According to Mark Zuckerberg, the ‘metaverse’ is ‘the next generation of the internet’ (Hern, 2021). He has even announced that Facebook will transition from a social media company to a metaverse company (Pills, 2024). Over the past few years, the metaverse has gained significant traction among major investors such as Alphabet and Tencent (Cui et al., 2022), which supports Zuckerberg’s vision for the metaverse. This has led to the creation of ‘Horizon Worlds’, a virtual reality platform where users can work, play, and socialise.
Horizon Worlds sounds like a promising step towards the immersive online world Mark Zuckerberg is envisioning. This has prompted other companies to experiment with similar concepts. For example, a Travis Scott concert was held in Fortnite, with over 12.3 million active users participating in the event (Statista, 2021). The potential applications also extend beyond the gaming industry, with the aim of creating global workplaces or using it for training simulations (Cui et al., 2022).
However, Horizon Worlds has yet to live up to the hype. There are a lot of negative comments, with many users saying that a lot of worlds seem boring and that the avatars look strange because they lack legs. Worst of all, it’s empty (Murray, 2022). Many users do not return after their first visit, indicating low user engagement. Therefore, we should ask ourselves: are we truly ready for a metaverse-centred future, or is it just another tech fad?
In my opinion, the Horizon World show reflects the potential and pitfalls of emerging technologies. The vision is compelling, but the timing is definitely not quite right yet. Currently, people do not feel incentivised to spend hours in a virtual world, and the affordability and user-friendliness of the hardware is suboptimal. At this stage if feels more like an innovation in search of its real-world purpose.
References:
Cui, H., Xu, Z., & Yao, C. (2022). Will the Metaverse Be the Future of the Internet? Advances in Social Science, Education And Humanities Research/Advances in Social Science, Education And Humanities Research. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220504.392
Hern, A. (2023, 21 mei). Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse vision is over. Can Apple save it? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/21/mark-zuckerbergs- metaverse-vision-is-over-can-apple-save- it#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20metaverse%20is%20a%20logical,in%20use%20for%20s ome%20time.%E2%80%9D
Murray, S. (2022, 16 oktober). Meta employee says Horizon Worlds is “Sad” and “Empty”, player count falls far short of targets. TheGamer. https://www.thegamer.com/meta-horizon- worlds-sad-empty/
Pilsl, A. (2021). Is the Metaverse the Future of the Internet? – BairesDev. (2021, 21 oktober). BairesDev. https://www.bairesdev.com/blog/is-the-metaverse-the-future-of-the- internet/
Statista.(2021). Number of Fornite players during Travis Scott’s live event 2020. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1097635/fortnite-travis-scott- players/?srsltid=AfmBOoqtbWMlMeyd-83BNaCeKuUWB_FnrVEkjeaVbYuGeo6lJC5WYflH
