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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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

That's a llllottt of fancy ketchups

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!