It's hard to talk about gaming in 2021, and it's hard not to mention the Metaverse. Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft can all claim to be building it (in their own ways), and many others are trying to get in on the action. Who will be the first to successfully build The Metaverse is a debatable question, and few people have spent more time thinking about it than Matthew Ball.
— Matthew Ball
Regarding the speculation about why Zuckerberg entered the metaverse, the voices of the outside world are not the same.
Some say it's the next big breakthrough in technology; some say it's a joke; others say it's a marketing ploy; still others say it's a techno-dystopian nightmare.
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01. "Meta" in public opinion
Although "metaverse" has become a popular buzzword after Facebook changed the company's name to "Meta", many people are still trying to understand "what the hell is the metaverse" and whether it should be taken seriously. Treat futuristic technology concept.
Many critics and skeptics scoffed at Zuckerberg's plan to transform Facebook from a social media company to a metaverse company.
▼Facebook takes us into the future through the metaverse
Some critics say that by venturing into the metaverse and renaming the company at a time when the company is in a PR crisis, Facebook is distracting and deflecting attention from problems it creates or contributes to in the real world: things like harming teen mental health, promoting disinformation, contribute to political polarization.
According to internal company communications reviewed by Recode, some Facebook employees are also concerned about the Metaverse. Several employees asked questions ahead of the weekly employee Q&A on Workplace, Facebook's internal communications platform:
One employee question was on the radar of many: How do we avoid a dystopian reality where the Metaverse is used as "the opium of the masses?"
Another concern that ranks high is: With little coverage of the real world today, how will we meaningfully ensure safety, integrity, and responsibility come first in the metaverse?
Some observers pointed out that Facebook’s metaverse idea is not new, and many other companies have been using virtual or augmented reality technology to build virtual worlds, such as Roblox, Nvidia and Microsoft.
Still others point out how underdeveloped the technology is based on the fact that, in the version of the Metaverse Facebook has built so far, the digital avatars it offers as stand-ins for our bodies are cartoony, clumsy, and often no legs.
▼Facebook's parent company Meta has opened up a new platform for virtual reality after more than 2 years of testing
Even if the criticisms and concerns above hold true, Facebook's investment in the Metaverse is something we should take seriously.
Zuckerberg sees the Metaverse as "the successor to the mobile internet," an invention that has reshaped the lives of all of us by getting us online anytime, anywhere, and that has allowed Facebook's existing business to exist.
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02. Should at least pay attention to it
In response to concerns about the Metaverse, Facebook, which has changed its name to "Meta," noted that Facebook executives Andrew Bosworth and Nick Clegg wrote in a September blog post, "Meta will not build, own, or run the Metaverse itself. "
They said, "We started discussing our vision for the Metaverse long before certain technologies existed... We are discussing it now to help ensure that any terms of use, privacy controls, or security features apply to new technology and effectively keep people safe."
Facebook also said it doesn't want to be the only company developing the Metaverse. "This will not be the job of any one company. It will take collaboration across industries and with experts, governments and regulators to get it right," the blog post also read.
Overall, Facebook is betting a lot on the concept's success. After all, the concept got some of the brightest engineers in the world involved in the project, employed more than 10,000 people on the project, and backed the program with tens of billions of dollars.
Based on this, Zuckerberg also appeared very excited about having unilateral control of his company.
▼Mark Zuckerberg fencing with a hologram, the picture shows Facebook's imagination of the future of the metaverse
While the timeline is still unclear, it's likely that we're headed toward a future where we're all live with some yet-to-be-determined version of the Metaverse.
Facebook's determination to play an important role in establishing and shaping this new realm means that even if Facebook doesn't own the Metaverse alone (as it insists it won't), it will one day have a greater impact on our daily lives.
Today, Facebook still has to operate within the parameters set by Apple and Google, the two companies that make and control the world's dominant smartphone operating system.
But in this new world that may rely on VR/AR headsets and digital sensors, Facebook is trying to create its own rules and operating platform.
▼Brooklyn College professor Jason Moore is the director of Alien Rescue, an interactive film that takes place in the Metaverse
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03. One way
On a philosophical level, the Metaverse, as Zuckerberg and others have defined it, is a way of making virtual life more seamlessly connected to real life.
In a speech in October, Zuckerberg said, "Just like we are with people, no matter how far apart we actually are, we will be able to express ourselves in new joyful, fully immersive ways," In his speech he demonstrated his vision of the Metaverse.
"The idea is to create a more immersive internet where we will use technologies like AR and VR to spend our time in virtual spaces and experiences rather than in the physical world."
▼Most enterprises have lost interest in the virtual world Second Life launched in 2003
The term was first coined in Neil Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel "Avalanche," but now Zuckerberg and a host of other tech executives want to make it a reality.
Matthew Ball, a technology investor who has written a series of definitive articles on the Metaverse, explains it in part this way:
"Right now, the internet is mostly a 'push' thing. You get pushed, you get an email, you get a notification, and you pull out your device to access it."
For this, Ball explained, the difference with the Metaverse is that it is an "embodied engine" where you are "already in it, rather than reaching out".
In practice, this means that the world will disconnect us from our physical reality: the office, the living room, the outdoors. We'll instead plug in our headphones or otherwise immerse ourselves in another environment.
▼The virtual metaverse living room is richer than the reality
According to some, this could mean an improvement in life; a virtual update of one's surroundings or one's appearance.
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04. Shireen Jafari's Meta Experience
As it stands, any discussion of the Metaverse is largely hypothetical.
Facebook was just the first to tell you that the Metaverse is still in its infancy. Zuckerberg has said that "it's not quite there yet," and that there are only "building blocks," such as Facebook's Oculus Quest 2 headset, which costs $299, well below the entry price point for VR devices. The HTC Vive Cosmos costs a whopping $600, which is a lot less than the current $450 for the HP Reverb G2 virtual reality headset.
▼A Recode reporter's glimpse at Facebook's current metaverse prototype
In order to experience the Metaverse of Facebook, a foreign girl named Shireen Jafari used the Oculus headset for the first time. Let’s take a look at her whole experience process:
The graphics have come a long way since I (this section refers to the girl Shireen Jafari) last used a VR headset (just a few years ago), which allowed me to experience transport. But given how young the technology is, I've found it impractical to use for extended periods of time, especially outside of entertainment or gaming capabilities.
Before I started going into the metaverse, I moved furniture around in my apartment so I could explore without getting bogged down. With my Oculus VR goggles on, I went to the most important step: setting up my digital avatar.
Meta gave me options to customize my avatar, including skin tone, clothing, makeup, eyebrows, and even facial wrinkles. After spending 20 minutes tweaking my avatar to look more like me, I settled on a cartoon version of me that looked close enough.
Then I head to my default Oculus 3D home screen, a virtual room that looks like a tropical hotel lobby, complete with palm trees, hanging egg-shaped chairs, and views of red rock mountains in the distance—compared to my 500's decor, This is a definite upgrade - square footage studio.
▼Meta envisions that more people will spend time socializing in the Metaverse
In its current form, as described by Shireen Jafari, the options for things to do in the metaverse are limited to activities like playing games, watching VR videos, and attending meetings.
Shirin Jafari also played some games and watched 3D YouTube videos. For her, the highlight was dancing with a robot with sticky arms that beckoned me to wiggle and spin with it.
Later, Shireen Jafari took part in a mock work meeting using Meta's VR conferencing software Horizon Workrooms, which gave her a glimpse of how Meta envisions the future of working in a virtual world, as she describes it:
When I'm sitting in a virtual conference room with my cartoon avatar, I'm able to do things that video calls can't: I can turn my head towards my member and hear her voice louder than when I turn around; Fingers taking notes on a virtual chalkboard wall (although it's a bit difficult), I can see the attendees all hanging out in the same "room" rather than cutting their heads into a mosaic of side-by-side 2D boxes, like they Same on Zoom calls.
But there are obvious downsides - mainly, my avatar has no legs (since the headset doesn't capture your leg movements the way your head and hands do, and there are no legs in the Horizon Workrooms app), and I don't look like a regular Videos or photos of myself are so professional.
▼What is the current work meeting in the meta universe space like?
After Shireen Jafari spent a few hours in this metaverse, she discovered that more evils of this new world had emerged. For one thing, she started sweating and feeling sick.
With her headset pressed against her face, she had to create a new avatar from scratch every time she wanted to play in the meta realm. Her initial sense of discomfort started to wear off, and it was hard to imagine how long it would take her to hang out in the current version of the Metaverse herself.
Having said that, technology moves fast, and it's easy to imagine a world where all the practical problems encountered in the metaverse can be solved with lighter headsets, advanced hardware, and improved avatar graphics.
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05. Offer an opportunity
Meta believes that the Metaverse is the successor of the mobile Internet, so the areas mentioned above are also areas where it is willing to invest.
The Metaverse also created opportunities for Zuckerberg and Meta to get ahead of the competition. Unlike Apple or Google, which created iOS and Android, Facebook doesn't involve operating systems.
▼Microsoft enters the Metaverse through Mesh
Facebook is at loggerheads with Apple over how much it charges for purchases on iPhone apps and the general control it wields over companies like Facebook through its developer terms.
The emergence of the metaverse, for Facebook, is an opportunity to reduce its dependence on Apple and Google.
"Not only does Facebook have a different opportunity to create value in the metaverse, but it gives them another opportunity to build something that they lacked, which has been a roadblock for years," Ball told reporters. “For these major tech companies that have assets, resources, capabilities and interest in the metaverse, it definitely makes sense for them to invest in it.”
However, some people close to Facebook believe that Facebook's investment in virtual reality is to solve the company's cumbersome real-world problems.
▼The model of the fitness game envisioned in the Metaverse
"Building a metaverse is a lot more fun than answering the tough questions Facebook faces like political polarization, the spread of misinformation, or teenage mental health," Brian Boland, former Facebook partner and marketing VP, said on social media. Tell fans.
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06. The whim of a billionaire?
If the metaverse Facebook envisions succeeds, it means the company will be even stronger than it is today.
Currently, Apple and Google, the two tech giants that control access to the mobile internet, set some parameters around Facebook's business.
Facebook designs mobile applications that run on operating systems from Apple and Google. In turn, Apple and Google take a 30% fee from any financial transaction that happens in Facebook's iPhone app (something Facebook has long denounced).
At the same time, Apple could also press Facebook over its content policies, as it did in 2019, when tensions flared between the two companies after Apple threatened to stop people from using its platform for domestic traffic if it didn't do a better job. , it will be kicked out of the App Store.
▼Epic's Unreal Engine 5 will be launched in 2021, which is expected to bring more realistic lighting effects
The Metaverse shows a potential future where Facebook will no longer have these limitations.
If Facebook succeeds in being the pioneer founder of the Metaverse, it will be a company that makes and sells virtual reality headsets for accessing the Metaverse, and it could control a major app store that distributes Metaverse apps.
All of this would give Facebook a level of control and influence over the internet of the future that it doesn't have on today's mobile web.
On an immediate level, this means that more people will use Facebook, and they will use Meta in a more immersive and interactive way than they use the current product.
If you thought that the main Instagram or Facebook apps could lure people into filter bubbles of engaging, endlessly scrolling content, imagine people putting on a headset and focusing only on the Facebook-designed alternate reality they're in.
If you're already concerned about Facebook's privacy implications, Metaverse opens up a new world of data sources that companies can track: finger movements, facial movements, and, in the future, brain readings.
As American journalist Rebecca Heilweil reported earlier this month, while Facebook has shut down the facial recognition technology it once used on its main platform, it also says it will continue to use it in the Metaverse.
▼Horizon Worlds has online games and user-created spaces
Facebook said the company takes privacy and security issues very seriously, and noted in a blog post earlier this month, in part, that "technology that opens up new possibilities can also cause harm, and we're designing, iterating, and pushing our products to the next level." This has to be kept in mind when going to market. We want everyone to feel like they are in control of their VR experience and feel safe on our platform.”
In response to the "privacy and security issues" mentioned by the media, Zuckerberg said that the company is working with external partners, including civil rights organizations, government agencies and non-profit organizations, to ensure the security of the Metaverse, and has funded related projects. external research.
Facebook's efforts may finally normalize time spent in the metaverse, just as it normalized sharing our private lives on the internet.
The line between our physical and digital lives has become even more blurred during the pandemic, as billions of people around the world rely on technology like never before to pass the time with interactive games, simulated office settings and escapist TV.
"The pandemic has led to a significant increase in the time [spent] in virtual worlds, and the destigmatization of time in those virtual worlds," Ball said.
▼Coding tools in Horizon Worlds can make it different
Of course, it's unclear whether Meta Corporation will succeed in the Metaverse. When Google tried to bring a VR/AR product to the mainstream market alongside Google Glass in 2014, it failed because the technology was seen as "uncool and an invasion of privacy."
Meta will have to convince people to give up their time in the real world and instead participate in the Metaverse, trusting that Meta will become an expert in this new field.
Given all of these unknowns and potential challenges, it's too early to say whether the Metaverse will actually be the next version of the web.
Still, the metaverse is an important area to watch. After all, Zuckerberg invested billions of dollars and thousands of employees to pursue the idea, so it's likely that the Metaverse isn't just a billionaire's whimsical, wacky idea.
