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....?