"I’ve seen the metaverse – and I don’t want it"

[retina]

https://www.theguardian.com/games/20...i-dont-want-it

As far as I can work out, the idea is to take the principle of artificial scarcity to an absurdist extreme – to make you want things you absolutely don’t need. The problem is not that I think this won’t work. The problem is that I think it will. The current NFT gold rush proves that people will pay tens of thousands of dollars for links to jpegs of monkeys generated by a computer, and honestly it is eroding my faith in humanity. What gaping deficiency are we living with that makes us feel the need to spend serious money on tokens that prove ownership of a procedurally generated image, just to feel part of something? This is all happening, of course, while the Earth continues to heat up, and at enormous environmental cost. I can’t help but wonder if these giant companies are so intent on selling us and the markets on the idea of a virtual future in order to distract us all from what they are doing to the real one.

I have seen what virtual worlds can do for people. I have spent my entire adult life reporting on them, and what people do in them and the meaning that they find there. So the fact that I’m now the one standing here saying that we don’t want this, feels significant. Meta has patented technology that could track what you look at and how your body moves in virtual reality in order to target ads at you. Is that the future of video games and all the other virtual places where we spend time – to have our attention continually tracked and monetised, even more so than it is in real life?

The virtual worlds of games and the early internet used to be an escape from the inequalities and injustices of the real one. To see the tendrils of big tech and social media extending towards the places that have been a refuge for me and millions of others is disturbing. I don’t trust these people with the future. The more I hear about the metaverse, the less I want to do with it.

Enjoy your fake world everyone.

Remember to disconnect for 5 minutes every 8 hours to eat and drink. We wouldn't want you dying before you have given us all your money. Or better yet, we can provide you with an intravenous drip and automatically link your payment card to feed into our bank account.

[kriesel]

So, you've seen The Matrix, and now how it's being created.

[Batalov]

Originally Posted by retina

Remember to disconnect for 5 minutes every 8 hours to eat and drink. We wouldn't want you dying before you have given us all your money.

When the historians find us we'll be in our homes
Plugged into our hubs
Skin and bones
A frozen smile on every face
As the stories replay
This must have been a wonderful place

[tServo]

Originally Posted by retina

https://www.theguardian.com/games/20...i-dont-want-it Enjoy your fake world everyone.

Remember to disconnect for 5 minutes every 8 hours to eat and drink. We wouldn't want you dying before you have given us all your money. Or better yet, we can provide you with an intravenous drip and automatically link your payment card to feed into our bank account.

Keep a red pill handy.

[retina]

Originally Posted by Batalov

If by wonderful you mean just another place for people to be shitty to each other, then yes, I suppose so.

[tServo]

Doesn't Eve Online already meet some of the criteria for a metaverse?
A link to wikipedia is below for those unfamilair with it, but in a nutshell:
it is a MMORPG that has around 500,000 players and you can visit over 7,800 star systems
in your starship competing for resources and engaging in battles.

The play is incredibly complex; you should read the article for that.
The graphics are impressive as several Youtube videos shows, but it does not employ VR.
I have not gotten into it much, but it looks like you could get "lost" in it and spend your life there.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_Online


The youtube trailer gives a good idea what it's all about:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPFII3ozSHI

[slandrum]

Facebook might as well have called their company "Hades" if people understood what the metaverse refers to.

[Batalov]

Originally Posted by slandrum

Facebook might as well have called their company "Hades" if people understood what the metaverse refers to.

Here is a curious collision: Russia now banned Meta and declared it 'an extremist organization'.
Go figure!

My only guess is that Russia is now on a different circle of hell, incompatible with Meta's circle.

[firejuggler]

Eve online... spreadsheet galore!
For those who don't know, Progression is limited by time, real life one.

And it is the host of drama . Oh so much drama...
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-5-greate...nline-history/