com\/memes\/sheesh--2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cSheeeesshhh\u201d meme<\/a><\/span> and then ran back towards a large tree that can be climbed using teleport controls. After a moment of silence and giggling the group went back to ghost tales.<\/p>\n<p>After some folks left, I headed back to the community guide. She was very nice and had just helped someone fix an issue with their headset\u2019s audio. I asked a few general questions, like why the hangout area was still adorned in Christmas decorations in January. She laughed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople keep\u2026 people keep asking me about that and I don\u2019t know!\u201d She seemed a bit frustrated by it, so I apologized and asked if she was being paid by <span><a class=\"sc-1out364-0 hMndXN sc-145m8ut-0 eRdxJX js_link\" data-ga=\"[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;Internal link&quot;,&quot;https:\/\/kotaku.com\/massive-facebook-outage-brings-down-gaming-in-its-wake-1847796875&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]\" href=\"https:\/\/kotaku.com\/massive-facebook-outage-brings-down-gaming-in-its-wake-1847796875\">Facebook or Meta<\/a><\/span> for her services. At that point, she seemed a bit hesitant to keep talking to me and when I asked about how long she usually hangs out in sessions, welcoming players and helping them with tech issues, she explained she loves the community and began moving around to different groups of people. It felt weird to chase after her so I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>But it seems clear that Facebook has community guides watching over players <em>Horizon<\/em> Worlds, which might explain why the general vibe was mostly chill. I only heard a few players swear or make nasty jokes and nobody said any slurs. Even as numerous players came and went, the overall vibe felt less toxic than I expected, considering how awful Facebook is. Maybe actually having to speak and be around people is enough to keep most assholes in check? Or perhaps the ever-watchful eye of community guides is the key?<\/p>\n<p>At one point, a player who I had been talking to on and off over the hour I spent in the hub asked me to come play a zombie game with him and a friend. I joined him via a simple hand gesture and we played what might be one of the worst zombie shooters I\u2019ve ever seen. It featured enemies that were barely animated and looked ripped out of a bad <em>Roblox <\/em>game. The guns also felt terrible, with no feedback when shooting stuff. Apparently, this is a popular community creation. But still, no offense to the person who created it, but it wasn\u2019t great. Still, the fact that it was completely free, easy to play, and didn\u2019t include too much gore or violence probably explained why so many younger people were playing it when I joined. Though after less than ten minutes I bailed because, well, I just have better things to do than play a bad zombie game with 14-year-olds. Not much better, but still.<\/p>\n<p>Before I left, I started asking folks why they were here. Some admitted that they didn\u2019t have any games to play, so this was a free option to check out. Others had met some folks here that they liked and used this as a way to hang out and chill with them during the ongoing pandemic. When I mentioned <em>VRcha<\/em>t, another VR social app with higher-quality graphics, legs, and a recognition that sex is real, some seemed to be unaware it existed. Others had tried it out or looked it up online and were not into how \u201cwild\u201d it seemed, which is funny when you consider that many decry Facebook\u2019s equivalent for being too tame.<\/p>\n<p>The most surprising answer was some folks liked Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger so much that it just made sense to them to use <em>Horizon Worlds<\/em> too. This was just where their friends hung out and so did they. I\u2019m surrounded by folks who hate Facebook, the company, and all the shit it has done, so it was odd to encounter folks who still used Meta\u2019s various apps every day. A reminder of just how big the world is beyond your Twitter group and Slack colleagues, I guess.<\/p>\n<p>By the end of my time with <em>Horizon Worlds<\/em>, I had come around on it somewhat. I still think Facebook (or Meta or whatever new name they switch to next to avoid bad press) is the worst company I could imagine owning and controlling popular VR tech and software, much less the future of all tech that might be overlaid on the entirety of the world. <em>Horizon <\/em>isn\u2019t quite as awful as the ad makes it seem, but it is still a hollow, corporate shell that has more in common with an office than it does a playground, or any other type of social space a human being would willingly want to hang out in. It\u2019s definitely no <em>VRchat<\/em> or <em>Rec Room. <\/em>And for some, that empty vibe won\u2019t matter: based on what I saw during my time in Horizon, a lot of people seem plenty excited to hang out in Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s subpar take on <em>The Matrix.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/kotaku.com\/facebook-metaverse-horizon-worlds-vr-oculus-quest-2-cha-1848436740\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The metaverse is supposed to be the future, so it\u2019s got the world buzzing with excitement. Hilariously, though, the prominence of the \u201cfuturistic\u201d buzzword has caused old footage of digital worlds to explode on social media, largely driven by the fact that nobody really understands what the hell the metaverse actually is. And because the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1sXXCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}