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by suncore 1780 days ago
Sceptic here...

VR goggles are too anti-social on the local scale. Have kids? Dog? Spouse? Hard to see they will accept that you shield yourself off completely for long periods of time. You won't even see them coming when they start to grow tired... This is a fundamental flaw.

Then the metaverse... What is the usecase? Why is it fun or why is it useful? It might be cool for a while, but so are lots of other MMOs out there...
2 comments
MivLives 1780 days ago
I can only speak for myself. I used to play Second Life when I was a teenager. A lot. What it was is less of a game. There was no grinding, no objective, and more of a chat room with a built in 3d modeler and scripting language. Everyone I played with grew up either ended up as a programmer or a 3d modeler of some stripe.

And I see the same sorta energy in people playing VR chat today.

What I think you miss as the usecase here is people who aren't quite happy with their identity, or are and choose a different more extreme representation. The difference between being yourself and being a fox for example.

Plenty of people in the world today are lonely, and online connection is what fills the void. They don't have kids, dogs, or spouses. They're a sixteen year old in the middle of nowhere, or a socially anxious programmer living in a shoe box.

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CodeGlitch 1780 days ago
Been there and done that. Ended up as a game dev with zero social skills when it came to relationships. I was deeply unhappy about that situation.

It wasn't until years later I (somehow) managed to form a relationship with someone - who is now my wife and mother of my child - that I'm far, far happier. From my experience, VR and Second Life et al are not the answer. Getting out there and experiencing life reaps far more benefits.

> aren't quite happy with their identity,

I found the best thing to do is find like-minded people IRL.

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CrazyPyroLinux 1780 days ago
I've been in parks and restaurants and seen whole families all on their phones. Last weekend I walked my dog around the park path, and was literally the _only_ person there who was not walking with their phone held in front of them.

The Black Mirror / Surrogates dystopia is already here, and most people can't get enough of it.

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