I am very interested in this. The price is right and I think standalone is what I eventually want. I look forward to you early adopters filing your impressions.
I am not really sure why the Facebook thing should bother me. They already have my info since I have an account. I rarely look at Facebook so the ads and misinformation therein I don’t really see.
That’s not going to last for long. Messenger integration is coming, and I’d bet good money they’re going to be injecting ads there, if not the home page.
Hard pass on the Facebookification of VR. There’s a reason Quest 2 is so cheap.
schurem
4121
Amen. Oculus and Facebook can fuck right off. I blame facebook for trump. And that oculus founder dude, luckey, was a self-identifying alt-righter. Fuck that. No way am I ever giving those fuckers a single cent, not even a mouseclick. Yech.
Well, I post on this message board and email. That’s about 99% of my social media communication. I don’t use Messenger except on the rare occasion when I want to message someone on FB, which is maybe once or twice a year.
I don’t even text much with my phone. I don’t really feel like I’m missing out on much. I grew up when walking out the door at home meant no one could contact me unless they were physically near me. I don’t mind that. It’s peaceful.
My point being, if you want to chat with an Oculus friend, for example to set up a gaming session, it’s going to be via Messenger, and it’s going to have ads. If you’re only playing single player stuff, you might be OK, though I wouldn’t bet on it.
Tim_N
4124
Wait, Messenger has ads? I’ve been using it to talk to some people and I can’t recall ever seeing an ad on it, or have I already been tricked into subconsciously absorbing advertising?
Also the AI acceleration improvements … 11x!
Yeah it absolutely does not have ads on my Android, nor on the PC browser tab I keep open for it.
TurinTur
4126
Don’t mind them, they have to convince themselves how surely there is a hidden trick into all this, how “soon enough” they will turn the device into an ad hellscape where they are injected into your retina, which is why you shouldn’t buy a product from them.
Never mind that maybe they are including Messenger because IT IS a good feature to have, to be able to send a quick message to people without having to remove the headset is useful, and any store/platform have a chat feature to speak with your contacts. Why would they develop a chat from zero instead of reusing the code they have? Hell they already have an Android version, the same OS used for the Quest.
There’s already a messaging feature in Oculus. They’ve said they’re going to replace it with Messenger. And if you really think they’re not going to monetise it, I’d say you’re being naive. VR is not going to make the sort of money Facebook cares about without much more aggressive monetisation.
Not sure this is VR or even useful to anyone. But it’s cool.
If I have to use Messenger to message someone for a game, which seems unlikely for me, but I guess you never know, then that is what I will use. If it becomes ad-laden and a chore and makes me want to quit using Messenger, I probably will quit! There will be competing products.
My guess is they won’t do this. Blizzard could have with WoW but didn’t. Even a simple, once a day ad before starting a WoW session they didn’t do. They could have run millions a day and made money, but they didn’t.
My guess is Facebook is hoping that their VR will grab people and keep them playing, and eventually migrate many to some VR version of Facebook. Maybe they do a VR version of Twitch. Maybe every gaming clan gets a free VR room with ad posters on the wall.
I have been selling my eyeballs for free TV since I was a kid. I don’t mind selling them for a cool gaming experience.
Matt_W
4130
I think that’s a sand table with some sort of scanner that measures the level of it, then generates and projects contour lines
If it worked in reverse it would be cool at least. Like an instant deformable 3D printer or something.
[ed]
It could be useful for miniatures wargames more or less as-is.
The difference is Facebook is an advertising company. That’s what they know h ow to do - turn user engagement into advertising inventory. I agree they’ll probably start with the more social spaces first, but I can’t imagine it staying that way for long. Also, this is the official Oculus FAQ on the question, posted after the recent Facebook account stuff was announced.
That’s about as blatant a non-denial denial as you can possibly imagine. “Are you going to eat me, Cat?” “I’m not currently eating you, Mouse.”
That has to be the one reason they bought Oculus.
TurinTur
4134
Yes, that’s their main business. That doesn’t mean they cannot diversify. Into hardware and paid software, for example. Which is what VR is. Their main venue is advertising because that’s the main way anyone can earn money with a website. But it isn’t the case when you are taking 30% of software sales in a platform you own.
Maybe they can develop a console.
TurinTur
4136
They did. They are releasing now their second one.
