Name: Why Did the Metaverse Fail?
Uploaded: 2023-05-11T18:34:04.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Why Did the Metaverse Fail?' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-05-11. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Why Did the Metaverse Fail?' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-05-11. Transcript available.

- The Joe Rogan Experience.
- Why do you think the metaverse didn't take off?
Why was that a colossal failure?
- Well, it's because it's, I mean, look,
you know, Zuckerberg's version of the metaverse is
that none of, no one has legs.
Like everyone looks like Nintendo Wii characters and stuff.
And it's goofy where you look at like something like VR chat,
which I use, you could be anything you want.
You could have a scan of you and make it look super realistic.
So when you're talking to somebody,
you look like you're talking to a real person.
But like that, see, that's actually a woman
that used her phone and scanned her image into an avatar.
And that's the stuff that's cool.
And unfortunately, Zuckerberg and all those guys
have been pushing this like ridiculous Nintendo Wii.
- Now this was, to be just so, this was Zuckerberg,
this is Meta's product.
- Right, right, right, right, right, right.
But that's the metaverse that, you know,
he's not selling this metaverse, right?
You know, he's selling this silly version of it.
- So what's the silly version?
Is the fact that you have the headset?
- Well, could you just type in like, you know, the--
- Oculus worlds, I think.
- Yeah, or whatever.
This is, that's the stuff that what he's showing
is more closer to what I'm using right now.
And that's, you know, VR chat.
This is, see, like, look at all these goofy characters.
Like, see, you have no legs.
You look like a little cartoon.
It looks like for kids, you know?
And what you were just watching, like, with that other image that is coming
sooner,
you know, that's the kind of stuff that's already out there and that I use.
You know, I could be a realistic person.
I could be a cartoon character.
I could be anything I want.
I have legs.
This is just like, I don't know, for kids.
- This is not the only thing that was available, right?
- Correct.
- Like, this is just to, like, hang out and talk to people, I guess, right?
- Right, but this is what Zuckerberg, like, the metaverse, this is his, like,
where he's
spending billions of dollars thinking this kind of thing's going to take off.
And, you know.
- So, here's something that I asked someone over a year ago that I didn't
understand,
because we hadn't seen the AI stuff.
There's spaces like this, right?
I'll try to pull it back up on the screen.
When this guy is, like, floating around in here, this is not how they did it, I'll
be honest
with you, but this is how it was explained to me.
When you're in that world, it shows, like, a missile silo or something.
You could be like, "Nope, don't make that a missile silo.
I want to be on a beach."
You just say that, and it'll go, "Okay, poof.
Now you're on a beach."
And it's like, "No, it's too cartoony.
Make it more realistic."
- Right.
- And it'll be, like, more realistic beach.
- Right.
- And that's how some of the metaverse stuff is supposed to be.
It's not here yet, though.
And I don't know how long it's going to take to get here.
- But isn't a barrier to entry just the putting on goggles?
That's a lot of people don't want to do that.
- Right.
Well, it also makes people sick.
- Yeah.
- And also, you know, a lot of problems.
And that's mostly based off frame rate.
So, like, if you're using something that is poorly made, like software, like an
app,
and you put it on, and the frame rate's shit, then you're just going to get
sick immediately.
- Is it too low a frame rate?
- Yeah, too low a frame rate, you start getting sick.
- So it just confuses you?
- Yeah, it just makes you feel, like, uneasy.
Like, you know, when you're spinning on a carnival ride or something, and your
stomach starts getting low.
- That makes sense where if your mind, if your eyeballs are seeing something
that's blurry and
fucked, your mind might say, "Oh my god, you're sick.
You should throw up."
- Exactly.
- "You ate something bad, you're dying."
- Right, yeah.
- And here's something I'll show you.
It's tough.
There's not a lot of content, and Facebook may be fucking up by not showing
this stuff more.
So Canon made this dual fisheye lens.
I'm pretty sure it's the only one that's out there right now.
- Right.
- That allows you to shoot content to be watched in these headsets.
- Mm-hmm.
- And when it's done right, which hasn't been done right very much, but when it
is done right,
it's fucking amazing.
It is wild how cool it looks, but there's not a lot to look at right now, and
you have
to put the headset on to see it.
- Right.
- But things in front of you look like you should just reach out and touch them,
and they're in
high-definition quality.
- It seems like every iteration of these things, we're always waiting for the
one that's like,
that's it.
Like, if you go back to when VR was first talked about, it was like the '80s
and '90s.
Remember, they thought that that was going to be a thing.
You put on the goggles, you're in another world, but technology wasn't really
there.
And then all of a sudden with Oculus and with the HTC Vive, okay, we're getting
real close.
Now we're getting real close, but it's still like, not quite.
- That's what they think Apple is going to do with their headset, that it's
going to be that cool,
supposedly.
- This is VR in the '90s.
- Yeah, I remember doing this.
- So they probably thought, this is the beginning.
We're getting ready, and this is going to be the future.
- And even to use this, you had to be in a big pod.
Like, those pods we almost want to use now, but the pod was just to track you.
Like, if you went out of the pod, it wasn't reading you.
Anything inside the pod, it read.
And you had to have all sorts of cables and wires and things connected to you.
- Still though.
- Where did they have this at?
- They did at a Cosi.
- Ah, okay.
- So this is in the '90s.
And here we are, 2023.
- It's still not quite, you would have thought that would have taken off.
- I forgot about that.
- Yeah, that's what the headset looks like.
Which they still have these things in arcades all over the place.
The graphics got a little better.
- One of the things they think they're going to be able to do is recreate
psychedelic experiences.
They think they're going to be able to make a VR psychedelic experience.
So you could trip balls without having to do any drugs.
And it'll have the same effect on your mind.
- I do a pretty good version of it, like, all the time.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
The thing I play all the time, I have a character that you could do DMT, acid,
mushrooms,
and stuff like that.
And you take it and you start seeing a little bit of trails on your hands.
And then the more you start seeing more trails, like, it's pretty good.
And you could do DMT where there's, like, fucking, like, Buddhas coming out of
the ground,
like, that look like lasers and shit.
- Really?
- Yeah.
It's, sometimes we'll just listen to music, get high, and just do that for
hours.
- And what are you using?
What is this?
- This looks like unreal, but someone's made a shroom trip.
- Oh, wow.
- This just goes on for a few minutes.
Yeah, there's just different visuals and stuff.
- How many grams would you say that is?
- Yeah, see, oh, I love that lighting effect where it's, like, clouds, shadows.
- Maybe this is a real video, then they fucked with it.
- Yeah, I think this is--
- Those are real dogs.
- Yeah, this is a real video.
- The dog knows you're tripping.
- That's cool.
- So what are you using?
- I'm using VRChat, which is, like, the good version of what Zuckerberg's
trying to do.
- And VRChat is connected how?
Like, are you using a PC?
- It's free.
You could actually use an Oculus for it.
You're not going to get that great of graphics.
But I'm using, like, a really high-end PC and a Valve Index headset.
And it's-- VRChat's free.
And it's kind of like, you know, you just download it.
You make your character or whatever.
And then you go, "Hey, I want to go to Disneyland."
Or, "Hey, I want to go on a beach."
You know, and you just type in "beach."
And it's like Google.
And they'll show you all the worlds you can go to.
- Whoa.
- Then you go there, meet up with your friends,
you know, do acid on the beach or whatever.
- And the graphics are really high-end?
- Oh, yeah.
Each level is made by a different person.
So, there's, like, good versions of it and bad versions of it,
realistic versions of it.
- So, this is, like, the real cutting edge.
- Yeah, this is what--
This is way more popular at times a lot, you know, than Zuckerberg's stuff.
- Really?
- And this is free.
- How many people are using this?
- It's one of the largest user base of a multiplayer game on Steam.
- There is another thing, which I don't, like, you're hung up on that headset.
You don't-- maybe, Tanae, you do, but you're not going to have to use the
headset.
You'll be able to play with me and Brian, if we have our headsets on,
just through a browser like this.
- Oh, you can do that right now.
- Yeah, you don't have to put the headset on.
- Oh, so you can play it like a video game.
- Yeah, or a chat room.
- Now, what is the best version of graphics?
Like, these things are all made by different people, right?
- Yeah, yeah.
- So, what's the best version?
- So, if I were to play this right now with you, I have bookmarked
like, all these worlds.
So, like, I have the best world to go to if you want to be in a beach,
best world if you want to be on the moon, best, you know, so...
- Oh.
- Like, look at this bar that you can-- this kind of has good lighting and
stuff,
but, you know, it almost looks like a nice realistic bar.
And look at that character.
See, like, that's somebody that scanned themselves, it looks like.
- Yeah, obviously.
- Yeah.
- How weird.
- And so, you know, you look back at what we were just watching with Zuckerberg's,
you know, metaverse, and it's so silly compared to this, you know, like,
graphic-wise.
It's like, you can be anything in it you want.
- Yeah, but isn't the metaverse stuff, the Zuckerberg stuff, capable of doing
things like this?
- Yeah, it's just-- that's why people-- why it's not working, though.
Like, look at that.
That looks like a real ice bin for popsicles, you know, like, at a convenience
store.
You know, that's not the graphics you're seeing on Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg's very cartoony, very kids-kind of feeling, you know?
- But is that for all of them, or just different software applications?
- Well, like, you could play this on the headset, you know, but the metaverse
is--
the Facebook, like, they're trying to get you into that metaverse world, and
that's what's failing.
- But it's other stuff in the metaverse.
Like, with those-- the Oculus that they have, they have these virtual tours.
- Yeah, yeah, but that's not like the metaverse.
That's like, you can play-- the headset's just like a computer, pretty much.
So you can download anything on it, you know, or--
- So the metaverse is like a walled garden.
- Metaverse is like what we were just watching VRChat, where it's kind of like
a chat.
- That's the real metaverse.
But what Zuckerberg was trying to do, you're saying, is like a walled garden.
Like, they were making it very specific to these apps.
They were going to have these kind of cartoony things.
- Right, it's-- the metaverse is doing it through all these characters and
stuff like that.
I don't know.
It's hard to-- it's so hard to explain, because it's-- they made it confusing
as fuck, you know?
- But if anybody can't explain-- if you can't explain it, nobody can explain it.
- Right, that's a lot of the problem, you know?
It's-- VR is taking off-- the metaverse is just not taking off, because
Facebook wants you to live inside their world, you know?
- And it's a world that they create, though.
- Right.
- So that's what I mean by a walled garden.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- So it's all their stuff.
- And it's also very stylistic.
- I kind of feel like if-- I've been having the problem.
If I haven't come across anything yet that, like,
Brian and I couldn't explain or show you in less than three minutes,
then they haven't fucking figured it out yet.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Right.
- We're not there yet.
So, like, I'm like, I don't know.
It seems close, but it seemed close for four years, so--
- Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Like, with every iteration of the virtual reality world,
it's like, this is going to be it, but it's-- nah, it's not--
- I don't know how much the pandemic would have slowed down production.
I feel like it did fuck up some stuff while they were all working in offices,
doing stuff, messing with these headsets, because they have shown some behind--
like, there's a video that Zuckerberg has, I think, on 60 Minutes.
They were showing some behind-the-scenes prototype headsets.
- Mm-hmm.
- They have a thing that's-- it sticks out from the head, like, the eye area.
It's ultrasonic sound waves that are pointed at your mouth,
and the lady that they had tried, maybe it was a guy,
they said they could feel raindrops on their mouth.
- Jesus.
- And that was recreated with sound waves.
- Yeah.
- Physically touching, like, touching you.
But that's not anything they have commercially available.
It's just, like, an in-house demo, and that sounds fucking cool, too, but--
It seems like it's the neural link.
It seems like it's some sort of neural interface.
When that hits, then all this shit's gonna make sense.
- Mm-hmm.
And that's even scarier, because you don't know what you're seeing is real or
not.
You know, that's sci-fi movie shit.
- Yeah, you're gonna walk right off the top of a building.
- Exactly.
- Yeah.
- Or you get hacked somehow, or trolled, and, like, you go into traffic, you
know?
- Yeah.
That's scary as fuck.
- Well, I mean, the future is always gonna be scary when it comes to things
like this.
Just technology in general, there's gonna be some mistakes.

Why Did the Metaverse Fail?

- The Joe Rogan Experience.
- Why do you think the metaverse didn't take off?
Why was that a colossal failure?
- Well, it's because it's, I mean, look,
you know, Zuckerberg's version of the metaverse is
that none of, no one has legs.
Like everyone looks like Nintendo Wii characters and stuff.
And it's goofy where you look at like something like VR chat,
which I use, you could be anything you want.
You could have a scan of you and make it look super realistic.
So when you're talking to somebody,
you look like you're talking to a real person.
But like that, see, that's actually a woman
that used her phone and scanned her image into an avatar.
And that's the stuff that's cool.
And unfortunately, Zuckerberg and all those guys
have been pushing this like ridiculous Nintendo Wii.
- Now this was, to be just so, this was Zuckerberg,
this is Meta's product.
- Right, right, right, right, right, right.
But that's the metaverse that, you know,
he's not selling this metaverse, right?
You know, he's selling this silly version of it.
- So what's the silly version?
Is the fact that you have the headset?
- Well, could you just type in like, you know, the--
- Oculus worlds, I think.
- Yeah, or whatever.
This is, that's the stuff that what he's showing
is more closer to what I'm using right now.
And that's, you know, VR chat.
This is, see, like, look at all these goofy characters.
Like, see, you have no legs.
You look like a little cartoon.
It looks like for kids, you know?
And what you were just watching, like, with that other image that is coming
sooner,
you know, that's the kind of stuff that's already out there and that I use.
You know, I could be a realistic person.
I could be a cartoon character.
I could be anything I want.
I have legs.
This is just like, I don't know, for kids.
- This is not the only thing that was available, right?
- Correct.
- Like, this is just to, like, hang out and talk to people, I guess, right?
- Right, but this is what Zuckerberg, like, the metaverse, this is his, like,
where he's
spending billions of dollars thinking this kind of thing's going to take off.
And, you know.
- So, here's something that I asked someone over a year ago that I didn't
understand,
because we hadn't seen the AI stuff.
There's spaces like this, right?
I'll try to pull it back up on the screen.
When this guy is, like, floating around in here, this is not how they did it, I'll
be honest
with you, but this is how it was explained to me.
When you're in that world, it shows, like, a missile silo or something.
You could be like, "Nope, don't make that a missile silo.
I want to be on a beach."
You just say that, and it'll go, "Okay, poof.
Now you're on a beach."
And it's like, "No, it's too cartoony.
Make it more realistic."
- Right.
- And it'll be, like, more realistic beach.
- Right.
- And that's how some of the metaverse stuff is supposed to be.
It's not here yet, though.
And I don't know how long it's going to take to get here.
- But isn't a barrier to entry just the putting on goggles?
That's a lot of people don't want to do that.
- Right.
Well, it also makes people sick.
- Yeah.
- And also, you know, a lot of problems.
And that's mostly based off frame rate.
So, like, if you're using something that is poorly made, like software, like an
app,
and you put it on, and the frame rate's shit, then you're just going to get
sick immediately.
- Is it too low a frame rate?
- Yeah, too low a frame rate, you start getting sick.
- So it just confuses you?
- Yeah, it just makes you feel, like, uneasy.
Like, you know, when you're spinning on a carnival ride or something, and your
stomach starts getting low.
- That makes sense where if your mind, if your eyeballs are seeing something
that's blurry and
fucked, your mind might say, "Oh my god, you're sick.
You should throw up."
- Exactly.
- "You ate something bad, you're dying."
- Right, yeah.
- And here's something I'll show you.
It's tough.
There's not a lot of content, and Facebook may be fucking up by not showing
this stuff more.
So Canon made this dual fisheye lens.
I'm pretty sure it's the only one that's out there right now.
- Right.
- That allows you to shoot content to be watched in these headsets.
- Mm-hmm.
- And when it's done right, which hasn't been done right very much, but when it
is done right,
it's fucking amazing.
It is wild how cool it looks, but there's not a lot to look at right now, and
you have
to put the headset on to see it.
- Right.
- But things in front of you look like you should just reach out and touch them,
and they're in
high-definition quality.
- It seems like every iteration of these things, we're always waiting for the
one that's like,
that's it.
Like, if you go back to when VR was first talked about, it was like the '80s
and '90s.
Remember, they thought that that was going to be a thing.
You put on the goggles, you're in another world, but technology wasn't really
there.
And then all of a sudden with Oculus and with the HTC Vive, okay, we're getting
real close.
Now we're getting real close, but it's still like, not quite.
- That's what they think Apple is going to do with their headset, that it's
going to be that cool,
supposedly.
- This is VR in the '90s.
- Yeah, I remember doing this.
- So they probably thought, this is the beginning.
We're getting ready, and this is going to be the future.
- And even to use this, you had to be in a big pod.
Like, those pods we almost want to use now, but the pod was just to track you.
Like, if you went out of the pod, it wasn't reading you.
Anything inside the pod, it read.
And you had to have all sorts of cables and wires and things connected to you.
- Still though.
- Where did they have this at?
- They did at a Cosi.
- Ah, okay.
- So this is in the '90s.
And here we are, 2023.
- It's still not quite, you would have thought that would have taken off.
- I forgot about that.
- Yeah, that's what the headset looks like.
Which they still have these things in arcades all over the place.
The graphics got a little better.
- One of the things they think they're going to be able to do is recreate
psychedelic experiences.
They think they're going to be able to make a VR psychedelic experience.
So you could trip balls without having to do any drugs.
And it'll have the same effect on your mind.
- I do a pretty good version of it, like, all the time.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
The thing I play all the time, I have a character that you could do DMT, acid,
mushrooms,
and stuff like that.
And you take it and you start seeing a little bit of trails on your hands.
And then the more you start seeing more trails, like, it's pretty good.
And you could do DMT where there's, like, fucking, like, Buddhas coming out of
the ground,
like, that look like lasers and shit.
- Really?
- Yeah.
It's, sometimes we'll just listen to music, get high, and just do that for
hours.
- And what are you using?
What is this?
- This looks like unreal, but someone's made a shroom trip.
- Oh, wow.
- This just goes on for a few minutes.
Yeah, there's just different visuals and stuff.
- How many grams would you say that is?
- Yeah, see, oh, I love that lighting effect where it's, like, clouds, shadows.
- Maybe this is a real video, then they fucked with it.
- Yeah, I think this is--
- Those are real dogs.
- Yeah, this is a real video.
- The dog knows you're tripping.
- That's cool.
- So what are you using?
- I'm using VRChat, which is, like, the good version of what Zuckerberg's
trying to do.
- And VRChat is connected how?
Like, are you using a PC?
- It's free.
You could actually use an Oculus for it.
You're not going to get that great of graphics.
But I'm using, like, a really high-end PC and a Valve Index headset.
And it's-- VRChat's free.
And it's kind of like, you know, you just download it.
You make your character or whatever.
And then you go, "Hey, I want to go to Disneyland."
Or, "Hey, I want to go on a beach."
You know, and you just type in "beach."
And it's like Google.
And they'll show you all the worlds you can go to.
- Whoa.
- Then you go there, meet up with your friends,
you know, do acid on the beach or whatever.
- And the graphics are really high-end?
- Oh, yeah.
Each level is made by a different person.
So, there's, like, good versions of it and bad versions of it,
realistic versions of it.
- So, this is, like, the real cutting edge.
- Yeah, this is what--
This is way more popular at times a lot, you know, than Zuckerberg's stuff.
- Really?
- And this is free.
- How many people are using this?
- It's one of the largest user base of a multiplayer game on Steam.
- There is another thing, which I don't, like, you're hung up on that headset.
You don't-- maybe, Tanae, you do, but you're not going to have to use the
headset.
You'll be able to play with me and Brian, if we have our headsets on,
just through a browser like this.
- Oh, you can do that right now.
- Yeah, you don't have to put the headset on.
- Oh, so you can play it like a video game.
- Yeah, or a chat room.
- Now, what is the best version of graphics?
Like, these things are all made by different people, right?
- Yeah, yeah.
- So, what's the best version?
- So, if I were to play this right now with you, I have bookmarked
like, all these worlds.
So, like, I have the best world to go to if you want to be in a beach,
best world if you want to be on the moon, best, you know, so...
- Oh.
- Like, look at this bar that you can-- this kind of has good lighting and
stuff,
but, you know, it almost looks like a nice realistic bar.
And look at that character.
See, like, that's somebody that scanned themselves, it looks like.
- Yeah, obviously.
- Yeah.
- How weird.
- And so, you know, you look back at what we were just watching with Zuckerberg's,
you know, metaverse, and it's so silly compared to this, you know, like,
graphic-wise.
It's like, you can be anything in it you want.
- Yeah, but isn't the metaverse stuff, the Zuckerberg stuff, capable of doing
things like this?
- Yeah, it's just-- that's why people-- why it's not working, though.
Like, look at that.
That looks like a real ice bin for popsicles, you know, like, at a convenience
store.
You know, that's not the graphics you're seeing on Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg's very cartoony, very kids-kind of feeling, you know?
- But is that for all of them, or just different software applications?
- Well, like, you could play this on the headset, you know, but the metaverse
is--
the Facebook, like, they're trying to get you into that metaverse world, and
that's what's failing.
- But it's other stuff in the metaverse.
Like, with those-- the Oculus that they have, they have these virtual tours.
- Yeah, yeah, but that's not like the metaverse.
That's like, you can play-- the headset's just like a computer, pretty much.
So you can download anything on it, you know, or--
- So the metaverse is like a walled garden.
- Metaverse is like what we were just watching VRChat, where it's kind of like
a chat.
- That's the real metaverse.
But what Zuckerberg was trying to do, you're saying, is like a walled garden.
Like, they were making it very specific to these apps.
They were going to have these kind of cartoony things.
- Right, it's-- the metaverse is doing it through all these characters and
stuff like that.
I don't know.
It's hard to-- it's so hard to explain, because it's-- they made it confusing
as fuck, you know?
- But if anybody can't explain-- if you can't explain it, nobody can explain it.
- Right, that's a lot of the problem, you know?
It's-- VR is taking off-- the metaverse is just not taking off, because
Facebook wants you to live inside their world, you know?
- And it's a world that they create, though.
- Right.
- So that's what I mean by a walled garden.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- So it's all their stuff.
- And it's also very stylistic.
- I kind of feel like if-- I've been having the problem.
If I haven't come across anything yet that, like,
Brian and I couldn't explain or show you in less than three minutes,
then they haven't fucking figure