Attack of the Facebook

 Ok, so in an announcement made last week, Facebook is apparently dissolving the thin line that held back the full force of Facebook Inc from dominating over the Oculus division. It seems that any new Oculus setup will require a Facebook ID integration, and for those that are "grandfathered in" with strictly an Oculus ID, we are being given only until 2023 before we also will require a Facebook ID to use Oculus (or at least to use it without numerous 'restrictions'.)

To many customers (and developers) this is a big blow, one that they were holding out hope was NOT going to happen, but in retrospect it was probably inevitable. The data-mining, anti-privacy, sell your secrets, Facebook, now aims to steal as much of your VR data as they can to further increase their capital and control over the industry. It is sad... but there is hope. The people I've seen complaining and articles written since this announcement proves that people are not happy at all with this decision, and although the leash Facebook currently holds over VR, many are seemingly going to break free.

It may be true that Oculus is the best bang for your buck in terms of VR and that they are way ahead of the game with the Quest being a standalone wireless unit... but I imagine the other VR companies can absolutely use this news to their advantage, hopefully push forward the competition and (hopefully) have a viable, alternative option available by the time Oculus forces users to be a slave to their Facebook user agreements. C'mon VALVE!!

This whole thing certainly pains me a great deal, as The Rift CV1 was my first forray into VR, so that will always be a great memory. As stated, Oculus was able to put out high quality VR for affordable prices since they were able to make-up that money on the back end in so many ways, and I was happy being an Oculus loyalist, even though in the back of my mind the distaste of Facebook was definitely there... this announcement has forced my hand, and I will absolutely look into alternate options as my next headset. It's true I was in love with the Quest, being the wireless, standalone that it is, so I really hope another company can compete, even if it's a higher price, I'll do it... and if not, I may have to figure out how to do a fake facebook id... is that even possible? I guess I could have a fan page facebook for my music...? Things to consider indeed... oh 2020, what a year! What's next....?

VR Socializin'

 With some recent VR news that Oculus Venues (which is an exclusive Oculus app that allows users to view various entertainment with or without friends,) has been updated, or at least in beta, to include larger and more social spaces, settings, and the inclusion of new avatars... which many are leading to believe this is the beginning of Facebook Horizon getting itself ready to release and attempt to dominate the VR Social space.

 For those unaware, Facebook Horizons was announced late last year and it is Facebook's attempt to dominate the Social VR space currently occupied by apps such as VR Chat and Altspace VR. They certainly have the financial backing to put a lot of resources in this, and judging by the initial preview of this service, they have high hopes to make this your Facebook in VR, and to give users the ability to not only socialize but to create experiences, worlds and games. Very ambitious indeed.

 Lately, I have been pulled back into some of the Social VR experiences my self, doing a bit more in VR Chat for fun, and then I got pulled back into Altspace because it is more structured and... well mature I guess. Was actually just going in there because they had a new update which vastly expanded on a lot of things, mostly more personalized and better visualized avatars, and then looking for things to do I found myself in a Covid-19 discussion and thought some of the thoughts and opinions of those in the room were interesting. It really made me reevaluate the benefits of these VR social spaces, so I kept frequenting the Altspace event board looking for more events that would captivate me.

 There were a few very interesting Altspace events that drew me in, and just the other day someone actually had a Trump 2020 room/live watch party of one of his speeches. At the time, there were only about 7 people in attendance, but this is something I never even expected to see in VR, especially knowing the general audience, so I consider that a huge win. The room itself was like a stadium and on the big screen in the front was a video of the most recent rally/event that Pence and Trump were speaking at. The room was also decorated with tons of Trump posters and memes and I found it absolutely fascinating and inspiring. I will continue to be on the lookout for this room to pop up again!

 All in all, especially in these times with social distancing and people afraid to set foot outside, these VR spaces are very welcome and a lot of fun. 

VR Educatin'

 With school being on the forefront of many discussions lately, including within my own household as we are dealing with a fakedemic and a 5 year old who was supposed to be going into Kindergarten this year... I've been seeing stories popping up about VR Education... this was something I thought about a long while back that I just wanted to revisit... well, because i'm bored.

First I read a story about some teachers using Half Life: Alyx to teach students... although I don't know why, since there are plenty of dedicated VR classroom type experiences that aren't a Single Player game... (I didn't read the whole article) but still the concept fascinates me...

The basics of the VR Education concept, in my opinion anyway, is that it is a great way to replace learning from books... I still believe an actual teacher is still necessary to guide students on the path as to answer questions and make the knowledge digestable... but many subjects could benefits immensely from VR.

The biggest one that jumps out at me, and already has a good number of apps/experiences out there, would be History! Followed along by Science, Geography, and Social Studies... imaging that instead of reading about a historical event and trying to follow along paragraph after paragraph, you instead are AT that historical event... with the possibility of freezing time to explain details, answer questions, etc... it would be much more memorable than just reading through a book. 

Science and Geography as well, since these are largely visual and/or experimental subjects... have a VR lab with simulated chemicals, or take the class through outer space to take a closer look at the milky way... on the way back down to earth, fly over the continents and identify each of them.

The possibilities are truly endless... most, if not all subjects could benefit from VR... I just really like the History aspect and get kind of interested in thinking that students can actually travel with the pilgrims on the Mayflower, or watch the signing of The Constitution, or be in the crowd watching Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" Speech... again, this is stuff that would be truly memorable. 

The technology still has to catch up a bit... although The Quest is taking things in the right direction, since it is wireless and a bit easier to use and set-up than PCVR. The units will still need to get more powerful, lighter and cheaper... and those things aren't a matter of how, just a matter of when. I will say within a few years...10 at the most, VR headsets will be a part of the classroom... or they will BE the classroom... 

As It Continues...

 Ah, back to reality after a nice week at the beach. We haven't been to Rehoboth in 2 years, because we went to Disney last year, so it was great to return... although hampered a bit by all this covid bullshit... and yes, it's bullshit... when a pandemic virus has a survival rate of 99.96%... it's NOT a fuckin' pandemic... it's an election year virus, and a last ditch effort by the remaining liberal "powers that be" to push this crap on the public... and frighteningly enough, it's sort of working... Thankfully there were still a lot of people at the beach who I saw did not wear their mandatory muzzles, but there were still a lot of sheep who were... ugh... disgusting...

Anyway... back to work... at work... which sucks since our 'infrastructure' supports working from home, it should be our fuckin' choice if we want to come in the office or work from home, especially if we can get the same amount of shit done... of course bosses want to be bosses and have us within arms reach to belittle us for not performing at 100% efficiency. Oh well, whatever...

anything else I'm pissed at?? yes. yes there is.

Anyway... other things are going good, the podcast, the family... Jen's birthday is coming up this weekend, so gotta figure out something to do there... and trying my best to get into Big Brother since the new season (22) just started up.