Zuckerberg's Metaverse Rush Pauses For 'Quality Lockdown' (ft.com) 69
A year after Meta announced its metaverse push, it has yet to demonstrate that its $10bn a year bet on an immersive virtual world will be a success. From a report: According to memos and conversations with 10 current and former employees, his 3bn user-strong social media empire is experiencing disruption and challenges as part of the pivot to Meta, and has already been forced to delay future launches and adjust expectations. In a September memo seen by the Financial Times, Vishal Shah, the vice-president of Meta's metaverse arm, warned that users and creators had complained that Horizon Worlds -- its social virtual reality experience and the closest thing it has to a metaverse so far -- was low quality and full of bugs.
He ordered a "quality lockdown" for the rest of the year, telling staff that they need to improve fundamentals before any aggressive expansion. Staffers working on the product had to "reprioritise or slow some things we had planned," said Shah, adding that he was lowering its user numbers target for the second half of the year. Some employees warned morale was suffering as teams got restructured to accommodate Zuckerberg's new vision, which many have not yet bought into. "There are a lot of people internally who have never put on a [virtual reality] headset," said one metaverse employee.
He ordered a "quality lockdown" for the rest of the year, telling staff that they need to improve fundamentals before any aggressive expansion. Staffers working on the product had to "reprioritise or slow some things we had planned," said Shah, adding that he was lowering its user numbers target for the second half of the year. Some employees warned morale was suffering as teams got restructured to accommodate Zuckerberg's new vision, which many have not yet bought into. "There are a lot of people internally who have never put on a [virtual reality] headset," said one metaverse employee.
Translation (Score:5, Insightful)
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They could "fix" the source of your translation by just admitting that "quality" means "bad" in this situation?
Bizarre solution approach time? Are there any reliable metrics for the "social health" of any of the social network systems? (I think not.)
Re:Translation (Score:5, Interesting)
Pretty much. I'm reminded of that quote from iPod engineering Tony Fadell about the difference [slashdot.org] between Philips and Apple and how Apple's products are designed to ship from day zero:
Specifically,
Also, when you people working on have a bland, soulless cash grab of course the product is going to be mediocre.
It doesn't help when a tourism video, Icelandverse, mocks [youtube.com] your sales pitch.
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Alt translation: Some quality almost escaped, but we caught it and locking that down.
Not surprising (Score:2)
Move fast and break things has always been Facebooks modus operandum.
First post since 2008! (Score:1)
You sir are a fucking legend.
Re: Not surprising (Score:2)
Also, "done is better than perfect".
Quality Lockdown (Score:2)
I was under the impression that the've had quality locked down pretty tightly for quite a while now. The really ought to consider letting it out of its cage.
I still don't understand their Metaverse concept (Score:5, Insightful)
Because if I have that right, I don't think I've seen a bigger 'solution-in-search-of-a-problem' since the CueCat.
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Read "Ready Player One". I'm pretty sure that's exactly what they're going for, and I'm pretty sure they haven't read that book.
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Re: I still don't understand their Metaverse conce (Score:2)
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Largely on point, except I don't think they are expecting to do 'real-estate', there are a couple of stupid scams like that hitching their horse to the metaverse word (e.g. Decentraland), but I see no sign that Meta itself sees artificial scarcity of fake-land as a part of their strategy.
However, it's basically Second Life again, and the VR angle gives it some more substance I suppose, but it's still so far away from a compelling experience for the awkwardness incurred, at least for most. There will be nic
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At the moment there is a slight obstacle in the form of VR Chat... they are basically making a lamer VR chat with shitty graphics. So basically rec room, with a meta logo and negative association attached.
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Yeah, and in another industry, the more broad 'power' of a resourceful endeavor like Meta would be important, but ultimately VRChat represents about the right size team/expectations for the relative niche of those who find this to be good enough to be compelling. Big social media isn't going to be satisfied, and a small team like VRChat is better suited to serve this sort of community.
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I think VR itself has reached good enough. I think there is definitely room for some amazing content to be made on a vr chat like platform. I also think they've done and are doing some great things in terms of VR hardware. VR and MR have the potential to revolutionize everything.
They need MUCH better graphics. When you step into Half-Life Alyx the world often looks REAL and there is a threshold where the brain begins to fill in sensory content that isn't really there in VR. The same is true of the very high
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I don't think I've seen a bigger 'solution-in-search-of-a-problem' since the CueCat.
Hey, in defense of the CueCat, it took another decade-and-change for QR codes to become ubiquitous, but I'd submit that the CueCat was the genesis of the idea. It had all of the issues associated with the odd combination of paper catalogs and desktop computing, but while it's very much a product of its era, I'd argue it was also ahead of its time.
The Metaverse, however, reflects a complete disconnect from end users. Maybe this will be my "less space than a Nomad" comment, maybe it'll age like my Stadia isn' [slashdot.org]
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I loved my Cuecat... I mean not for its original use or anything but I used to cuecat to barcode a number of aspects of my world.
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it's going to be something like "Second Life" with slightly better graphics
From what I've seen, they dropped that requirement long ago...
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This post has brought out some older Slashdot members to comment.
Yeah, Meta never made any sense it's just Facebook's/Zuckerberg's last gasp as they enter a long, slow, decline. The word can safely return to a much more important usage, for "an X about X":
"Douglas Hofstadter, in his 1979 book Gödel, Escher, Bach (and in the 1985 sequel, Metamagical Themas), popularized this meaning of the term. The book, which deals with self-reference and strange loops, and touches on Quine and his work, was influenti
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So far they've had worse graphics than SL though. The avatars have been horrible.
I'm at a loss as to how to get people to behave no worse online than they would in meatspace, which is often pretty badly as it is.
Re: I still don't understand their Metaverse conce (Score:2)
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Well, that's the point isn't it? There's lots of games where you act like a shit already. GTA Online is pretty much the prime example. It's 98% griefers and spammers.
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Their hardware work has actually been pretty good. I don't understand why they didn't just buy out VR chat and hire some amazing game industry talent and go from there.
People misbehaving comes to the problem I see in general. There really isn't any younger kids content. There are things like recroom but not having any kind of active supervision means your kid is going to come out the same kind of monster you find there now.
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It's basically just a rec room clone thus far. Which is definitely less than impressive since rec room already exists and vr chat is better while both are also free.
What the hell do these people even do? (Score:2)
VR is the ultimate solution in search of a problem (Score:2)
There are very very few problems that are legitimately solved better with VR than just regular screens.
(Though I might have a different opinion if I worked in an open office environment)
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Very few problems? What about porn?
You enjoy CGI porn?
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Porn is not a problem.
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Porn is not a problem.
All sing along now, "The Metaverse is for Porn..."
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Is that the sequel to The Internet is For Porn [youtube.com]? :-)
Re: VR is the ultimate solution in search of a pro (Score:2)
3D input is one. Very high precision, 100% intuitive.
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Well, there are plenty of better things in VR.
A lot of gaming is better in VR. If you have an iron stomach, there are games that are all-upside in vr. For those that can't take that disconnect between vision and movement, it becomes a tradeoff between immersion and tedium or awkwardness of moving. For something like a driving sim, VR is simply amazing. If at any point a light gun arcade game held appeal, VR control schemes deliver in spades.
Some 3D content creation is easier in VR. You just have more d
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Video calls aren't extremely rare. People facetime all the time. I'd call video calls an example of how a technology that has been possible but seems like it would never break through for a long time eventually did in fact find success.
Maybe the same will happen to VR chats...just we have to have a bunch of technology upgrades and paradigm shifts first, because Horizon Worlds sucks.
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Nope, text style communication dominates everywhere.
Zoom calls are common, but like 95% of the time everyone is camera off, nobody wants to put their face on meeting unless they have to.
My kid is mostly text, sometimes voice chat, but no, being mindful of camera angle and face being presentable is too much trouble for day to day remote communication. This is pretty much key downside compared to face to face, in telepresence *you* are responsible for the camera angle and how you appear in frame, in person t
Rest of the year? (Score:1)
It's already October, end of the year is less than three months away, at a time of year when there's holidays and people take heavy time-off. Assuming they've been steadily generating a mountain of technical debt in their aggressive push to market, three months for a "quality lockdown".is unlikely to achieve anything that isn't just paying down the interest on it.
"Move fast and break things." (Score:4, Funny)
Legs have been doable for 30 years... (Score:2)
Or maybe they should figure out who it's for (Score:5, Insightful)
Every successful business is either just a me-too cash grab, which only lasts so long, or is wildly successful because it overcomes one of 3 fundamental problems every human faces: limited time, limitations imposed by geography, or lowering the cost of something so much that a new market now has access to an option.
In theory, a robot vacuum cleaner ultimately gives people more time; i.e. you need to vacuum, but a robot does it meaning that hour each week spent vacuuming is now available for other things and the vacuuming is still done.
Henry Ford is a great example of lowering the cost creating access to an option. Cars existed before Henry Ford, but they were playtoys of the wealthy because of the expense. What Henry Ford did was make a car that cost within the range of an average person, giving average people a greater amount of mobility and thus more job opportunities; it opened up options for people they never could afford before.
Social media is an example of overcoming geography. In this, I sometimes wonder if Zuckerburg ever figured out why Facebook became what it is; if he did it by accident or if it was strategic. Facebook evolved as a way for college kids to keep tabs on everyone else's social life. However it's real value materialized when those kids' parents got on Facebook. Prior to Facebook, parents could only engage with their kids away at college if they decided to pick up the phone and call them; they lost connection due to the geographical distance. Facebook overcame that by allowing parents to engage to some degree in their kids' lives without the kids having to call, and eventually connected distant relatives and families spread out. It overcame a geography challenge. Suddenly everyone was connecting to their friends and loved ones via the platform, then those dirty Facebook peeping toms looked in on what they were doing and sold the data. But again, Facebook overcame a geography challenge.
So what does the Metaverse do? I feel like every version of the Metaverse in fiction is fun to read or watch in a movie, but in a real world application? By taking people out of the real world, it literally makes you lose connection with your friends and family that don't participate. And if you do, it's in a fictional world, not the real world. Who wants to live in a virtual world all the time? Who wants to lose connection with their relatives? It seems like the Metaverse concept is the polar opposite of what made Facebook a success.
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And who really wants to spend any amount of time in a virtual world?
Well, a lot of people. Though for social interactions, probably not that many at this point in technology.
If you had a matrix level of experience available, where we could be limitless in how such an experience is built, to be able to skydive without a parachute and face no risk, etc, then you'd have plenty of takers.
However, to have VR headset only immersion, being plopped into relatively low polygon environments interacting with low-poly avatars with relatively low quality sound coming from the avatars..
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Well, a lot of people. Though for social interactions, probably not that many at this point in technology.
If you had a matrix level of experience available, where we could be limitless in how such an experience is built, to be able to skydive without a parachute and face no risk, etc, then you'd have plenty of takers.
First of all, I sincerely doubt that, but at this point that's just opinions and there's no way of knowing, so let's just agree to disagree.
But let's assume you're right for a second. Let's assume there was some technology that did full immersive VR experience. Skydiving without a parachute? To recreate that feeling, you need a full body suit that blows your hair, presses on you to simulate the fall, rapid visual updates to simulate the entire experience visually, and ideally with a headset that does
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There's a reason I explicitly said "not this technology" and "matrix like". Though *something* short of that will enjoy some significant success, just still beyond the capabilities today.
I was challenging the blanket assessment that people would avoid a hypothetically compelling virtual world as it would necessarily be seen as inherently 'lesser' and disconnect you from friends or family. The same thing could have been (and was) said of books, television, video games, the internet. Your experience may be
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There's a simple thought exercise to look at any technology development to see if has value: would my mother buy it? My mother of course is a Baby Boomer generation, not that tech savvy etc. She doesn't care about anything most tech companies do; she couldn't care less about Uber or Doordash or anything at all. So what would get her to buy an Oculus?
I had a thought t
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I've always thought the whole concept of the Metaverse is just ludicrous. ... What problem does it solve?
This. 1000 times this. Some things, like a Raspberry Pi, can easily be a solution waiting for a problem.
But this?
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What problem does, say, going to a baseball game solve?
VR is just entertainment, even if marketing wants to sell it to business.
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I go to a baseball game with my son. We sit there and cheer for our home team together. And not only are we bonding in the shared victories and defeats of our team, but we're even bonding with the people around us in the stands. We're all wearing the same color, rooting for the same team, booing the opposing team, eating the same hot dogs and hamburgers in the parking lot; even though we're strangers, we're friends in that shared victory and defeat. Plus, do not underestimate how im
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However it's real value materialized when those kids' parents got on Facebook. Prior to Facebook, parents could only engage with their kids away at college if they decided to pick up the phone and call them; they lost connection due to the geographical distance. Facebook overcame that by allowing parents to engage to some degree in their kids' lives without the kids having to call, and eventually connected distant relatives and families spread out. It overcame a geography challenge. Suddenly everyone was connecting to their friends and loved ones via the platform, then those dirty Facebook peeping toms looked in on what they were doing and sold the data. But again, Facebook overcame a geography challenge.
I don't think that's the proper framing for FB's value.
Think about your social network pre-FB. You had people you casually interacted with every day, but anyone else you needed to deliberately contact, if you even had their contact info which you may not.
FB's real value was making all of these past relationships (family, old schoolmates, coworkers) feel current. It also became the default way to contact someone you didn't know too well.
So what does the Metaverse do? I feel like every version of the Metaverse in fiction is fun to read or watch in a movie, but in a real world application? By taking people out of the real world, it literally makes you lose connection with your friends and family that don't participate. And if you do, it's in a fictional world, not the real world. Who wants to live in a virtual world all the time? Who wants to lose connection with their relatives? It seems like the Metaverse concept is the polar opposite of what made Facebook a success.
There's one application where I can see the "metaverse" working which is
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You bring up so many good points.
I'd like to add another dimension that's been around a long time: cybersex
If the fake reality doesn't appeal to real-life social settings, in my experience, sex does. The old text-based chatrooms that had private rooms provided secure places to get rowdy.
I think that's the proper market for VR and the metaverse. of course, I'm not going to use my Facebook account because I'm supposed to be me. Someone other than Facebook, perhaps a new player(s) could tap that.
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This is reassuring (Score:2)
"There are a lot of people internally who have never put on a [virtual reality] headset," said one metaverse employee.
I know it's a cognitive bias, but Zuckerberg and his awful creation would easily have you picture anybody applying for a job at Facebook being the same sort of disturbing creep devoid of true humanity. It's good to hear many of the employees there seem to be sensible human beings who prefer normal real life over their employer's perturbed VR vision enough to not actually trying the latter out.
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While I'm skeptical of the 'metaverse' vision as Meta hopes for, I think it's unreasonable to blindly disparage folks that might use a VR device as 'disturbing creeps devoid of true humanity'.
move fast and break things⦠(Score:2)
Quakity lockdown (Score:2)
Until 2071.
I never ... (Score:2)
... met a verse I didn't like.
I dont get motion sickness... (Score:1)
..and I can play FPS games just fine, but every time Ive tried a VR headset I end up with a splitting headache after a while.
No-one wants to hang a few kilos off their face and get a headache or the spins to boot.
This whole VR thing is just a toy for nerds at this point.
Pointless endeavour ... (Score:2)
If "Meta" really wanted to make something that could have at least some chance of being useful, it isn't what they are trying to make.
The idea of Avatars, where you can "be whoever you want to be", or "virtual real estate" is totally pointless.
But I guess it's relatively trivial when compared with how it _could_ be done - and if anything, how it _should_ be done.
That would be augmented reality and as close to lifelike as possible - that in a virtual meeting or gathering, you can get as many of the visual cl
... plus we need to remember ... (Score:2)
... exactly what FaceBook started out as and exactly what it is now.
It's a glorified BBS.
It had a few minor USP's on top of that concept, but ultimately, that's it.
I guess the "genius" was marketing it, to such a point, it made a ridiculous sum of money - from advertising.
So, now we're expecting that same company, with arguably the same ethos (or lack thereof), to come up with a workable concept of a Metaverse?
Not. Going. To. Happen.
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the goal should be to replicate the original visual appearance of a person as closely as possible - but that's hard, right? -
It's called video conferencing. Been doing those for at least the last 20 years.
Zuckerberg himself lives in virtual reality (Score:2)
Whatnow? (Score:2)
He ordered a "quality lockdown" for the rest of the year, telling staff that they need to improve fundamentals before any aggressive expansion.
So 'move slow and fix things'?
Does zuckerberg know about this?
WTF? (Score:1)
That's almost the ENTIRE development cost of the A380 (another great investment
How do you even spend that much money? Assuming an average, fully-burdened cost of $500k per head that's 20,000 people working full-time on polishing this turd.
Wow! Facebook is run by a zucking moron.
Just another "vaporware" real-estate scam... (Score:1)