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Do we think it's odd that despite Facebook driving Oculus, that it's not a stronger social platform?

HoIIywood
Heroic Explorer
I almost didn't buy a Rift because I loathe Zuckerberg and everything he is, has done and ever will do. 

Never the less, there was one thing I expected that would destroy the Rift and that was some forced Facebook integration that stripped you of any privacy and turned the Rift into some AR platform instead of VR, constantly tied to Facebook whether you liked it or not.

And despite my caution with strangers on the internet, I do find it a bit unsettling that after several years in development, the Home program has such little communication methods.

Has anyone tied their Oculus account to their Facebook account? Is it more streamlined that way - is that what they are trying to do - leave the social aspect of Home so spartan that in frustration we use Facebook with live notifications turned on, in order to talk to one another?

EDIT: Interesting ...I typed 'facebook' for a tag and before I could finish it auto completed 'Oculus Face'  hmm what is Oculus Face I wonder...maybe it's code speak for Facebook integration, or maybe it's this.. ..




25 REPLIES 25

falken76
Expert Consultant
I thought they would do something with social and I thought that maybe that is what avatars was all about, but I'm not really surprised by where things are today.  It all seems so new still.  To me at least.  And you are correct, that ladies man with the ring on his face in your picture has what is referred to as Oculus Face.  Looks like he's trying to squeeze into the HMD with that bulbous head of his, so I'm certainly not surprised he has a mark on his face.  Hopefully they go with something more like PSVRs design so people with large heads can play more comfortably.

Thane_
Heroic Explorer
For $800, this is a very specific market for awhile. They haven't even figured out games. Until Alien Isolation or Metro 2033 or Dead Space or Skyrim comes out for VR we should all just stare silently at Oculus with a big WTF look on our faces.

HoIIywood
Heroic Explorer
Salt in the wound there is that they had titles such as Alien Isolation working previously. I'm perplexed about Sega's stance on updating the code for CV1's runtime. Surely it's not that different and yet they keep toying with the idea like it's some big decision about time, money and resources. 

Though you touch on a larger point that I made elsewhere, that too many people are expecting they could plop on the HMD and use it for (if nothing else at least) head tracking in their favorite games. Skyrim headtracking, yes please! 

Doesn't work that way sadly without third party tools such as Vorpx/Tridef. Which in itself would not be a big deal, except it is a big deal. It's a fairly costly software suite that is not backed by a large company with valuable stock, nor is it 100% effective even in titles it claims to support.

So what we're left with is a handful of Home games, a few multiplayer worthy and then whatever we can play on Steam VR when Steam VR will let us play them without crashing or not working.

Now we keep hearing people say it's early days for Home, though is it? This must have been a goal at least half way into the company's public trading life span, and even before that in the conceptual stages. 

I could excuse them not having AAA titles on the store at launch, but they knew this would happen. Surely (especially with Facebook backing them, and possibly even demanding it..) one aspect they should have targeted first was social integration and activity so if nothing else we could sit around chewing the guff and slagging off Oculus for not having more games to play!


kzintzi
Trustee

Thane_ said:

For $800, this is a very specific market for awhile. They haven't even figured out games. Until Alien Isolation or Metro 2033 or Dead Space or Skyrim comes out for VR we should all just stare silently at Oculus with a big WTF look on our faces.



why?? Oculus already poured millions into the gaming industry to kickstart devs and decent games, which they wouldn't have been able to do if Facebook weren't backing them.

any forming industry has a logarithmic uptake - MP3 players were a "hahahah you're listening to what? why? CD's are cheap.." for years until all of a sudden everyone had one over a period of 6 months. you can pick a tech and see the same issue with takeup and support by the "big players".

Oculus dumped a whackload of cash into the gaming industry to kickstart the process by a couple of years. Steam, HTC, are doing the same thing, and Sony have made games for years..

you're also talking about a massive shift in how games are made/presented on a platform that's not even 12 months old.. quite frankly I'm surprised that we have the awesome games we do have and the new titles coming over next year look amazing. plus Elite Dangerous :smile:

Though you are more than slightly incoherent, I agree with you Madam,
a plum is a terrible thing to do to a nostril.

Dreamwriter
Rising Star
Facebook isn't driving it, though, is the trick. They said Oculus would be managing itself for at least 3 years as a separate company, using Facebook resources. Facebook in fact is working on social content as if they were a third-party Oculus developer - Facebook's demo at Oculus Connect 3 was nothing like the social things Oculus themselves showed, with the Oculus avatar system being quite different from Facebook's avatar system.

kevink808
Superstar
Zuck is the man. He thanks you for your support.  And Oculus Rift is here to stay and will probably win this format war thanks to Big Brother's deeper pockets.  That's one of the main reasons I chose Rift over Vive. Plus I own FB shares. 🙂
Rift-S, Quest 128GB, GO 64GB.

Thane_
Heroic Explorer
@Kizinzi The reason i feel that way is that i don't need a "massive shift" in how games are made/presented to enjoy VR and these types of games coming out for the VR headsets aren't types of games nor subject matter i'm interested in playing. I basically want a Doom 3 VR mod level support for games i already play or missed, and i've missed many along the way. The Penumbra mod was made by a college student in his spare time and i would pay for it and i would certainly pay $20+ for a Skyrim VR mod with sword and bow handtracking, or Dead Space mod, or Alien Isolation, Mirrors Edge, Witcher, etc. I'm already a happy 3D gamer on my 46" 3DTV monitor replacement though, but i view VR as 3D plus headtracking (and now handtracking). The things i want to do don't require massive changes, but more like the changes the average decent quality game mod offers.

But i think that fact that i already know what i want is a factor here. I'm just waiting for things to happen. Lots of people i see almost seem to either not know what they want and perhaps like a much wider variety of things.

Arock387
Heroic Explorer
I'm seriously surprised there isn't a way to facebook in VR!  I assumed before launch if not ready at launch.  Actually pretty crazy its not out yet

Comic_Book_Guy
Superstar

Thane_ said:

For $800, this is a very specific market for awhile. They haven't even figured out games. Until Alien Isolation or Metro 2033 or Dead Space or Skyrim comes out for VR we should all just stare silently at Oculus with a big WTF look on our faces.


What...are you talking about?