Meta Avatars Store

[Codex Alpha]

I think this could really catch on though - I'm so into this amazing look, and my 'foot is broken, need medical strap boots' heavy duty dance sandals. Fanny packs are cool too.

[Love Zhaoying]

Just now, Codex Alpha said:

I think this could really catch on though - I'm so into this amazing look, and my 'foot is broken, need medical strap boots' heavy duty dance sandals. Fanny packs are cool too.

Wait, sarcasm?  

[Nalates Urriah]

I am curious that the trans-human aspects of Meta's efforts haven't come up in this thread. The idea of human-cyborg hybrids is big in the WEF and green circles. The initial step is getting people into virtual worlds.

I keep hearing that Facebook/Meta is pouring ALL their profits into building their virtual world. If you own their stock, does that move you to buy more or sell? And what bring you to your conclusions?

If Meta is actually pouring that kind of money into their development, how will the Lab keep up?

Earlier I complained about the hassles of wearing a VR headset. I may be a minority but I think that is a HUGE obstacle to VR adoption. Especially extended use VR. What will Meta's solution to that problem be? Zucker seems to buy into the trans-human ideology. So will Meta head in the direction of a connection system along the line of the Matix movies?

Would you accept a chip implant that could take over your optical senses? Or your other senses? (And of course that is going to get kinky.) That is what is portrayed in the Matrix movie. The movie Surrogates with Bruce Willis portrays a less drastic sensory control idea, which likely is more like what Zuckerberg is working on. I would be interested in the Surrogates version of VR. But the main drama in Surrogates is the system is hacked to murder people while in VR.

If people can hack the US Pentagon... why would anyone think a cybernetic implant couldn't be hacked?

Edited June 24, 2022 by Nalates Urriah

[Ayashe Ninetails]

6 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Would you accept a chip implant that could take over your optical senses?

Yes. Not from Meta, of course.

But we're nowhere near that level, so I have no hope of seeing that happen in my lifetime.

I remember a Wired Magazine article from many years ago where cybernetic implants were used to help a man regain his sight. Fascinating read. If anything, we'll see more development of that in medicine and healthcare far far far before we get to recreational brain augmentations and body enhancements.

[Ardy Lay]

43 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Would you accept a chip implant that could take over your optical senses? Or your other senses? (And of course that is going to get kinky.) That is what is portrayed in the Matrix movie. The movie Surrogates with Bruce Willis portrays a less drastic sensory control idea, which likely is more like what Zuckerberg is working on. I would be interested in the Surrogates version of VR. But the main drama in Surrogates is the system is hacked to murder people while in VR.

The Matrix version wasn't installed by humans and I think it was way too invasive for us to manage.  The mortality rate was very high too.

I haven't seen Surrogates.

I have seen Avatar.  The system used there seemed to be much less invasive, was designed to protect the user during usage and didn't kill many users.  They had both simulations and simulacrum control methods in it, which could be useful.  But that has to be very expensive.

Wow.  This is the only time that I have seen Mark Zuckerberg actually look alive, normal and happy.  He must really dig the VR stuff because he lit up like a child on Christmas during the presentation he gave on it.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Ardy Lay

[animats]

There's a philosophical point - are you your avatar, or are you puppeteering your avatar? This ties in with the uncanny valley problem.

More immersive systems tend to move closer to "you are your avatar". Luca Grabacr, with her Virtual Existence Society, used to promote the idea that you are your avatar in SL. She pushed for cleaner screens and more immersive camera viewpoints. In SL mouselook, your field of view is too small. If you widen it, the  spherical distortion is too annoying.

One solution to the field of view problem. Two years ago, these were exotic, but they're becoming cheaper. They're half of a 4K TV panel, and as 4K TV goes mainstream, these get cheaper.

Field of view is a real issue for immersion. The smaller the screen, the worse it gets. SL on a phone would not be very immersive. More like a Zoom call.

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

They look like toons from the FlyFF game I played for about 6 months years ago.

Sadly some FBers are not aware of SL or LL and they think Yuck invented the metaverse. I was showing SL to some people at my RL bar and they say "Wow, someone stole Meta's idea." I tell them about the Lab and SL being around for 2 decades their mouth hits the floor!  And they're shock the characters have legs!

We used to simulcast SL on the TVs when my man DJed or some live performers played when I had my in world club.

[Elle74 Zaftig]

Ugly AF, they're not even chibi cute. Just...yeah, no thanks!

[Jennifer Boyle]

Considering the stage of development and the speed with which it is progressing, how long will it take those avatars to surpass SL avatars?

Looks like a wake-up call for LL to me.

[Odaks]

8 hours ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

"Wow, someone stole Meta's idea."

But they read it on Facebook; it must be true!

[Silent Mistwalker]

On 6/23/2022 at 2:05 PM, animats said:

Now, with legs! Facebook/Meta announcement.

What's amusing is their approach to "branding" - terrible designs with famous brand names on them.

"We know that many of you want to more fully represent yourselves and your interests by decking out your avatars with clothing from some of the world’s leading brands. When the Meta Avatars Store starts rolling out this week, we’ll offer digital outfits from Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Browne, three of the world’s most iconic fashion brands."

Until 2021, Linden Lab had almost the only good avatar clothing system around. Now more systems are adding layered clothing. MetaHuman, MetaTailor, Roblox, etc. A standards organization is forming. Most of the major players are on board: Epic, Unity, NVidia, Microsoft, Autodesk, etc. Linden Lab is not listed.

I feel sorry for the guys. They all have to look like Musk.

Or is that Zuck? Sometimes I can't tell them apart.

Edited June 25, 2022 by Silent Mistwalker

[Destiny91]

Those are terrible, but lets remeber how our avatars looked like when we started SL. Unfortunately Marketing can sell everything and they have deals with serious brands. Second life had them too, but over the years and the change of hands they have disappeared. 

They made creators disappear aswell with the raises in marketplace commission and in general they forgot that second life in his prime was created by its residents bacause they could build in the game. Yeap, I also believe that mesh ruined some aspects of SL because suddenly you had to go offworld to build them and pay to upload them. 

I dont know what can be done, I feel they dont promote SL anymore, and the big companies are going to subotage it even more now that big profits are on the table. 

I live off SL 11 years now, here is my bussiness and I feel dissapointed that this CEO doesnt support us.

[ValKalAstra]

It's probably to limit "Adult" appeal. While you will always get people that look at that and discover their latest kink, on average you're going to get a lot less of those.

Especially with how many eyes are on Facebook, many of them actively holding a noose with glee, it seems like a conscious decision to get as far away from what happens over here on a normal day.

My memory is foggy but wasn't that also the reason these originally had no legs?

[Jennifer Boyle]

4 hours ago, ValKalAstra said:

My memory is foggy but wasn't that also the reason these originally had no legs?

It was rumored to be.

They aren't fools. Legless avatars were a mistake. They quickly recognized that and corrected it. They will keep doing  that.

[Rowan Amore]

10 hours ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

I feel sorry for the guys. They all have to look like Musk.

Or is that Zuck? Sometimes I can't tell them apart.

The males look like Zuck and the females, with a haircut, look like Musk, IMO

[Luna Bliss]

4 hours ago, ValKalAstra said:

It's probably to limit "Adult" appeal. While you will always get people that look at that and discover their latest kink, on average you're going to get a lot less of those.

Especially with how many eyes are on Facebook, many of them actively holding a noose with glee, it seems like a conscious decision to get as far away from what happens over here on a normal day.

My memory is foggy but wasn't that also the reason these originally had no legs?

Well, they said it was difficult to get the legs to work right in VR. Could be partially true, but another reason might be to also limit the Adult stuff, as you pointed out.

If it's true it was difficult to get the legs to work right in VR we should praise Sansar's team, as the avatars were complex, it was VR, and the legs worked just fine several years ago!

[Silent Mistwalker]

1 hour ago, Rowan Amore said:

The males look like Zuck and the females, with a haircut, look like Musk, IMO

I was wondering who would pick up on that. 🤣

[AnthonyJoanne]

22 hours ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Would you accept a chip implant that could take over your optical senses? Or your other senses? (And of course that is going to get kinky.) That is what is portrayed in the Matrix movie.

I think I can best address this with a quote from Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age:

 

Quote

You could get a phantascopic system planted directly on your retinas, just as Bud's sound system lived on his eardrums. You could even get telæsthetics patched into your spinal column at various key vertebrae. But this was said to have its drawbacks: some concerns about long-term nerve damage, plus it was rumored that hackers for big media companies had figured out a way to get through the defenses that were built into such systems, and run junk advertisements in your peripheral vision (or even spang in the *****ing middle) all the time-even when your eyes were closed. Bud knew a guy like that who'd somehow gotten infected with a meme that ran advertisements for roach motels, in Hindi, superimposed on the bottom right-hand corner of his visual field, twenty-four hours a day, until the guy whacked himself.

 

I would NOT get any technology implanted if I could possibly avoid it.

 

 

 

[purrrkitten]

They know their metaverse thingy isn't going to take off, right?

[Nalates Urriah]

3 hours ago, purrrkitten said:

They know their metaverse thingy isn't going to take off, right?

No... I think they have high hopes for it.

Many of us consider this Meta verse an important component of the trans-human plan.

[missyrideout]

5 hours ago, purrrkitten said:

They know their metaverse thingy isn't going to take off, right?

"Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Unity, Epic Games, Sony and others have joined hands to build a Metaverse Standards Forum that aims to drive interoperability." If it's not going to take off, it's not going to take off in a big way.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/430188

 

 

 

[Arielle Popstar]

More importantly the WEF is backing the metaverse which brings in the political powers. I can't see this not becoming a thing if they have their fingers in it. https://www.weforum.org/topics/the-metaverse

[Persephone Emerald]

On 6/23/2022 at 2:05 PM, animats said:

Now, with legs! Facebook/Meta announcement.

What's amusing is their approach to "branding" - terrible designs with famous brand names on them.

"We know that many of you want to more fully represent yourselves and your interests by decking out your avatars with clothing from some of the world’s leading brands. When the Meta Avatars Store starts rolling out this week, we’ll offer digital outfits from Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Browne, three of the world’s most iconic fashion brands."

[snip]

I know how they can avoid Adult activities with these dolls. They need to have clear plastic innertubes around their hips.  Another alternative is to just make the the hip, butt and groin section invisible, but still keep the legs, so avatars can still go dancing or play virtual soccer/ football. 

[Kathrine Jansma]

On 6/24/2022 at 7:13 PM, Ayashe Ninetails said:

I remember a Wired Magazine article from many years ago where cybernetic implants were used to help a man regain his sight. Fascinating read

Hopefully its not the "Second Sight" thing. That had some quite dystopian/cyberpunkish aftermath already:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

The company went down and the patients are up for nasty surprises.

 

Edited June 26, 2022 by Kathrine Jansma
Better link for the story.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

3 minutes ago, Kathrine Jansma said:

Hopefully its not the "Second Sight" thing. That had some quite dystopian/cyberpunkish aftermath already:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

The company went down and the patients are up for nasty surprises.

 

Oh that's awful! But no, I don't think it was that one. I wonder if I could find it...Hmmmm...

Well darn, hit the Wired paywall after like 3 Google searches. 😒 And searching on the site itself returns like 4,000 articles, soooo...

It was a story yearrrrs ago, in the physical magazine, and it was the story of an individual person, so I don't think it was a very widespread tech at the time. He had wires implanted into his brain and the...battery? he had to lug around was pretty huge. Gah I can't find it. I couldn't even begin to guess what year it was, either.