You announced legs. How are you surprised

Unless I'm mistaken, the most popular fiction in which VR is wildly popular is.. Ready Player One, Snow Crash, and Neuromancer. And in all of them, VR is only popular because people are trying to escape the hellscape that unrestrained capitalism has turned the planet into.

I dunno. Give it a few more years, maybe.

These tech bros read those books and think, "cool, let's make this."
I felt major Snow Crash vibes the first time I tried VRChat. Some of the servers are totally The Black Sun, without the hacker-programmed bouncers. But it also felt like a lot of the people were there escaping a reality they couldn't deal with.
We could go the Electric Sheep route and make a weird religion out of it
- How about going full Dune, and destroying all computers and AI's to replace them with human calculators and autopilots?

And people still don't know what the fuck a metaverse is

A masterclass in colossal failure

It was a cash hole the lizard man could pour money into so that the story became how bad they fucked up the metaverse, and not the burgeoning story about how they created an algorithm that destroys democracy for a few extra dollars per active user.
- From what I understand Facebook/meta is just a very small part of the metaverse but I could be wrong
I can tell you what the Metaverse is not. A corporate social space. That said there is interest in what it could be out side of the corporate dystopia.
I have been imagineering a VR Theme Park with highly detailed dark rides that is online and thus a Metaverse by definition and it ranks in the top VR apps and miles above all the social focus Metaverses, especially the corporate ones. I am sure there will be other Metaverses that catch on too, it is just hard to see when the corporations shit all over the term by presenting such an awful, boring and downright creepy take on it.

The future is a dead mall

- That's the mall future I want tbh. As long as parking is free. Include a lil park on some corner away from cars and better/cheaper food options and I would hang there all day. Malls in Japan are on another level. Lots of small unique locally owned businesses.
- This is great. Transforming malls into things that people actually want instead what they are told they want.
Ok Dan
"If you eat an infinite amount of virtual burgers, you'll still starve"
I need this as an edgy T-shirt from wish.

And that report was like a year ago, imagine how it's looking now lol.

Edit: Might be worth pointing out this is not Facebook's Metaverse, but rather Decentraland, a web 3.0 crypto metaverse that is even shittier than Zuck's version.

Half legit half rhetorical question. If I wanted to see what the metaverse is like, how would I even do that? It has always felt like something in closed beta, or like an obscure Sony service that you need a PS5 and multiple premium memberships to access. I don't know if it's a program you install, a website you go to, or what. The fediverse might have accessibility issues but it's not nearly as bad as whatever the metaverse is. I actually didn't expect to still be saying "whatever the metaverse is" at this point but it never got any clearer.

It's an abstract concept that nobody is willing to pin down to specific requirements, only general principles. If you actually want a peak at what people are hyping just try vrchat. Prepare for massive culture whiplash, weird avatars, trolls, and things that are off putting to some like sexualized avatars and furries. And of course it's not for everyone and every application, that's corporate hype stupidity. Why do I still think there's something really important there? Cause there's something really special about all the small details. People who never would've met talking across thousands of miles "face to face." It's like our monkey brains process actual personal connection and bypass most the adversarial bullshit we've been cultivating in text social media.
- I've seen vrchat and it looks awesome. I didn't care about it until I found out anybody can make avatars and levels. It's no IMVU. It's also pretty straightforward to type vrchat in a search engine and find somewhere to download the client. I found the article for this post and they're talking about a thing called decentraland. The metaverse is apparently any online game that uses a crypto wallet as the account, but decentraland seems like the only game available. What's the thing where nobody has legs then? That's what I thought the metaverse was.
  https://futurism.com/the-byte/metaverse-decentraland-report-active-users
The quote I like the most on this subject is: “The metaverse isn’t a place; it’s a time in history when our digital identity and goods have as much or more importance than our real life versions.” I don’t think we’re there yet, but it also makes little (rational) sense that people spend money for virtual items in video games.
I think the closest playable analogues are actually Fortnite and Roblox. Interconnected worlds with external avatars that cross them. You play experiences vs. games. There’s brand integration so Goku can fight John Wick. It’s pretty close?
The fediverse might have accessibility issues but it’s not nearly as bad as whatever the fediverse is
Didn't you mean to say metaverse the second time you mentioned fediverse?
- Yeah. Thanks for noticing.
https://horizon.meta.com/ I don't care what anyone else says, Horizon is the Metaverse.
If I wanted to see what the metaverse is like, how would I even do that?
But a Quest and install Gorilla Tag.
- A what with a what?
  Wait. Before you explain... Tell me what it costs.

That’s Decentraland. It does not even support VR.

You’re conflating Meta and some cryptobro bullshit when talking about legs.

No, they are talking about Meta Avatars and Meta Horizon Worlds, the multiplayer platform for gaming and socializing that Meta itself created and in which the avatars originally didn't feature legs.
- Yeah, but the article is about Decentraland, it literally says it's name down in the corner. OP got the two mixed up.

Steam player counter indicates there are currently 25347 players live playing VRChat on Steam. VRChat had an all-time peak of 46814 concurrent players on 1 January 2023.

Talk about getting ratioed.

Gee, I wonder how that other VR hang out game is doing..

let's see.. Oh, 24k daily.

A game that is actually built and formed by its users outperforming one designed by an alien billionaire that doesn't understand people. Colour me surprised!
Even ChilloutVR is seeing more activity than facebookvr/decentrashit
did they end up undoing the anticheat btw
This game is just the goat

That number is absolutely incredible! I can't believe it had as many as 30 people using it!

Users were about 8k daily. There were just 30 people who bought stuff.
All 30 of them are content creators making videos about how there is no one in the meta verse

On a bright side, that’s $1.2 billion less to spend on destroying democracies across the world

funniest thing ive read today.

lets build something no one needs, or asked for, and is stupidly expensive.... hmmmmmmm

this will be discussed in classrooms for decades

You forgot bland and brand-safe, designed for advertising and micro transactions.

the things i could do with a 1.2 billion dollars…

That's a llllottt of fancy ketchups
- if i had 1.2 billion i would share my ketchup with you
- Dijon ketchup?

This has nothing to do with Facebook's Metaverse, it's a completely different metaverse lol.
- My girlfriend goes to a different metaverse. You wouldn't know her.

In other news, VR Chat is still better than Metaverse

Might have been more popular, if the Metaverse only showed legs walking around for the humour value.

Oh no...

Anyway.

The article from the picture - https://futurism.com/the-byte/metaverse-decentraland-report-active-users

10th December 2022
A year and 4 days old.
Lol, they updated the headline to 38 active users. An increase of 26% in ~~a few hours~~ a year! Metaverse is booming!