Thread regarding Meta / Facebook layoffs

I generally concur with @osq - but that "Metaverse" will be a part of most daily life.

I do not believe it'll be jacked in a Ready Player One rig nor even closed goggles.

I think for everyday life the Google Glass (still big in Manufacturing) and Meta's Ray-Bans will be more and more ubiquitous - in large part due to their unobtrusiveness. Glasses are ubiquitous and the augmented reality - which will be key - will quickly win over glasses-haters (which is often a fashion thing - also easily solved)

I think things like Holo Lens will have a place - for more than "glasses" can provide - while also being far safer while possibly far richer experience.

I think closed - but most capable - like Meta's and others - will be only for specific sessions (games, etc).

I think hybrid augmented flat-screen - almost everything will have to work "well enough" that way.

I think a lot of the "workplace" work Meta (primarily) and others have put out - won't really fly much with most. It's interesting to "walk and talk" to somebody - but creepy having your constant state there for all. I mean with Cubes/Offices there was no overall view of whether/whom was walking, talking, whatever; even with the far-open space offices (ugh) . I kinda like parts of the concept (esp as a long time remote worker) but not on that scale. Maybe some more augmented version of "slack state" with comm options?
It'd also work better if not "the floor plan" - but like (ugh) FarmVille - a constructed floor (farm) plan with your colleagues adjacent no matter where they work. But still shortly after Covid everybody turned off pictures in CC and most also "silently left" team views of vacation and availability.

Some key enablers also will be

• - Open hardware. Yeah. Get over it. I certainly won't choose and settle on ANY jack-in provider. Sorry Meta. Sorry Google. Sorry .... Nope. Not Sorry. So all will have to get over the "social/data lock" of their platform. Think the "Microsoft hardware/driver module" - anything MUST boot in a basic mode usable - then get the value add "drivers" for the hardware as specific to the provider.

• - Affordable - really think "free" Metaverse du jour participation. Think Avatars in all respects (clothing, voice, rendering, etc), "housing", "Location, Location, Location", everything. Right now there are land races in 10+ metaverses. The big fashion brands etc have spent tons to be well represented in each. But if you think I'm going to spend time as a "Monty Python dirt peasant" in a rich glamorous Metaverse (du jour) - you're quite wrong - and that will be very alienating to most.

• - Portability. Think my avatar (for starters) but also my house, etc. Sure, some will want to pay Gucci for some fancy NFT outfits, but also think if I'm wearing real Jeans (or slacks or ...) I already bought - I (and most) will expect that to be near free to "come as I am". And also to take my curated avatar (doubly so if spent Gucci $$) to the Metaverse du Jour I visit any particular time (even if flat screen work). Also my house (even if starting with interior).

• - Location, Location, Location. Again think Farmville. Think I'm going to "onboard" at a bus stop on the edge of the universe (likely with thugs ? as in some MMORGS), pay for transport to Times Square, or anywhere to participate? Nope. Now I wouldn't begrudge a "Times Square" - or any other city downtown - or super-mall. But I'll largely expect to be able to have more of a Farmville orientation of my surroundings.

• - You've already lost out. Current land races - 99% of the world has already lost out - so - if the Metaverse du jour "land owners" (all pretty much on flat fixed maps) think they're all going to get richer off us already lost out (and on N branded Metaverses) they're wrong.

I think the competition of "bring YOUR self via YOUR hardware" and see how NEAT our Metaverse is right now - will bring the most innovations - and room for innovations - than closed Metaverses. I mean Meta's demos - I laughed and cried at all of those. Zuk think cartoony viritual building skateboard with everybody slap handing is anything realistically enticing ? Ahh but it mirrors the child like and interface to Facebook. I mean ge-z - give me a dense web page with TONS OF STUFF - not a screen dominating feed. So far out of reality Zuk is.

Metaverse as a whole has a future - but not as any corporation at all sees it.

no most people don't believe in it or if they do it's like what zuck said, something that will pay off but in 2030 and beyond, certainly not any time soon. the software isn't there, the hardware isn't there, the ecosystem isn't there...and it's fb after all so immediately people are going to steer away from it. but then again people who join did so out of their own free will, so they already know that it's just a job and not some revolutionary life changing thing they're working on

Not a Meta employee but I spent decades in the tech industry and more specifically on the marketing side. IMHO Meta ( Facebook) made a number of basic blunders. First of all- the name change. Everyone knows what Facebook is. Nobody really got the whole "Meta" thing. Changing a brand name comes with risks and if its pulled off poorly then you will lose brand capital and value.

Second of all. Even though I am on Facebook I seldom saw ads for Meta. And when I did finally see them I wasn't even aware what I was looking at. The first ads I saw were of people with no legs and made in a super generic style. My gut was WTF is this? And why would anyone want to use whatever it was? More efforts should have been made into styling and rendering the characters. And the product should have been made available ONLY after legs were added. I am surely not alone at being disturbed by the image of disembodied floating torsos.

Lastly, it seems like a lot of the ads I now see are of people using the app in the most boring way possible. One showing a woman using it to adjust controls on floating screens for a music app. That's not really that amazing. Instead more of the actual " Metaverse" should have been shown. As in- show me the make-believe world you can immerse yourself in. The biggest potential value is in its entertainment value. Not simply putting on some goggles to manipulate software controls.

So from my perspective? Sure. There's a good idea in there somewhere but the product was poorly executed and launched. Time needs to be spent going back to the drawing board and getting it right.

Metaverse project needs to continue, but it's got to go dark.

Why...? Because "wholesome usage" is not where the financial rewards will be. Think about it, people...

maybe once the characters get legs, otherwise it's a money pit.

And yet people do not give him the credit when he made sooo many people millionaires. Thats about how humanity works in its very crux - promote more hatred and anger when opportunities are hard and rare. But seldom heap praise and admiration when things are done right.

It's just a game that no one wants to play, let alone paying.

I don't know enough to have a strong opinion as to the long term viability off the metaverse but honestly, what other options are available to someone like MZ?

At this point in FB's arc, the writing's on the wall in terms of legacy social media and every single platform is already saturated. MZ, as weird and off-putting a dude that he is is required to make some big a-s bold bets and I'd argue this is the only one that has any legs (pun intended). Just think about the devices you own today and how a company like meta can command more of your time on that device with what's possible today....it's not.

My mind can be easily changed if you named another bet that they can invest in at that type of scale.

I believe the metaverse is the future. This is like 1994/1995, when the Internet was starting to go mainstream. Back then it was called the "super information highway". And "we" thought the Internet is just Netscape and it's portal page. Metaverse will be real when we have the hardware, that is light non-obtrusive and does good AR and VR. My feeling is that is still 10 years or more out.

It’s a platform Meta can control. Right now Apple can control Facebook platforms as we’ve seen in earnings. In a Metaverse owned by Meta, they can control the platform. Anything bought and sold, they get a cut. Any advertising in world. They make their own rules.

Most people belive in it but not at the level and with the zeal that Zuck has

*vision not version