Released last week in invite-only, I should be covering Facebook Horizons, because it's the kind of world that New World Notes was launched to cover — a would-be metaverse with a heavy emphasis on user-generated content and virtual community, user-friendly avatars/UI, and games that should help it attract a crossover audience. Just look at the feature set:
UNLEASH YOUR IMAGINATIONBring your unique vision to life with Horizon’s powerful drag and drop tools. Whether you’re an experienced creator or just starting out, you can expand your full potential here.
DESIGN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCESCreations can range from designing 3D objects with a set of shapes and tools, all the way to developing elaborate multiplayer games and interactive experiences with visual scripting.
COLLABORATE, SHARE & INSPIREWith intuitive discovery and distribution tools, it’s easy to stay connected with the Horizon community. You can build with others, share your progress and see new creations.
And so on. But all that potential now feels bittersweet, since we now know Horizons will be tightly integrated with Facebook IDs, a security red flag (even if, as Robert Scoble argues, that's just a necessary evil for VR to grow). My fallback solution is to keep track of Facebook Horizons from a distance, and watch it grow (or not). At the moment, Facebook Horizon's biggest challenge is not potential security concerns, but that it deeply resembles Rec Room, which already has a fairly substantial user base, but unlike Rec Room (which has a mobiel client), is only accessible at the moment via Oculus HMDs, which are owned by few.
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 
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