[Oni]

I read a critical piece earlier about the "Metaverse" and pretty much agree. The "Metaverse" seems 99% marketing, 1% substance. Built entirely on delusions of grandeur, as a result of the NFT craze. We already use avatars to communicate online and communities like IMVU and Roblox existed long before this nonsense began.

We have Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash to thank for popularizing avatars as our digital personas, from early internet message boards to full-body VRChat. We also have Snow Crash to blame for the absolute hell we find ourselves in today, as every tech billionaire on the planet slobber all over themselves as they declare the metaverse—the next phase of human culture!!—is within reach. Games, NFTs, crypto, VR, AR, the blockchain, they're all wrapped up in this idea of a virtually-integrated society in which our Fortnite costumes will carry over to our Onlyfans accounts and we will never, ever have to log off.

The absurdity of it makes me want to scream, or maybe die, or maybe just spoon out the part of my brain that knows what an NFT is. But there's one thing that keeps me going:

The absolute gleeful, cackling, deep-in-my-bones certainty that it's all complete bullshit.

If you also know deep in your heart that the metaverse is a big fat steaming load of billionaire nerd pabulum, I hope reading these words provides you with a wave of vindicating comfort. You're not crazy. I know it can feel like that when the people peddling these things seem so convinced that they're the future, like they know something you don't. Don't fall for it. Watching people spend $69 million in fake money to buy a JPEG should make you feel like you're living in an age of unparalleled nonsense.

That feeling isn't going to go away. For the next decade we'll all be asking ourselves if the whole world's gone mad at least once a week. But the good news is that the metaverse and the tech industry's very expensive obsession with trying to make it a reality will be a schadenfreude generator the likes of which we've never seen before.

Read More: https://www.pcgamer.com/the-metaverse-is-bullshit/

[Jiggly]

It's a fair point. I don't mind companies selling a more integrated approach to things, but believing that will be the whole world is a leap.

[Badgateway504]

NFT is for money laundering, period.

[Oni]

It's a fair point. I don't mind companies selling a more integrated approach to things, but believing that will be the whole world is a leap.

To me, it's like they're trying to repurpose/market a knockoff of existing platforms. Similar cartoony community systems have existed for more than a decade, except they weren't as exploitive.

[fire]

I read a critical piece earlier about the "Metaverse" and pretty much agree. The "Metaverse" seems 99% marketing, 1% substance. Built entirely on delusions of grandeur, as a result of the NFT craze. We already use avatars to communicate online and communities like IMVU and Roblox existed long before this nonsense began.

We have Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash to thank for popularizing avatars as our digital personas, from early internet message boards to full-body VRChat. We also have Snow Crash to blame for the absolute hell we find ourselves in today, as every tech billionaire on the planet slobber all over themselves as they declare the metaverse—the next phase of human culture!!—is within reach. Games, NFTs, crypto, VR, AR, the blockchain, they're all wrapped up in this idea of a virtually-integrated society in which our Fortnite costumes will carry over to our Onlyfans accounts and we will never, ever have to log off.

The absurdity of it makes me want to scream, or maybe die, or maybe just spoon out the part of my brain that knows what an NFT is. But there's one thing that keeps me going:

The absolute gleeful, cackling, deep-in-my-bones certainty that it's all complete bullshit.

If you also know deep in your heart that the metaverse is a big fat steaming load of billionaire nerd pabulum, I hope reading these words provides you with a wave of vindicating comfort. You're not crazy. I know it can feel like that when the people peddling these things seem so convinced that they're the future, like they know something you don't. Don't fall for it. Watching people spend $69 million in fake money to buy a JPEG should make you feel like you're living in an age of unparalleled nonsense.

That feeling isn't going to go away. For the next decade we'll all be asking ourselves if the whole world's gone mad at least once a week. But the good news is that the metaverse and the tech industry's very expensive obsession with trying to make it a reality will be a schadenfreude generator the likes of which we've never seen before.

Read More: https://www.pcgamer.com/the-metaverse-is-bullshit/

this all just gives me Ready Player One flashbacks

[Oni]

I read a critical piece earlier about the "Metaverse" and pretty much agree. The "Metaverse" seems 99% marketing, 1% substance. Built entirely on delusions of grandeur, as a result of the NFT craze. We already use avatars to communicate online and communities like IMVU and Roblox existed long before this nonsense began.

We have Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash to thank for popularizing avatars as our digital personas, from early internet message boards to full-body VRChat. We also have Snow Crash to blame for the absolute hell we find ourselves in today, as every tech billionaire on the planet slobber all over themselves as they declare the metaverse—the next phase of human culture!!—is within reach. Games, NFTs, crypto, VR, AR, the blockchain, they're all wrapped up in this idea of a virtually-integrated society in which our Fortnite costumes will carry over to our Onlyfans accounts and we will never, ever have to log off.

The absurdity of it makes me want to scream, or maybe die, or maybe just spoon out the part of my brain that knows what an NFT is. But there's one thing that keeps me going:

The absolute gleeful, cackling, deep-in-my-bones certainty that it's all complete bullshit.

If you also know deep in your heart that the metaverse is a big fat steaming load of billionaire nerd pabulum, I hope reading these words provides you with a wave of vindicating comfort. You're not crazy. I know it can feel like that when the people peddling these things seem so convinced that they're the future, like they know something you don't. Don't fall for it. Watching people spend $69 million in fake money to buy a JPEG should make you feel like you're living in an age of unparalleled nonsense.

That feeling isn't going to go away. For the next decade we'll all be asking ourselves if the whole world's gone mad at least once a week. But the good news is that the metaverse and the tech industry's very expensive obsession with trying to make it a reality will be a schadenfreude generator the likes of which we've never seen before.

Read More: https://www.pcgamer.com/the-metaverse-is-bullshit/

this all just gives me Ready Player One flashbacks

That movie was a bit of a letdown... and it does look similar.

[Jiggly]

It's a fair point. I don't mind companies selling a more integrated approach to things, but believing that will be the whole world is a leap.

To me, it's like they're trying to repurpose/market a knockoff of existing platforms. Similar cartoony community systems have existed for more than a decade, except they weren't as exploitive.

I agree. They're recreating work others have already developed, but with their reach, it may become a very different beast. Name another platform who is making this VR/Augmented reality "metaverse" that has the same reach facebook has? I'm not saying it will be good, and I'm concerned about the implications of a company like facebook doing it, but if they are successful in copying from others, it may lead to something bigger. Which concerns me. It's not that I don't want companies to develop technologies like this, I just have so little trust in so many of them.

[Jiggly]

It seems to me that this is a kind of future ecosystem

The article in OPs thread suggests very much the opposite. This idea of the whole world being integrated like a new form of society, rewriting economics and entertainment... Is unlikely. It's a far cry from reality. Not everyone on this planet has access to the internet yet. The metaverse also describes something that already exists, and has done so for decades. The reality just doesn't look like something out of Ready Player One.

[HackingRealm]

I read a critical piece earlier about the "Metaverse" and pretty much agree. The "Metaverse" seems 99% marketing, 1% substance. Built entirely on delusions of grandeur, as a result of the NFT craze. We already use avatars to communicate online and communities like IMVU and Roblox existed long before this nonsense began.

We have Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash to thank for popularizing avatars as our digital personas, from early internet message boards to full-body VRChat. We also have Snow Crash to blame for the absolute hell we find ourselves in today, as every tech billionaire on the planet slobber all over themselves as they declare the metaverse—the next phase of human culture!!—is within reach. Games, NFTs, crypto, VR, AR, the blockchain, they're all wrapped up in this idea of a virtually-integrated society in which our Fortnite costumes will carry over to our Onlyfans accounts and we will never, ever have to log off.

The absurdity of it makes me want to scream, or maybe die, or maybe just spoon out the part of my brain that knows what an NFT is. But there's one thing that keeps me going:

The absolute gleeful, cackling, deep-in-my-bones certainty that it's all complete bullshit.

If you also know deep in your heart that the metaverse is a big fat steaming load of billionaire nerd pabulum, I hope reading these words provides you with a wave of vindicating comfort. You're not crazy. I know it can feel like that when the people peddling these things seem so convinced that they're the future, like they know something you don't. Don't fall for it. Watching people spend $69 million in fake money to buy a JPEG should make you feel like you're living in an age of unparalleled nonsense.

That feeling isn't going to go away. For the next decade we'll all be asking ourselves if the whole world's gone mad at least once a week. But the good news is that the metaverse and the tech industry's very expensive obsession with trying to make it a reality will be a schadenfreude generator the likes of which we've never seen before.

Read More: https://www.pcgamer.com/the-metaverse-is-bullshit/

You know how Bitcoin went . Same thing about metaverse/NFT. early investors will be millionaires and people who don't believe will join the hype sooner or later bcz that's how bitcoin went

[ConcernedCitizen]

@Oni
Looks like GameStop is serious about investing in NFTs, even after a net income loss of over $100 million last year.

And Apple is introducing 'extended reality' devices: https://www.wsj.com/articles/apples-meta...07?mod=mhp