[mtkhaos]

I don't believe VR going mainstream is really the point. And also why Meta's approach feels off to me. Even when you read Cyberpunk literature, the concept of a cyber decker is as rare as a modern day hacker.

As for the Ready Player One experience. There is a different issue to be addressed and that is the finite experience offered by modern day "games." Taking a look at Diablo Immortal and it should be clear of what little runway there is to live your life in VR. Experiences extended by lootboxes.

Even games that don't use that mechanism are bloated through artificial grinds. Economy resets and just lack of budget for story outside of 80hrs. Why even sink the development time in if you have the former to fuel profit margins?

There's a lot more to be said inside the scope of what XR is and how it will impact. And its not just comfort or accessibility preventing adoption. There is no killer app and it's the same with crypto. But that's more to do with the current limits of concepts we have relied on to get to this point.

[towaway15463]

Social VR aka “The Metaverse” doesn’t need loot boxes and fake internet points to be compelling. Those are tricks that devs use to hook you on an otherwise very underwhelming experience. Social VR has real people with voices and body language and that’s pretty much all you need. You can add activities like movie screens and party games as ice breakers but they aren’t necessary. The most used feature in social VR apps is a mirror.

[imtringued]

I think our games have a too coarse grained degree of simulation.

The problem is that you want different levels of simulation at different times so developers just pick the easiest one to implement that is still fun. If there is an MMORPG you might want the ability to simulate actual cooking but at some point it becomes a grind and you just want to press a button instead of repeating the same recipe over and over again.