Facebook Horizon Is Social VR Inspired By Second Life -- Which Seems to Be Making Some of Second Life's Key Mistakes

We saw some signs last February that this was coming and now it's here: Facebook just unveiled its new social VR world, called Horizon:

Starting with a bustling town square where people will meet and mingle, the Horizon experience then expands to an interconnected world where people can explore new places, play games, build communities, and even create their own new experiences.

Before stepping into Horizon for the first time, people will design their own avatars from an array of style and body options to ensure everyone can fully express their individuality. From there, magic-like portals—called telepods—will transport people from public spaces to new worlds filled with adventure and exploration. At first, people will hop into games and experiences built by Facebook, like Wing Strikers, a multiplayer aerial experience.

Go here to request early access. (If you have Oculus Rift or Oculus Quest, that is, but more on that later). If talk of Horizon's "telepods" eerily reminds you of Second Life's early "telehubs", and Horizon's staff being called "Locals" is reminiscent of Second Life users being called Residents, that's no surprise. There's a lot of Second Life's DNA in Oculus' VR efforts, which are driven in significant part by some early Linden Lab staff who joined Facebook/Oculus. (Facebook's acquisition of Oculus in the first place was led by Second Life's co-founder.)

And it looks appealing in many ways! For instance, the Pixar-like human avatars will likely appeal to a mass market. Their lack of legs may seem off-putting to virtual world veterans, but it's a solution to an uncomfortable problem: Very few people in the world are skilled at navigating a fully articulated avatar, let alone while trying to do that in VR.

At the same time -- and this may totally change with future updates -- I also spy some potential problems with Horizon that still stymie Second Life and keep it a niche product. For instance:

Lack of a fully contiguous, explorable game world with overarching meta goals and objectives. This is in large part what made Minecraft and Fortnite so huge -- not just that it is a shared virtual world, but a world that users can learn to "master" on a certain level. (With Fortnite, that goal being to become roughly proficient in Battle Royale gameplay; with Minecraft, to learn how to survive and defeat Creeps and other environmental threats.) Without this, Horizon users are likely to soon wonder, "Why am I here again?"

Only available on high-end hardware devices. In Horizon's case, Oculus Rift or Oculus Quest; in Second Life's case, it can only run well on a high-end PC.

I'm stunned by that lack of true cross-device functionality, especially with the Oculus install base still being so small.

"We missed several gambles," as an early Linden Lab staffer once told me, ruefully reflecting on Second Life's niche status. "We thought dedicated broadband would remain popular, but then people switched to WiFi. We thought people would stick with their powerful desktop PCs, but instead, they moved over to laptops. And then they switched to smartphones, which made things even harder." (As it happens, that Linden staffer is now working at... Oculus.) If Facebook is counting on Horizon to grow the Oculus userbase, I am happy to disabuse them of that notion.

But again, it's still early days, so we'll see if any updates change my initial take. I did ask a PR rep for Oculus if there were any plans to make Horizon playable beyond VR (i.e. for PC/Mac, iOS/Android), or -- following the path of SL's Linden Dollars -- there were plans to give Horizon an in-world currency system, like Facebook's Libra. (Which has its own profound problems.)

"We’ll have more to share around Horizon next year," was the only reply.

Comments

[Joey1058]

Actually, I'd be surprised if Horizon didn't use Libra as its currency. The last unofficial price I heard for the Quest was $400. I won't be trying Horizon anytime soon.

[Fizik Baskerville]

Anything that gets between you and the experience is a barrier. Vive La Second Life.

[Bork]

This article seems to imply that second life actually gives a shit about your PC specs. On my monster it runs at 20fps despite only using 7% CPU and 15-20% GPU unless I'm in an empty sim and uncap fps to let it get to 180 and suck down 60% GPU but it still can't use 100% the way a real modern game engine can.

[camilia fid3lis nee Patchouli Woollahra]

Bork:

You try finding a game from 2000 that still runs as intended. And if you want to floor the pedal that hard on your GPU and get ace performance... use Black Dragon like all the graphics nuts do on SL. That viewer breaks compatibility with basic legacy shaders just to try making a hash of SL's unoptimized content.

[sirhc desantis]

Well, I do like the little planes and as I knock out the odd vehicle for SL/OS I can see the appeal of avs with no legs. (Seriously, if I can walk around in SL it can't be all that difficult).
Apart from that? At least the little text admitting 'Not actual VR footage' is refreshingly honest.
So yep adds to the 'if I find the kit in a dumpster I might' list. Except its FB so nope. Satan sharpens skates level nope.

[Fionalein]

This will never fly. However I predict Suckerberg will outsmart Altberg in when to pull the PLUG...