The Metaverse is the internet no one wants
- Reference: 1665750729
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/10/14/metaverse_internet_failure/
- Source link:
It's more or less another stab at Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), a standard file format for 3D graphics that dates back to the mid-1990s, and the naive vision of federated spaces operated by competing companies.
The Web3D Consortium, which was formed to advance VRML and currently promotes X3D, a royalty-free open standards file format, recently weighed in on the Metaverse to offer its own [1]definition [PDF].
[2]
"In our view, the 'Metaverse' will emerge as a property of the current primarily two-dimensional World Wide Web (WWW) with interconnection and interoperability between online, networked microcosmic 'microverses' created, as is the Web, by individuals, corporations and institutions. Interconnection between microverses will be provided by the Web itself."
[3]
[4]
Meta's definition is more expansive – the web is a subset of the internet – but let it suffice to say that the Metaverse has been with us for decades and experiencing it with VR goggles and 3D graphics isn't necessarily more compelling than seeing it on a flat display screen.
The Metaverse of connected environments could be realized anytime. It's the web and the internet, after all. We know how to do links. Minecraft users could click on an object and be transferred to some other game with a VR interface like Eve: Valkyrie. If crypto assets can be transferred via [5]buggy blockchain bridges , there's no reason two games, or more, couldn't interoperate.
[6]
The fact that this isn't happening isn't because of technical obstacles; it's that companies aren't trying to make this happen. It's just not in their interests to do so.
[7]Microsoft and Meta promise facehugger PCs piping cloud desktops into VR headsets
[8]Tencent has its Meta moment as CEO Pony Ma outlines 'immersive convergence'
[9]Anti-Metaverse package 'explosion' at college VR lab probed by investigators
[10]Meta, Google learn the art of the quiet layoff
But if fees can be charged for moving VR outfits and other digital dross from one place to another, Meta may try for a piece of the action. Its [11]Diem debacle showed at least the company's interest in digital currency transactions.
Meta's contribution to the Metaverse to date has been evangelism, [12]billions of dollars of investment, which has produced VR headsets, software, an app distribution platform that takes [13]as much as 47.5 percent of revenue , and now [14]legs – something missing from Horizon Worlds avatars.
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, who brought us Facebook, keeps talking about creating an open ecosystem for Metaverse-focused firms, in contrast to the presumably totalitarian vision Apple is expected to deploy once it gets into the head hardware business.
It's a vision born out of the need to sell investors on growth – between Facebook, Instagram, and WhatApp, and competition like TikTok, growth opportunities look scarce – and out of Meta's lack of an operating system (still evidently [15]an aspiration ).
[16]
Apple, Google, and Microsoft have gatekeeping and distribution power through the products that rely on their software to operate.
Meta, a platform supplicant, instead has a massive audience, through those using its social apps. But the ad biz has seen how Apple's App Tracking Transparency technology on iOS devices has denied its access to ad targeting data and reduced the value of its business.
Until it can set up a functioning Metaverse toll booth, the company is focused on partnerships to bring its embodied internet to life. Partnerships are what tech companies do when they lack the goods themselves, the goods in this case being applications that people will pay to use.
The major news to come out of Meta Connect 2022, the company's developer event this week, was [17]a deal with Microsoft to make [18]Windows 365 – a streamed version of Windows – available on Meta Quest devices, as well as Microsoft 365 apps, and Mesh for Teams.
It's baffling that anyone would want to experience any Microsoft software through a Meta Quest headset. Consider that Meta’s VP of Metaverse, Vishal Shah, recently [19]scolded employees for their disinterest in the company's own Horizon Worlds environment. Managers apparently have been told they will be held accountable if their teams don't use Horizon Worlds.
When your marketing consists of [20]gavage , things aren't going well. ®
Get our [21]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.web3d.org/sites/default/files/attachment/node/2584/edit/The%20Keys%20to%20an%20Open%2C%20Interoperable%20Metaverse_0.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y0mHl38NhewiWC81rTopcwAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y0mHl38NhewiWC81rTopcwAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y0mHl38NhewiWC81rTopcwAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/07/binance_hack_566m/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y0mHl38NhewiWC81rTopcwAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/12/meta_microsoft_alliance/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/29/tencent_immersive_convergence/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/14/pelican_northeastern_explosion/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/21/meta_google_layoffs/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/16/facebook_libra_relaunch/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/20/meta_prototype_vr/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/13/meta_app_tax/
[14] https://twitter.com/MetaHorizon/status/1579947568372404226
[15] https://twitter.com/GabeAul/status/1478793173543448578
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y0mHl38NhewiWC81rTopcwAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2022/10/11/microsoft-and-meta-partner-to-deliver-immersive-experiences-for-the-future-of-work-and-play/
[18] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-365
[19] https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/6/23391895/meta-facebook-horizon-worlds-vr-social-network-too-buggy-leaked-memo?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
[20] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gavage
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: No second life for Second Life?
Sound application of rule #34 I suppose.
It's a vision born out of the need to sell investors on growth
It's a vision born out of the need to sell cannibals an evening meal - FTFY
I agree with the sentiment of the article.
Why, however, is every link now underlined, like in crappy web design from the early 2000s?
Blue text is too expensive these days.
And there was me thinking that I thought I'd stuffed up my browser somehow. Like many of the recent changes at El Reg, I don't think this was very well thought out.
It's fine with me
As a person with moderate color blindness, I like the underlined links better, because I can see them much more clearly.
I wish more web sites would take up the practice.
Re: It's fine with me
Surely there's an extension, or accessibility setting for that in your browser?
Then your wish could come true.
Just be grateful they don't put
>It's a vision born out of the need to sell investors on growth
Strong disagree here. It's a vision born out of a complete dereliction of the normal principles of corporate governance. Zuck's shares in the company are worth 10x more votes than normal shares, and as such he has effectively absolute control despite owning only something like 15% of the company. He doesn't have to sell investors on shit.
This is a vision born out of a company that doesn't *have* to do anything. It's his personal plaything and it does what he likes. That's all well and good as long as low interest rates kept the ad revenue flowing in unlimited quantities, but now there's a crunch on you can expect these companies, devoid of innovation for nearly a decade, to be forced to make drastic changes to their operations or fall like dominoes.
These perverse governance structures are common across Silicon Valley, where many worship at the Church Of The Founders to the exclusion of all rational thought.
And silicon valley would be so much better if all the tech companies were run by an MBA from their owners at Vanguard or Blackrock or Goldman ?
The legs were fakes, done with motion capture.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/10/14/mark-zuckerbergs-metaverse-legs-demo-was-staged-with-motion-capture
Call me old fashioned
but if I want to be in a totally immersive world different from the one I usually live in, I'll read a good book. The images are better and I don't get eye strain or motion sickness.
Re: Call me old fashioned
But suppose you had the opportunity to pay $20/month for a cooler bookmark (non-transferable and only valid for one book naturally)
Sounds familiar
[1]Dabbsy had a missive about this a while ago...
As it's Friday, think of it as something for the weekend ;)
[1] https://autosaveisforwimps.substack.com/p/the-metaverse-wont-be-a-place-to
No second life for Second Life?
Good article. And there was me holding out for a second life for Linden Labs utter waste of time Second Life. Though, it being completely useless didn't stop marketing agencies convincing companies to spend money on it.
As with most of the internet, until the porn industry finds a use for it, it's probably not worth bothering with. And I think they're probably more interested in AI generated photos and videos than expensive headsets for wankers, because people will pay for things like Kim Kardashian + Paris Hilton + Marilyn Monroe lovefest®.