I think you missed the actual answer. There is a near future sci-fi book called Rainbows End written by a computer science professor 15 years ago (and that predicted a lot of stuff, like... cryptocurrency) that has an answer for this.

What will be the real "VR metaverse" for most consumers is the one that maps to reality. The AR metaverse. Being able to visit people in real life in real locations, virtually: augmented reality. Where the virtual reality part of that is a small extra side bit for the dedicated people.

I agree with this. I'm just saying in my opinion, with our current tech, VR and the Metaverse isn't something to be ignored. AR can definitely be bigger but it's important to remember that thousands of knowledge workers have begun their career never interacting with another person in a workplace.

While there used to always be soft pressure to structure your life in the real world, with work and school online, folks who otherwise would be pressured to interact offline might now find interaction online to be just as fulfilling. Or at least equally fulfilling for things like work while saving quality, offline time for friends.

But none of that looks like an excuse for VR to exist. That generation of remote first, they would be less interested in an hmd-based simulation of a meeting room, not more interested. They want a good camera, to be a better face on a screen, not better screens on their faces.

Of course and they are doing this, there's huge demand for nicer cameras, ring lights, backlights, etc for upcoming streamers and influencers. But this isn't a zero-sum game. It's not like we have to Zoom every hour of our work lives. Startups like Gather Town are predicated on finding a permanent, but not total, place in the future of remote work. If my company pays for a subscription to Minecraft For Work (TM) so that we can have remote tech talks or remote social events on it, then there's value, even if it's only used a couple hours per week by per team at a large company.

This is the exact same proposition that Second Life had, 15 years ago. Cross-continental teams can 'meet' in a shared virtual space and it'll be just like you're there! And after all the hype ... it just wasn't something that people did.

I know there are headsets now, maybe it will go differently. Maybe not.

Not being in Gen-Z, perhaps I don't get it.

But having seen virtual worlds come and go multiple times, I'm going to assume that it's another hype cycle until there's compelling evidence to the contrary.

Agreed.

You might as well not be a person if you live in a virtual world...necessities like money and basic human needs mean people outgrow their fantasy world, and their fantasy games. Moves like this cause fragmentation, such that there is no one virtual world.

As your userbase gradually dwindles to nothing...they grow up and have lives. Or don't, and are usually characterized by low paying jobs, poor health.

Ofc not every low paid worker is there by choice, and some are born disabled, but on average these games are a cause of their plight.