the many faces of Mark Zuckerberg
If Meta’s vision of the metaverse slowly and continuously expanding, Mark Zuckerberg attracts more criticism online. Last week he announced that the virtual reality platform Horizon Worlds launched in France and Spain — Horizon Worlds is a free game which the company has spent nearly $10 billion developing to date. The announcement came with a virtual selfie that spotlighted the CEO’s avatar – expressionless and flat – before a few non-impressive, scale-less models of the Eiffel Tower and Sagrada Familia fell onto a green expanse. Twitter was bursting with reactions. ‘Come work for Meta, where the most brilliant technologists of the day have reached the graphical levels of 1995,’ an user said.
The negative reaction that followed was not a first for Mark. When Horizon Worlds first launched in the US and Canada in December 2021, the internet was similarly less than impressed. User avatars were rendered as rudimentary, floating torsos, reminiscent of an early 2000s video game, especially the Wii with its “mii” avatars that had at least legs. It wasn’t the aesthetic or standard you’d expect from a billionaire claiming to usher in the digital future.
This barrage of mocking social media disapproval led to a hasty follow-up just four days later, featuring a carefully updated version of Mark’s metaverse face with smiling eyes and rosy cheeks. The CEO adds: ‘Major updates to Horizon and avatar images are coming soon. I will share more on Connect. I also know that the photo I posted earlier this week was quite simple – it was taken very quickly to celebrate a launch.’ The dramatic difference in style and quality leaves you wondering what the metaverse should actually look like and what we can realistically expect.
images via Meta
a metaverse: precedents and expectations
By 2022, we have high expectations when it comes to CGI. In cinema, computer-generated images are so advanced that they are indistinguishable from reality. Video games can also display stunning, ultra-high-fidelity visuals. Of course, hi-fi graphics get buggier and harder to render when it comes to open-world and role-player games, especially virtual realities like in Horizon Worlds (to see here).
In early 2003, the game Second Life introduced a virtual world in which users could create unique identities and interact with each other live. Player avatars seemed clumsy and uncomfortable (see here). In 2017, the multiplayer game Fortnite was released with its vibrant, stylized graphics and customizable skins. In 2021, the updated NoPixel GTA V role-playing server is taking the internet by storm with its seemingly endless array of possibilities and highly customizable characters. To see the depth of the options, watch Twitch streamer xQc is making one of its GTA 5 RP characters.
what’s going on with the graphics?
When determining the success of these ‘metaverse’ multiplayer worlds, it is important to consider the number of users playing simultaneously, not just the graphical fidelity. As the number of players increases, the graphics tend to be of lower quality and more prone to glitches. Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode requires 100 players, while Sandbox Creative mode can only host 16 players per server. Meanwhile, the latest NoPixel server can host up to 250 users at a time — a huge improvement since 2019, when only 32 users were able to join.
What leaves the onlookers lost is that Mark Zuckerberg’s company doesn’t seem to sacrifice graphic fidelity for the number of players. In promoting his metaverse, Mark boasts that it will be occupied by hundreds of millions or even billions of users. However, these players will not occupy the same ‘world’, and since the launch in December 2021 in the US and Canada, Horizon Worlds can accommodate up to 20 people in one room. In February 2022 Meta claimed That Horizon Worlds and Horizon locations had a total monthly user base of 300,000 people, that users had built 10,000 worlds in the game.
Horizon Worlds launched in the US and Canada in 2021
experiencing the metaverse worlds of Mark Zuckerberg
When viewed through VR goggles, the environment in Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse appears choppy and bumpy. As in many virtual reality games, players’ hands are difficult to control and seem incredibly clunky while playing. Meanwhile, based on the players’ environmental settings, audio is a stream of voices, like a crowd talking about itself. There are modes of moderation, where players can democratically vote individuals out of the world if they harass or insult the group, and mods roaming open worlds can even personally hand out a warning or ban. Users must be over eighteen to enter this metaverse.
Like a Forbes contributor noted that the “metaverse” vision already exists and is enjoyed in the form of video games that have been wildly popular for years. Minecraft, GTA and even Roblox allow a community of players to socialize in a virtual world that can be endlessly sculpted and modified, but perhaps there is an untapped community of people who want to attend virtual business meetings like a floating torso. We eagerly look forward to the next round of updates as Horizon World presses further.
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