Two years after the first announcement, finally the social in rvirtual reality (VR) of Meta arrived: Horizon Worlds opens its doors to US and Canadian user avatars. From Thursday, users can access the first metaverse of Zuckerberg’s company without the need for an invitation. Horizon Worlds is available as a VR headset app Oculus Quest.
Meta: Horizon Worlds opens its virtual doors
First announced in September 2019 as a private beta, Horizon Worlds has undergone an evolution during the various stages of testing. From a world to build in Minecraft style to create mini-games it has become a virtual social network. Thousands of testers were able to organize events such as comedy shows, movie marathons, and even meditation sessions. But the similarities with Ready Player One do not end with the fact that in both cases you can take advantage of virtual reality. There are also replicas of objects like the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters.
The multiplayer platform only requires a Facebook account to log in. Once logged in, you can stay with a group up to twenty people at a time in a virtual world.
The world of Horizon Worlds is also constantly changing. In fact, users can write some code, which Meta calls Script blocks, which allows you to create operating rules for various objects in the world. For example, you can have your stylized gun fire virtual bullets to play with your friends. The code will be written in VR, but one day Meta aims to do it also on the desktop, in order to create even more complex functionalities.
Meta is still working on the issue safety on the platform, with some beta testers reporting harassment in VR on The Verge, which makes the experience even more traumatic than a normal internet chat. However, Meta has already added functions for block users che misbehave and to report them.
At the moment there is no way to ‘monetize’ this social in VR but the Horizon ecosystem continues to expand. Meta has already launched Horizon Workrooms to collaborate on the job. The addition of a virtual place for recreation shows the company’s commitment to build the metaverse. It remains to be seen how much this new type of social interaction attracts users.
You can access Horizon Worlds from this address.