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EU Hosted 24-Hour Party In Its $400,000 Metaverse. Very Few People Turned Up. (businessinsider.com) 88

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: The European Union hosted a 24-hour party in its $407,000 metaverse, but only a handful of people turned up, according to journalist Vince Chadwick, one of the attendees. Last week's event was billed as a "beach party" offering "music and fun" to launch the EU's "Global Gateway" strategy. When the costly virtual-reality world was first shown in October, EU staff were already raising concerns, per Devex.

"Depressing and embarrasing" and "digital garbage" were among the department's first responses to the underwhelming $407,000 venue. The EU told the news site that its metaverse aimed to increase awareness among 18-35 year olds "primarily on TikTok and Instagram" who aren't politically engaged. But as it moved from promotional video to virtual reality, it seems the message didn't reach too many people. Chadwick tweeted about his experience at the party, saying that there were just five other people in attendance. He described "bemused chats" with the other partygoers, as they couldn't figure out where it was supposed to be.
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EU Hosted 24-Hour Party In Its $400,000 Metaverse. Very Few People Turned Up. More

EU Hosted 24-Hour Party In Its $400,000 Metaverse. Very Few People Turned Up.

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  • "But we showed up in the virtual version!"

    • Is it just me or does all this dumb shit sound like the SecondLife hype a decade ago?

      • Eh, what? The "Second Life" hype had already been forgotten for a decade before a decade ago, grandpa. Go back to playing Oregon Trail.

      • It certainly is. Except with more monetization.

        Businesses slaver at the concept at forcing people into a VR envrironment, beacause they can control --and monetize-- every aspect of it. Want a better physical line? $3.99/month. Want hold music that persists for 15 seconds, then goes into an annoying robotic voice going on about irrelevant stuff? $2.99 a month. Of course the business doesn't have to bother with any help, as once someone gets to the head of the virtual line, if their stuff can't be answe

    • Eighty thousand euros should be able to buy a lot of wine and beer per visitor. The party must have been a blast.
      • What was anyone expecting for €387,000? That's chicken feed.
        That Facebook robot guy spent $10 billion and still ended up with junk.

  • They should have announced it on Slashdot.

  • Like whiteboarding, VR has its niche. As hype, it's been tried zillions of times since the 80's. Quest Pro does semi-AR but it's expensive and mostly for gaming. It can work as N virtual screens and does work with some Microsoft products.

    More spending and investment bias won't make it more of a thing.

    AR has the most potential ubiquity (total eyeball time), when the future of compact display tech catches up. MagicLeap spent some billions on it. Like fusion power, it will take a lot of time and money to get t

    • Where Meta doesn't receive credit is in the building of AI infrastructure and ubiquity that will flow from it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      Yeah, I agree AR has the most potential usefulness *to users*. Unfortunately usefulness to users doesn't always determine where money gets invested. The aspirations of investors actually counts for more. Tech entrepreneurs don't set out to compete in commodity markets, they try to carve out a niche that they own and which is relatively immune from new competitors entering. They want to own something nobody else has or, ideally, *could* have. Solving problems for users is just a means to that end.

      Someth

      • Yeah, I agree AR has the most potential usefulness *to users*. Unfortunately usefulness to users doesn't always determine where money gets invested. The aspirations of investors actually counts for more. Tech entrepreneurs don't set out to compete in commodity markets, they try to carve out a niche that they own and which is relatively immune from new competitors entering. They want to own something nobody else has or, ideally, *could* have. Solving problems for users is just a means to that end.

        Something like a metaverse is the ultimate expression of that impulse. Imagine creating the equivalent of an entire universe of real estate which you can sell or rent to people and tax for usage. In fact if there is ever a commercially successful metaverse created, there will likely never be a second; the utility value of a metaverse is almost entirely dependent upon "network effects": it's useful because other people are using it. Any competitor would have to attract early adopters to a useless new metaverse when a useful one already existed.

        Zuckerberg has half of what you'd need to bootstrap an economically successful metaverse: a huge user base. I would not be surprised if at some point VR access becomes a compulsory aspect of Facebook -- aka a "free feature". But what he lacks is any compelling VR application to offer his users, or even any plausible ideas for one. Meta's metaverse exists solely as a manifestation of Zuckerberg's ambition, and so it gets money, but not users.

        That's actually one of the better sales pitches I've seen for Zuckerberg's metaverse.

        It's a proprietary Internet.

        The fact the Internet isn't proprietary is likely a bit of a historical fluke. I suspect there's many alternate realities where the Internet is owned by a big telecom with a handful of competing networks. And in those realities they are really, really rich.

        Swap websites for worlds (or whatever he calls them) and it's basically the same thing with a 3d web browser.

        Right now it's useless, but if so

    • Every business wants a One Metaverse(TM) model, where they can control all aspects, including shadowbanning and quietly setting aside people. It makes a great tool for censorship past the dreams of social media, especially when AI gets fed people's emotions and such and can ban someone just because they look pissed when some advertisement hits them.

      Let them develop that cage. If people are smart enough to not herd themselves in there, it will be a good thing.

      • People were willing to herd themselves into the smartphone duoply.

        Yes, you have a handful of people with PinePhone or Libre 5 or a de-googled Android, but that bit of leakage isn't a threat to their power.

        • Agreed. However, smartphones offered people stuff. Stuff like a camera, PDA, appointments, calculator, remote key, pager, analog cell phone, text pager, cine camera, microphone, and a computer. VR offers nothing functional on a day to day basis that can't be accomplished by other means.

    • The business case for VR and AR still seems to be somewhere between lacking and non-existent. For entertainment purposes it does better but it's still in the small niche category.

      The only thing a VR meeting does is make you crap your pants when a Phantom breaks the glass and pops through at you in Prey.

  • Not the EU's first gaffe (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    They apparently have some sort of office in the Carribean with a three hundred million euro budget, that really only serves to shuffle bigwigs off to white sandy beaches for a couple years. Then the next batch can try on their swimming trunks. Why that needs a nine figure budget? Nobody knows.

    This? This is only six figures, so chump change in comparison. Gotta bring your own daiquiries though.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Don't forget the "Strasbourg Shuffle" - 113 million euros every year spent shuffling the entire European Parliament from Brussels to Strasbourg once a month, just so the French can feel important.

  • Solution Looking for Problems (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pastpolls ( 585509 ) on Monday December 05, 2022 @11:20AM (#63104192)
    Gartner was hyping the Metaverse so much this year that people were talking about whether it was undisclosed sponsorship. Not surprised this was a failure. The Metaverse is a bunch of 40-50 year olds telling 20-30 year olds what they want (and Im in the 40-50 year old group).

    • Re:Solution Looking for Problems (Score:5, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday December 05, 2022 @11:38AM (#63104278)

      The Metaverse is a bunch of 40-50 year olds telling 20-30 year olds what they want (and Im in the 40-50 year old group).

      No worse than that. It's a bunch of 40-50 year olds telling other 40-50 year olds that this is what the 20-30 year olds want. This is why there's such interest in beyond just Zuckerberg's idiocy.

      It's like how 5 years ago blockchain was the answer to everything, and every man and their Doge was trying to jump on board and use blockchain for something. Some idiot declared it The Future (TM) and every other idiot agreed.

      • This right there. The markedroids already noticed that they can't bullshit the 20-30 year old "target" crowd into accepting their hype, so they try to hype up the group that wants to target that "target" crowd into believing that this is what the "target" group wants.

        I get reminded of the old joke of "what is folklore?" "Folklore is what the natives think what the tourists think that the natives do".

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by shanen ( 462549 )

          I concur this seems to be the promising branch. But I'm still trying to figure out why someone thought this was a good idea. There must have been a proposed reason "to party"? Or maybe some kind of projection by people who hate "real life" that much?

          Someone can't wait to escape real life and therefore thinks lots of "other people" can't wait to join the "party", but to lots of normal people real life is where the living is?

          Maybe the should advertise to people who love fantasy books and movies? I don't, thou

          • Because these are guys on the side trying to make money without being involved directly. A and B are exchanging money and you want some of that money, so you suggest "Have you considered alternative reality? I have some white papers you can buy describing the wave of the future."

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by shanen ( 462549 )

              Unclear reply, but maybe my comment was confusing? You didn't ask for clarification, but who is "these are guys" and who is "A" and "B" in your example?

              Seems to be a separate question about the relationship of money to any of this. Money has become kind of a fantasy matter of opinion these years, and not just in the context of the artificial realities. Some computer thinks that stock price should be two bucks higher and they do the math and claim that $2 billion of value has been created. Somewhere? And onl

      • If the metaverse were a ponzi like crypto, more young people would be interested to escape being poor forever.

        • If the metaverse were a ponzi scheme Zuckerberg would be in jail. Incidentally if crypto were a ponzi scheme the people pushing it would also be in jail. Please don't just parrot the word Ponzi scheme without understanding how specifically one works. Look it up, and you'll quickly find that
          a) there's no global coordinated campaign by 70+ countries where Ponzi schemes are illegal to not prosecute crypto. because ...
          b) crypto isn't a Ponzi scheme. There is zero transfer of value from new customers to old cust

      • Reminds me of that video where Frank Zappa comments on the decline of the music industry [youtube.com]

        Some music of unusual or experimental nature did get recorded and did get released. Now look at who the execs were in those companies at those times. Not hip young guys, these were cigar chomping old guys who looked at the product and said: "I don't know. Who knows what it is. Record it, stick it out. If it sells, alright."

        It isn't an accident that the games' industry followed the movie and music industries.

    • If we can keep the goggles on 'em, they won't get angry about the dying, depleted real world they live in.

    • Is the alternative to ask 20 year olds? This is the generation that thinks that ending a 10 second video with a burst of ear shattering screaming is "humour". Even Sam Kinison was more nuanced than that.

    • Everything Gartner does is either sponsored or uninformed bullshit, usually both at the same time. I am amazed that this company is still being listened to. It's one of those companies that everyone seems to send money to because if they don't pay up they'll be put into the wrong quadrant.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • As a Gen Xer myself, don't you dare blame the Matrixverse on our generation. When the Matrix came out way back in 1999, we rooted for Neo and the humans, not the machines and the idea of being plugged in to be used as a battery.

      This steaming pile o' shit is -- just like the other steaming piles o' shit like social media, blockchain, etc. -- the creation of Millennials, the know-nothing-know-it-all techie bros (with The Zuck representing their exemplar).

      All the rest of humanity can hope is that Gen Zer

  • Most people don't have a VR rig.

    Who da thunk it, eh?

    • Yup. One could say the price of admission is slightly higher than clicking the GET button on a free app.

      This ain't your Grandmas social media anymore.

    • Re:It's almost as if... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday December 05, 2022 @11:56AM (#63104346)
      Don't forget the 30% of the population that gets headaches and or motion sickness from VR. A huge part of the money spent by Facebook on this boondoggle was trying to solve that problem.

      • I was really hoping for the day that this became mainstream, and I'd see people walking down the street strapped to a VR helmet all busily swiping left and right at invisible things in the air. That would have been vastly more entertaining than actually wearing the VR stuff.

    • I have TWO, you insensitive clod.... and before you ask, the second is worn as a codpiece.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ezdiy ( 2717051 )

      And those that do just hang out in VRChat (modern day SL, more or less, sporting 20-30k concurrent users). The whole problem with Zuck's vision of "metaverse" is its sterility, lack of content, and being awfuly late to the party in a saturated niche market.

  • It takes me back... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Monday December 05, 2022 @11:23AM (#63104200) Journal
    Is anyone else reminded of the time, I think it was a decade or so back, maybe 15-ish years, when all the would-be-cool-kids were chomping at the bit to hold events and press conferences and stuff in Second LIfe?

    It ended up being stupid and pointless, obviously.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Calydor ( 739835 )

      At least Second Life had guns that shot horse dildos at people. Metaverse doesn't even have that.

      • And that's gonna be its downfall.

        Let's face it, there are exactly two, and only two, target demographics for VR technology: Furries and cosplayers. Two groups that have a weirdly large overlap area, by the way. These are the two kinds of people who desperately want to be someone (or even something) else and who are also willing and able to throw large amounts of money at this dream.

        Nobody else gives a fuck about VR.

        Now, how do I put this nicely... these aren't exactly the type of people who you'd like to ha

        • There's a third ... gamblers. When Second Life banned gambling the visitor count dropped dramatically. I made a killing playing their video poker machines. Problem was there was nothing interesting to spend the Linden dollars on, unless of course you were a furry or cosplayer ironically.

        • What about Furry Cosplayers? "Tanuki ni kawatte, oshioki yo!"

      • At least Second Life had guns that shot horse dildos at people. Metaverse doesn't even have that.

        Meta has that. The horse dildos are called "Sponsored" posts in your feed.

    • We tried some events and collaboration sessions in Second Life, in the company I worked for around that time. Back then we came to the same conclusion as this time round: there are definitely some legitimate business use cases for this technology, but the biggest hurdle that we cannot overcome is the usability factor. People don't work well with virtual tools that they do not use on a daily basis.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Meta is "Second Rife"

    • ...It ended up being stupid and pointless, obviously.

      Sure is a good thing a society slam full of social media addicts and professional narcissists don't engage in pointless shit for stupid's sake anymore.

      We really learned our lesson.

      *eyeroll*

    • Trying to give second life a third life

  • attention span for VR (Score:3)

    by avandesande ( 143899 ) on Monday December 05, 2022 @11:23AM (#63104202) Journal
    Young people socialize with ever shortening asynchronous messages. They aren't meeting in real life this way, why would they do it in VR?

  • aimed to increase awareness among 18-35 year olds "primarily on TikTok and Instagram" who aren't politically engaged

    Um...why? Why invest money in trying to interest people in politics? Serious question.

    The Swiss Federal council just created 10 full-time jobs to give itself a presence in Intagram&Co.. Wasted money. For anyone who is interested, all branches of the government already have an excellent web presence. Why chase people down who can't be bothered?

  • It demonstrates to the politically disengaged young people that they are doing the correct thing by avoiding politicians

  • C'mon, we've all seen this before (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday December 05, 2022 @11:43AM (#63104298)

    Some manager who is totally clueless about technology gets bullshitted by a sales con artist that his new toy is the next best thing and that their engineers already love and embrace it and would absolutely love to work with it. And they believe them because they have not the foggiest clue what their engineers actually use and work with.

    Just say it's never happened at your company.

    Just replace "PHB" with "EU politician", "engineer" with "the 20-35 year old crowd" and "SAP salesman" with "Metastasis salesman" and you're right there.

  • You can't just force technology to go a certain way. If people find it useful, they'll mold it and use it on their own (ARS had a great article on Bulletin Board Systems recently that's a good example). This metaverse thing just isn't going to happen. What's the advantage? Here, users saw like 4 people logged in, laughed and left.

    • That's the problem with all of these things. They want to lock them down so nothing bad can ever happen there. That ultimately results in something nobody wants to use.

  • ...in rich 18-35 years old with nothing better to do than be in the metaverse.

    There are for sure a lot of rich 18-35 year olds lacking awarenes...

    • This story had me wondering what the age breakdown for VR owners is. I tend to think probably the large majority are over 40, no-where near the group they were targeting...

  • Faceplant has pissed away.

  • He described "bemused chats" with the other partygoers, as they couldn't figure out where it was supposed to be.

    "For all your bemused chat needs. Metaverse."

  • I doubt there will be any interest in VR and/or metaverses until they reach the level as seen in Ready Player One...

  • "Come enjoy our party in the metaverse!

    "Be careful not to say anything forbidden or you will get a ticket or arrested!

    "Enjoy the future!"

  • ...fellow kids?" - Yeah, I bet the party was a real blast. I can't see many EU types turning up - They'll all be in the VIP lounges in Brussels nightclubs having real fun.
    • The trailer has a green weird thing which looks almost like pickle rick. Young people like pickle rick! We will figure how they will pay for a 400€ VR headset and also how to not use electricity because we told them EU is in an energy crisis and they have to keep the energy sobriety mindset.
  • Next time they should host a real party in Amsterdam with free drinks, alcool, drugs and music. I think it should work and for the same price.

  • It was probably cheaper than a $400K party in reality where nobody shows up -- you didn't have to throw out all the food. Honestly, getting people excited about a virtual space and interacting is hard, regardless of what you think "The Metaverse" is... And the idea of the Metaverse itself from the 1980s when Snow Crash was written is basically the internet.

    I don't see people writing about "the internet" much. They write about specific sectors of it. The Metaverse doesn't really exist. It's all games. Like

  • OK, stupid question ... (Score:3)

    by jopet ( 538074 ) on Monday December 05, 2022 @04:09PM (#63105272) Journal

    How does one get into the "Metaverse"? What do I need? I have a Linux machine and a browser. That sufficient? Where do I get my credentials? etc.

  • Because the more politically engaged these target 18-35-year-olds become, the more likely they are to oppose EU policies and support secession of their native counties from the EU.

  • I mean, it sounds like the seventh level of Hades from my viewpoint.

  • What VR platform was this party hosted on?
    The Facebook one, or what?

  • ... was the beach, the party, the music, and the fun.

  • Another successful event to pocket the tax money. I'm sure "organisers" and their cronies are happy regardless, and scheming for the next relevant thing.

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