Who Cares About the Metaverse?

My actual thoughts on the "metaverse" and VR and AR right now.

0:00 The Intro
2:15 Who Cares about the Metaverse?
4:44 The Technology
7:59 Is It Actually the Future?
13:33 The Problem

~

[MrUnknownXD]

If Facebook is losing, it means we are winning.

[uhnotinterested]

The face and eye tracking is next level data collection. If Meta knows what you look at, what content makes you react, what content invokes certain emotions linked to facial expressions, that is data better than even Google has on us now. That's some scary shit imo.

[roland]

You did a better job explaining this than a multi billion dollar company

[neoncharge]

Ever notice how most people forced into zoom meetings block video and audio when given the opportunity? Yeah, we damn sure don’t want to be in a vr room with everybody.

[The-Rest-of-Us]

Zuck should just let Marques do their presentations. This was so much more enlightening and frankly convincing than the hour long meta keynote.

[expansivegymnast]

This is why this man is popular. Explains the metaverse better in fifteen minutes than people that take hours.

[lukejay]

if you think it's weird when an add pops up for something you've spoken about, just imagine what it'll be like with meta secretly watching every single meeting, social interaction, date, etc...

[RobMoses]

I had zero interest in the Metaverse and VR until my wife bought our family a Quest 2 for Christmas. Everyone in our house loves that thing and I never thought I'd say it, but I love it too.

[Breeze]

I like how when we think of VR and AR on movies it's for entertainment or escapism, and the company pushing it the most right now wants us to have job meetings with it.

[purpleguy]

I think Meta's biggest challenge will be getting over the invasive nature of AR. Like with the forcing to watch ads, it's going to be hard to convince people Meta's future isn't putting the exhaustion of the internet on your face 24/7.

[scmentowski]

My issue with Meta's idea of the Metaverse is just what you said: They are trying to copy everything from the real world to VR and thereby compete with already established workflows.
Sure, one day VR-meetings will be better than Zoom calls, maybe when instant avatars + face tracking + body tracking have become a common thing. But for now, every Zoom call bears much more communication fidelity than a VR meeting. And that's the whole problem behind the idea of "copying everything to VR".

My take (as a VR+UX researcher myself) is: Why don't we focus on areas where VR can actually enable us to do new things or make things easier? This way, we might not be replacing traditional pcs or other hardware soon, but VR can actually improve our life. For example, we're working on exergames that analyze the player's movements and correct wrong executions or tailor the experience to achieve better training results. This way, we could bring personal at-home training to the next level, because we combine gameplay+training+personal feedback. Or we could use this in PE, because we all know that teachers are always burdened by too many students. Would be cool to just give some students a headset where they can do a fun training activity that's completely automatically monitored. And the teacher can focus on the rest meanwhile. 
I think it's for these things where VR could actually make a difference. But not cringy avatars.

[simbarashemaketa]

I totally agree with you and this is also the problem with Big tech now. The players have so much control over the market. I am a big believer in decentralization and if the market allows for meta to succeed in this endeavor we're going to have the same problem we have now of privacy violations as well as the negative effects of manipulation these tech giants have on society.

[dodgeman]

The core concept of my workplace being made unthreatening and cartoonified and beamed directly into my eyeballs is just too dystopian to me and it always will be.

[GabeMillerMusic]

As someone who has tried VR a few times and has chronic migraines, I think another huge barrier to mass VR adoption is just how it makes people feel. For a lot of people, it leads to headaches and/or motion sickness. Even if Meta manages to make the tools really good and ethically run (which I really doubt), I don't see an obvious way around the fact that VR just hurts to use for a lot of us.

[PaulPlay]

I think the issue is that nobody wants to live in a world controlled by Meta / Facebook😂

[josiahastwood]

Here after the vision pro was announced

[qrzupsjohnson]

I like real life a lot more. The special effects are insane. Incredible detail

[stefandesu]

I think AR/VR needs an open ecosystem, otherwise we will either have a monopoly/duopoly or many competing services that are not compatible with each other. If this grows as big as Meta is betting, it will probably get regulated in some way (like messaging intercompatibility), but it would be nice to have that early on.

[sanjacobs]

Meta being able to track all your micro expressions sounds like a fantastic idea that will lead to a great future

[Smokasaurus]

Wow, Marques, I haven’t watched a video in quite some time but I’ve been subbed for at least 7 or 8 years. You’ve grown up, you’ve become very successful. Your family must be proud.