UPDATED 16:17 EDT / FEBRUARY 22 2016

NEWS

Facebook wants to be the moon landing of virtual reality social media

A new era of computing awaits in 2016 with virtual reality (VR) technology finally coming to the hands of consumers. With its acquisition of Oculus VR in 2014, Facebook, Inc. looked at VR and saw a chance to become part of a technology that would change the face of social media, much like the space age had NASA plant a flag on the moon, Facebook wants to plant a flag in virtual reality.

To do this, Facebook has created a Social VR team with the intent to examine social uses of virtual reality.

“We’ve created a Social VR team at Facebook focused entirely on exploring the future of social interaction in VR,” says Facebook, recounting an announcement by Mark Zuckerberg at the Samsung Unpacked press conference. “This team will explore how people can connect and share using today’s VR technology, as well as long-term possibilities as VR evolves into an increasingly important computing platform.”

Virtual reality is coming. Movies such as Tron and eventually The Matrix set the stage for expecting amazing things from computers being able to reproduce reality with exceptional fidelity and for a long time but for years nothing came close to the fiction. This year reality is beginning to catch up with the first consumer-edition VR headsets with Facebook, Inc.’s Oculus Rift, Valve Corporation and HTC’s Vive and Sony Corporation’s PlayStation VR. All of these headsets will launch this year.

Oculus Rift Headed to the Consumer

Virtual reality rigs may make people look silly; but the things they get to see and the people they meet will change the industry; image via The Guardian

Pre-orders have already started for two of the largest VR rigs to come to market: the Oculus Rift price tag is at $599 and the HTC Vive will be $799. Not to mention that between Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR it’s already possible for people to turn their smartphones into VR headsets, 2016 already has enough VR potential to give millions of chatters a window into virtual reality.

Every smartphone and VR rig is another screen for Facebook to provide a social app. Each one a chance for the social media giant to shape the future of virtual reality.

Why is Facebook all-in when it comes to VR technology?

When Facebook bought Oculus the head-scratching began. What would a company best known for running a massive social media empire want with virtual reality?

The answer comes in the form of understanding that immersive experiences offer a whole new way to interact with and connect to other people in a way that is only dreamed of in science fiction. Already massively multiplayer online (MMO) video games (like World of Warcraft and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) provide alternate-reality socialization for millions of players in 3D worlds on 2D screens. Chat programs such as Second Life, IMVU and Habbo Hotel are even more examples of where Facebook could expand not to mention the social powerhouse that is Disney Infinity.

People love the prospect of costuming themselves as an avatar (an alternate self for an alternate reality) to commune with friends and strangers from the safety of their own living room. Already video games and immersive chat rooms do this, but not to the profound level of effect that virtual reality can.

eve-valkyrie-screenshot

Virtual reality isn’t just space ships and video games–it extends into a multitude of human social efforts from education to buisness collaboration. Facebook clearly wants to tap into that industry as it opens its eyes. Image credit: CCP Games EVE:Valkyrie screenshot from pre-alpha footage 

In The Proteus Paradox, academic researcher and senior research scientist Nick Yee outlined that virtual worlds change how people behave, but in the end recapitulate comfortable roles (and in essence don’t change people much). However, much of this research regards the new growth of MMO and multiplayer games since the 1990s, which have since seen a lull in innovation—but VR is poised to change all that.

The phenomena of virtual worlds opens opportunities for people to be different, to separate themselves from their external reality, to travel in space they otherwise could not visit. As an educational and business medium, virtual spaces provide a workspace for collaboration without the need for supporting physical spaces (or even physical proximity). These elements make VR a breakthrough for conferencing minds from across the world and putting them into the same “space.” Be that to play a game (and bring down a terrifying dragon for entertainment) or to design the next innovation in architecture with a team of minds separated by oceans.

The first fully-VR MMO game or chat room that attracts a critical mass audience may become the next industry World of Warcraft—a VR-industry moon to plant a flag in–providing a clarion beacon that sets the yardstick for future VR experiences. Facebook wants to be there first by delivering a social experience in VR and the hardware to allow it to happen.

Featured image credit: Courtesy of Facebook, Inc.

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