Mark Zuckerberg posted a screenshot to celebrate the roll-out of Horizon Worlds in Spain and France, but the selfie-styled picture saw the internet poking fun at the Meta boss.
META’s chief executive loves giving the internet easy opportunities for jokes at his expense.
There’s nothing wrong with people heckling one the world’s most powerful figures, but Mark Zuckerberg’s gaffes may distract from his vision’s more pressing problems.
Last week, Meta figurehead and popular punching bag for the terminally online Zuckerberg posted a screenshot to celebrate the roll-out of Horizon Worlds in Spain and France.
The selfie-styled picture sees Zuckerberg’s avatar in Horizon Worlds standing in front of 3D models of the Eiffel Tower and a (somewhat unconvincing) Basílica de la Sagrada Família.
It’s unsurprising that the internet found plenty of opportunities for parody – the simulated selfie is just odd. It’s plainly a couple of basic 3D models dropped into one of Horizon World’s stock environments, meant to symbolise France and Spain.
When combined with the selfie format, uncanny avatar and lifeless environment, it creates a mismatched message sitting somewhere between corporate marketing and personal relatability while achieving neither.
After the internet took turns remixing the screenshot and posting predictable anti-Zuck commentary, Zuckerberg made a follow-up Instagram post addressing some of the criticism.
He states that he knows the picture he posted was pretty “basic”, but that it was taken quickly for the launch.
The post included pictures of a much-improved Mark avatar and a far more compelling and detailed stone courtyard, addressing the popular criticism of Horizon World’s underwhelming graphics. Zuckerberg reassures us that its engine is capable of much more – even on the limited processing capacity of current VR headsets.
Despite the internet’s animosity towards Zuckerberg, it’s somewhat comforting to see posts from a tech giant chief executive that quite clearly haven’t been churned out or double-checked by a calculating marketing team.
And while The Zuck and his currently half-baked services create many openings for derision, it may be important to keep focused on the end goal. Not for the sake of Zuckerberg’s dignity, but to make sure Meta’s ambitious vision of an all-encompassing platform for communication, commerce and fun doesn’t creep up on us.
Where Horison World’s graphics are right now is mostly irrelevant. Decades of video game industry success means that the tech and talent for digital art and 3D modelling are already in place, and Meta has demonstrated its willingness to throw incredible sums of money at its new long-term vision.
It also bears mention that the closest we currently have to a “metaverse” is the wildly successful “game” Roblox, which boasts 50 million active users, although it would be more accurate to describe it as a platform where people can build games and experiences. All this while using graphics that resemble LEGO figures and a design student’s first 3D modelling project.
The point is – despite technically being a full public release, Horison Worlds is very clearly in its development infancy. The current purpose of its release is to attract early adopters who will eventually populate the space with user-generated content to bring in average users. Details like graphics will improve quickly.
But at a time when Google owns the majority of Android’s 70% market share, and Apple is heavily consolidating its power over advertising in the 27% occupied by iOS, we should have more fundamental criticisms of another tech giant with bold plans to insert itself as the universal middleman seeking rent on every aspect of our digital lives.
