If the Metaverse is the future, then I don’t want to be a part of it

Alright.

I’ve been ignoring the Metaverse for long enough, and the recent image that Mark Zuckerberg posted just left me with more questions, no excitement, or interest about the Metaverse (or the new internet as some people call it).

We've all seen the picture that Mark Zuckerberg posted about Horizon Worlds, right? The super creepy one with the souless eyes looking back at you.

Even MP Matt Hancock has joined the Metaverse with an equally creepy looking avatar.

If the future of communication involves me looking like that then I don’t want to be a part of it. Especially if my avatar loses their legs as shown in the Horizon Worlds trailer.

I’m just amazed that a company that’s worth billions of dollars, thinks that the screenshot by Mark would convince people that the Metaverse is the future is laughable (and also how Mark thought that screenshot would convince people to try Horizon Worlds is bizarre)

Graphically, I’d expect it to look better considering how much money Meta is throwing at this (to be fair, Meta responded by sharing a somewhat improved screenshot recently. But it still looks creepy. )

In 2021, Meta spent at least $10 billion on it’s Metaverse division. And I can only imagine that this figure will only increase as the years go on.

By the way, Meta has now started calling their employees 'Metamates', which sounds incredibly cringey (what's wrong with calling everyone employees?)

To top it off, even Meta's own employees aren't using it. And now they have to use it once a week. Meta's VP of Metaverse, Vishal Shah, said the following about Horizon:

"But currently feedback from our creators, users, playtesters, and many of us on the team is that the aggregate weight of papercuts, stability issues, and bugs is making it too hard for our community to experience the magic of Horizon. Simply put, for an experience to become delightful and retentive, it must first be usable and well crafted.”

And:

“I want to be clear on this point. We are working on a product that has not found product market fit. If you are on Horizon, I need you to fully embrace ambiguity and change.”

Bit worrying that the company is betting so much on a product that hasn't found it's market. As well as forcing employees to use the product.

But given that Meta recently announced the Meta Quest Pro (which is priced at an eye watering £1,499.99), the market could be aiming more towards professionals rather than consumers. Also, as CNET reported, the battery life of the device is one to two hours. Which doesn't seem great if you're trying to convince professionals that the metaverse is the future of computing. Meta's stock also went down following the announcement.

I also love the fact that under the experiences section on the Meta Quest Pro page, Adobe Acrobat is listed along with Dropbox and LastPass. I can't wait to manage PDFs, documents and passwords with my super expensive headset!

You might be wondering "what is the Metaverse anyway?", and put simply it's a digital space which is made of digital representations of things. Like people, objects, places etc. This video by Microsoft does a good job of explaining what the Metaverse is.

I just cannot imagine sitting down for a serious business meeting or job interview and I have to use the Metaverse. The idea of that sounds awful and awkward. Even Microsoft is incorporating 3D avatars and virtual meeting spaces into Teams called Mesh. I’m not sure how I’d feel if the person I was speaking to was a 3D avatar and not the actual person through a video call at a job interview. It would be hard to judge the other person’s body language for example.

With hybrid working and video calls being the norm, I'm not sure if the Metaverse is going to catch on for corporations. If it isn't broken, don't fix it.

I just want to have legs!

On a related note, can you imagine people using underpowered business laptops and trying to render 3D avatars and virtual meeting spaces in Teams? I know Teams doesn't have amazing performance to begin with (thanks Electron) but I can't imagine rendering 3D environments would make things any better. Plus, I don't think businesses are going to rush out and buy new work machines and VR headsets as those are still expensive.

I struggle to understand the following about the Metaverse:

• What problem is the Metaverse solving?
• Why would I want to use the Metaverse?
• And what do I do in the Metaverse?

If the Metaverse is the 'new internet', what's wrong with the 'old internet'? The current applications that are available for working together (Teams, Zoom, Slack, Discord) are working well and I can't foresee the Metaverse replacing them. And there are applications such as Discord and Reddit for communities (both are incredibly popular).

The first few comparisons that I think of when I look at the Metaverse is Second Life (I bet you thought Second Life was dead but it isn't!), and VRChat.

There was once a time where Second Life had so much hype and excitement. It had:

• Sweden opening an embassy in the game
• The comedian Jimmy Carr held a gig
• A virtual design degree show
• Students had lessons
• A University held a virtual open day
• People buying and selling property for real money

The BBC wrote an article in 2009 asking what happened to Second Life, after all the hype, excitement and initial investment from companies such as IBM, and American Apparel - nothing came from it. Second Life didn't become the number one place to socialise and do work in.

When I was in university, during my first year in 2011, one of the first modules I did was called ‘Introduction to Electronic Origination’, and we had to create a movie in Second Life. It was a bizarre experience to say the least. I was surprised by how successful it was and what the community could create (and also how active the community was). I remember struggling to build environments and how bad the performance was on my laptop at the time. To this day, I still wonder why that module was part of my course.

In fact, in 2016, Second Life had a GDP of $500 million which is wild. Considering Second Life came out in 2003, I'm amazed it has continued to exist today with people still using it. Maybe Second Life was ahead of it's time?

I’m curious to see what happens to Second Life. It would be pretty amazing if Second Life was able to outlive whatever Meta creates.

Then, there is VRChat. This is a good example of what the Metaverse currently is; a sandbox of infinite worlds created by the community. Where people are represented by digital avatars.

And it found success. It brought people together, and the community created content for everyone to use. There are plenty of videos in YouTube that highlight what the community have created. However, there have been safety concerns about what worlds have been created by users. It’s a legitimate concern to have.

Speaking of safety, there is also privacy concerns around Meta itself. I'm sure whatever Metaverse they create will no doubt harvest data from it's users. Anyone remember the Cambridge Analytica scandal?

One key element I've noticed when it comes to the Metaverse is the role of VR. Meta bought Oculus and is using it's technology as part of the company's ambitions for the Metaverse. There is also Windows Mixed Reality by Microsoft which works with Mesh. No matter how you look at it, VR is a key component for the Metaverse to be successful.

Selling VR as a games platform has been established. Sony has PlayStation VR and Oculus has a fantastic range of games available. Plus, Valve offer their own VR headset, Index, for Steam. There is plenty of enthusiasm around VR games. I own an Oculus Rift (before it was bought by Meta) and had a great time playing various titles such as Duck Season.

But - there is a difference between selling VR as a form of entertainment and as a way of working with the Metaverse. I can see VR growing in popularity to play games, but I don't think the Metaverse will convince many to buy a headset.

There are also plenty of hurdles to jump over first:

• VR headsets can be expensive (see headsets like the Valve Index)
• VR headsets can start to feel uncomfortable after a period of time
• Motion sickness in VR
• Not everyone is convinced by (or wants) VR
• Safety concerns in a Metaverse

There are already early signs that the Metaverse is already failing to launch. Tinder, for example, stepped back from their Metaverse ambitions and parted ways with their CEO who had been in the job for less than a year.

Even Meta themselves said that in Q1 this year that their Metaverse division lost $3B. With Mark claiming that the year 2030 would be “exciting”. I’m not sure Meta’s investors can wait until 2030 to see the outcome of spending billions.

But the initial failures isn't stopping companies from exploring the Metaverse. Kate Spade has created a shopping experience, where there is a handbag that can only be purchased by using their virtual world.

I’m not sure what the future holds for the Metaverse. Whether Meta's gamble on this will pay off won't be seen for several years. I'm not convinced the metaverse is the next generation of the internet. But whatever the metaverse is, I just hope avatars get legs.