Facebook purchases Oculus VR

[Echo Black]

Unexpected to say the least

[crunchy superman]

aaaaaand now I have pretty much no interest in this.

[Kalki]

Is Valve still backing this?

No Minecraft for Oculus: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/25/n...ook-minecraft/

Also kinda funny about Carmack going from Zenimax to Facebook. Tweets:

For the record, I am coding right now, just like I was last week.I expect the FB deal will avoid several embarrassing scaling crisis for VR.

I have a deep respect for the technical scale that FB operates at. The cyberspace we want for VR will be at this scale.

I suppose I will get a FB account now, so that may lead to some writing a little longer than tweet length...

[Damien_Azreal]

So... possibly the (IMO) most annoying and worthless website out there bought a product that I personally had no interest in, but one they didn't really have any point in buying.

Okay.
Well, glad I wasn't all YAY for Oculus. But, sucks for people that did.
Sorry, Facebook is a virus. And one that needs to be burnt from the world.

[KO Gilligan]

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

So... possibly the (IMO) most annoying and worthless website out there bought a product that I personally had no interest in, but one they didn't really have any point in buying.

Okay.
Well, glad I wasn't all YAY for Oculus. But, sucks for people that did.
Sorry, Facebook is a virus. And one that needs to be burnt from the world.

Worthless?

Nearly every producer and supplier of goods and services in the US, and much of the rest of the world, has bankrolled Facebook and it's survival in some form, for the foreseeable remainder of your life.

Facebook, the company, and it's name, are not going anywhere for at least the next several years. You might as well call McDonalds a virus.

There's a little bit of an identity crisis going on regarding smart phone social networking integration into our existence, and a lot of people still see a "virtual" world existence as a game changer...
and that's what this is about. I think they want to give the experience a new feel, but Facebook has consistently had the edge over the instagrams and twitters and linkedins of the world, so don't expect advertising and consumer enterprises to jump ship anytime soon, or expect any earthshattering changes to the Facebook role.

- but most importantly, looking at it from the perspective of what will fill the need in it's place, do you see an alternative on the horizon? There is nothing.

[Damien_Azreal]

McDonalds is a virus. But, then again, I really hate fast food.

And why does it matter? Why is it if I post that I dislike something you feel some need to try and explain to me why I'm wrong?
I. Hate. Facebook. I hated MySpace as well. The only reason I even have a Facebook is because my wife made it for me... I don't even know what the damn password to it is.

Yes, it's popular. Yes millions of people use it to advertise and push their crap. I still think it's a horrible site and does nothing but show what is wrong with people.

[KO Gilligan]

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

Why is it if I post that I dislike something you feel some need to try and explain to me why I'm wrong?

Because I didn't post that you were wrong in disliking it.

Your characterization of stuff often reaches beyond your personal preferences and reads like a very pointed critique. Those evaluations have well missed the mark from where I sit. Nothing to do with your personal preferences though... really. Facebook has huge value in the real world... and it's not going anywhere

I'm not a big fan of Facebook either. There is about a dozen of my family members who are pretty active on it, so I tolerate it's existence enough to throw up a few posts, but my account might be inactive more than not. I also don't like cottage cheese. There's probably a few other things too.

But perhaps you should be a little more abstract if my post really has you wondering why I would disagree with you about stuff you don't like.

Maybe you think I should overlook your feelings about how bad something is for all of us, even when you come off as if you are speaking for me - or my/our best interests. Afterall - it's just "an opinion"

Well, I suppose I'm just amused at the rants where these things should be brought to justice in a fiery death. You have quite a few things you want to go down in a ball of flames - and, to you, it's for good reason. I personally save that type of sentiment for Japanese whalers and such, but as you say, to each his own.
.

[Damien_Azreal]

There are tons of things that have an impact in the world, that aren't going anywhere... that I wish went away. Doesn't mean anything other then I dislike it.
Yes, my personal opinion is my own critique against Facebook and other such sites. Included would be Twitter as well.

Just because I dislike something doesn't mean it needs to die. That would be a very stupid and short sighted way of viewing life. 'I hate this, so it needs to die!'... good lord.
Yes, I said it needs to "burnt from this world"... but only to add emphasis to my dislike to the site.
I fully understand plenty of other people really like the site. Doesn't mean they should do without something they like just because I'm not a fan.
Facebook only stands out to me because it's something I find annoying as I get asked a lot, "What's your Facebook?", "You gonna message me on Facebook?"... and on and on.
It's in the same boat as cell phones. I don't have one. I don't want one... and as long as I can help it, I will never have one.
Doesn't mean everyone should do without a cell phone just because I hate them.

[KO Gilligan]

I'm really trying to understand the tie-in for such big, goofy looking, clunky technology to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It needs to be clunky and claustrophobic because the tech isn't any where near acceptable otherwise, and it's as non-portable as a gaming tower. Not only that, people criticize Google glass for being an unwelcomed distraction - in the best case - if it does become popular, and everyone excuses themselves from actually being present for their responsibilities in this world, their toddlers will go climbing over the pool fence, their duties will go undone, or their managers will not be managing, and it'll be pretty easy to lose all your worldly trinkets as people just go walking off with them while you are elsewhere...

Timothy Leary, the famous acid dropping guru of the 60's was all into this VR stuff in the 90's. With no design or technical expertise at all, he considered himself a visionary of where social interaction was going into a virtual world. I think Zuckerberg is caught up in his own ego like Leary. Let's face it - being a visionary about living in a VR World doesn't cut it with digital tech gadgets. There's no way to predict the future for the devices, or their consumer acceptance. Then, even if you do great, China will come popping on the scene next year with something that will rob you of any chance of making money off of an idea even if you can shrink that big ugly box down a bit.

[john_doe2]

I would imagine that that headset would be very hard on your eyes. Having a screen so close to your face can't be good for your eyes.

[Crosma]

Originally Posted by john_doe2

I would imagine that that headset would be very hard on your eyes. Having a screen so close to your face can't be good for your eyes.

Quoth Oculus Rift FAQ, "With the Oculus Rift, your eyes are actually focused and converged in the distance at all times. It’s a pretty neat optical feature."

Not that neat. It still means that you cannot manually focus or rotate your eyeballs, which are essential features of eyes.

They claim that blankly staring into the middle-distance for hours on end is better for your eyes than moving your eyes around to look at a monitor. Which just sounds like a lie (sorry, marketing) to me. If it does take off, we'll be saying, "that kid's got Oculus-Rift-vision", because they've been trained to always track with their head and never with their eyeballs.

So at best it's about as realistic as watching a 3D movie, i.e. not particularly. Kind of a fun gimmick though. I give them a C+ for effort.

[Thriller]

Its probably fine; the good bet is that Facebook will fade. Replaced by another set of 1s and 0s. I would say chances are really small the coming generations are facebookers, and even smaller that they are not doing the very same thing (and beyond) on something with a different name.

However proud it makes us, Facebook is our thing, its how our generation does things. And however dissapointed it makes us, the concept is probably human and wont stop with our generation. I like the McDonalds comparison. It is just as embarrasing and just as human.

As for Facebook buying Oculus, whats really the problems with that?
I dont know why I would care. It is an interesting product that I look forward to give a try, what has changed with FB as owners?

[KO Gilligan]

Just remember what happened to Navin Johnson and the Opti-Grab glasses invention. 10 million people complained they were made cross-eyed by the device and sued. Navin became poor and was living on the streets.

[Thriller]

Originally Posted by KO Gilligan

Just remember what happened to Navin Johnson and the Opti-Grab glasses invention. 10 million people complained they were made cross-eyed by the device and sued. Navin became poor and was living on the streets.

Oh, definitely. I would call any technology like this "extremely dangerous until proven safe". Other people will be my lab rats, and they will do so by free will. Its already widely tested for shorter use, however.

[Echo Black]

The saga continues:

Today in the zany world of gaming news, John Carmack is a dirty rotten scoundrel – that is, if you subscribe to Bethesda parent company Zenimax’s side of the story. The Elder Scrolls and Fallout publisher has laid claim to Oculus-related tech/code Carmack whipped up while still under Zenimax’s umbrella at Doom dev id Software. Oculus and Carmack, of course, think it’s a load of hogwash, but that hasn’t stopped Zenimax from threatening to sue if Oculus doesn’t sign on to some sort of licensing agreement.

[Echo Black]

Zenimax is super mad

"ZeniMax Media Inc. and its subsidiary, id Software LLC, filed suit today against Oculus VR, Inc. and its founder, Palmer Luckey, for illegally misappropriating ZeniMax trade secrets relating to virtual reality technology, and infringing ZeniMax copyrights and trademarks."

Wow, id/Zenimax are still butthurt. Guess they regret scaring Carmack away with their bullshit