Horizon Worlds

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Horizon Worlds
Thumb
Developer(s)Meta Platforms
Publisher(s)Meta Platforms
EngineUnity
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows and Oculus Quest
ReleaseDecember 9, 2021 (U.S. and Canada)
Genre(s)Game creation system, massively multiplayer online
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Horizon Worlds (formerly Facebook Horizon) is a free virtual reality, online video game with an integrated game creation system developed and published by Meta Platforms for Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest 2. It was released in the U.S. and Canada to people 18 years or older on December 9, 2021 after an invite-only beta phase.

Gameplay[]

The game may be played with an Oculus Rift S or Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset and uses full 3D motion via the motion capture system of the headset and two hand-held motion controllers, which are required to interact with objects in the game. Players can explore the space around them within the confines of their physical floor-space, while roaming further by using controller buttons to teleport a short distance or to move continuously through the virtual space. The hub world (also known as "plaza") includes portals to featured user-generated worlds, which are created by players using an integrated game creation system.

Development[]

The development of Horizon Worlds (formerly called Facebook Horizon) followed earlier social VR apps by Facebook (Oculus Rooms, Oculus Venues, and Facebook Spaces) and focused more on user-generated content than these earlier apps. Facebook announced Facebook Horizon as a new social virtual world at the Oculus Connect 6 conference in September 2019.[1] In August 2020, Facebook announced that more users will receive access to an invite-only beta phase.[2] In an interview with Scott Stein in January 2021, Facebook Reality Labs head Andrew Bosworth conceded that the experiences in Facebook Horizon are not ready for the public and expressed concern that "[i]f you don't have … something driving a lot of people to the place, then you run the risk they're not going to get it."[3]

In August 2021, Facebook released the open beta of Horizon Workrooms, a collaboration app targeted at teams managing remote-work environments. The app offers virtual meeting rooms, whiteboards and video call integration for up to 50 people.[4][5]

On 7 October 2021 Facebook changed the name Facebook Horizon to Horizon Worlds.[6] After an invite-only beta phase, the game was released in the U.S. and Canada to people 18 years or older on December 9, 2021.

On 26 November 2021, a beta user reported being groped on Horizon Worlds,[7] and that other users supported the conduct.[8] Meta responded that that there is a tool called "Safe Zone" that users can initiate to protect themselves from interactions with others.[7] A second reported incident occurred in December 2021 when a female user claimed they were virtually gangraped by about 3 to 4 male users after joining the platform.[9][10] In February 2022 Meta, in response to the incidents, added a mandatory "personal boundary" to Horizon Worlds and Venues which creates an invisible virtual barrier around avatars preventing users from coming within four feet of an avatar if enabled which built on top of existing feature that makes users' hands disappear if they got too close to another avatar. Plans were also announced for users to change the size of this boundary in the future. The boundary feature is similar to standard features in competing platforms VRChat and Rec Room though with options to disable and change the size of the boundary already existing.[11][12][13]

In 2022, Mark Zuckerberg stated that a mobile phone version of Horizon Worlds would launch later in 2022.[14]

Reception[]

When Horizon Worlds was first announced in 2019 under the name Facebook Horizon, Josh Constine writing for TechCrunch compared it to other social virtual worlds such as Second Life, The Sims, AltspaceVR, Dreams, Roblox, as well as the fictional "OASIS" described in the novel Ready Player One,[15] while Sam Machovech writing for Ars Technica emphasised similarities to Rec Room and VRChat.[16] Machovech noted a key difference to other social virtual worlds in Facebook's plan to let employees welcome new users.[16][17] Scott Stein writing for CNET agreed that "[m]aybe Horizon is better than whatever Oculus had before"; however, he also observed that "there are a lot of social VR questions Horizon leaves unanswered".[18]

David H. Freedman writing for Newsweek tried to answer some of these questions by predicting that Facebook's knowledge about users' online behavior "will explode when someone straps on a Facebook headset".[19] This prediction is supported by Facebook's public plans to include face and eye tracking in future headsets.[20] Freedman speculated that Facebook could use this knowledge to generate advertising revenue with ads that permeate Facebook Horizon and "might appear as billboards, signage, skywriting, computer-generated characters hawking goods and services, logos embedded in objects and surfaces, and any other form that can be crammmed into any nook or cranny of fake reality."[19]

Kotaku described Horizon Worlds as "a strange experience" and that the overall vibe felt "less toxic than [they] expected, considering how awful Facebook is", and also called it a "hollow, corporate shell that has more in common with an office than it does a playground, or any other type of social space a human being would willingly want to hang out in."[21] TheGamer also described Horizon Worlds as "less of a virtual utopia, and more of a glitchy, incomplete cluster of experiences" and criticized the current relative lack of safety features and poor management of misinformation and hate speech on the platform and described it as a "corporate reality that only investors and venture capitalists are seeking. And for [Mark Zuckerberg], too, of course—it's another realm for him to escape to, until he finds another new, imagined frontier to break into."[22]

A February 2022 report by the Washington Post discussed concerns about children using Horizon Worlds despite the 18 or older age requirement arguing it could led to the platform being used by sexual predators for child grooming, while also noting the platform currently lacks parental controls and has been criticized for alleged lax moderation on preventing underaged users from using the platform.[23]

Userbase[]

In February 2022 Meta stated that Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues had a total monthly userbase of 300,000 people, that 10,000 separate worlds have been built in Horizon Worlds to date, and that its private Facebook group for creators had over 20,000 members.[14][24]

See Also[]

AltspaceVR

References[]

  1. ^ Holt, Kris (September 25, 2019). "Social VR world 'Facebook Horizon' comes to Oculus in 2020". Engadget. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  2. ^ Hardawar, Devindra (August 27, 2020). "Inside Facebook Horizon, a social VR playground". Engadget. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  3. ^ Stein, Scott (January 14, 2021). "Facebook has VR plans for your virtual office, with smart glasses coming soon". CNET. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  4. ^ "Facebook launches VR remote work app, calling it a step to the 'metaverse'". CNBC. August 19, 2021. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
  5. ^ "Introducing 'Horizon Workrooms': Remote Collaboration Reimagined". www.oculus.com. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
  6. ^ "Facebook Rebrands Social VR Platform As Horizon Worlds".
  7. ^ a b "The metaverse has a groping problem already". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  8. ^ Heath, Alex (December 9, 2021). "Meta opens up access to VR social platform Horizon Worlds". The Verge. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  9. ^ Shen, Michelle. "Sexual harassment in the metaverse? Woman alleges rape in virtual world". USA TODAY. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  10. ^ "Woman reveals 'nightmare' of being 'gang raped' in virtual reality". The Independent. February 2, 2022. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  11. ^ Robertson, Adi (February 4, 2022). "Meta is adding a 'personal boundary' to VR avatars to stop harassment". The Verge. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  12. ^ Fowler, Bree. "Meta adding personal boundary system to VR worlds". CNET. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  13. ^ "Meta adds 'personal boundaries' to Horizon Worlds and Venues to fight harassment". Engadget. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  14. ^ a b Heath, Alex (February 17, 2022). "Meta's social VR platform Horizon hits 300,000 users". The Verge. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  15. ^ Constine, Josh (September 25, 2019). "Facebook announces Horizon, a VR massive-multiplayer world". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  16. ^ a b Machovech, Sam (September 26, 2019). "Facebook's new VR chat app will throw paid staffers at "on-boarding" trolls". Ars Technica. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  17. ^ "Facebook to create VR world called Horizon". BBC News. September 27, 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  18. ^ Stein, Scott (October 6, 2019). "I tried Facebook's vision for the social future of VR, and it's full of question marks". CNET. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  19. ^ a b Freedman, David H. (December 23, 2020). "Facebook's Plan to Dominate Virtual Reality—And Turn Us into 'Data Cattle'". Newsweek. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  20. ^ Robertson, Adi (March 8, 2021). "Mark Zuckerberg says realistic avatars are Facebook's next big VR bet". The Verge. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
  21. ^ "I Traveled To Facebook's Soulless (But Popular) Metaverse So You Don't Have To". Kotaku. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
  22. ^ "Facebook's Horizon Worlds Is A Broken Metaverse Filled With Unimaginative Games". TheGamer. January 4, 2022. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
  23. ^ "Kids are flocking to Facebook's 'metaverse.' Experts worry predators will follow". Washington Post. February 7, 2022. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  24. ^ "Ugh, Zuckerberg's Metaverse Isn't as Dead as We All Hoped". Gizmodo. Retrieved February 22, 2022.

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