New Oculus Users Will Require Facebook Accounts

[Tsing]

Image: Oculus



If you’re an Oculus owner who’s trying to avoid its parent company, we’ve got bad news for you. Facebook has decided that anyone who uses an Oculus device for the first time will need to log in with a Facebook account. Obviously, that’s bad news for VR fans who don’t want any part in the world’s most popular social platform, which has been criticized for numerous privacy violations.



Oculus users who already have Oculus accounts can continue using them until January 1, 2023, but if they don’t merge their accounts with Facebook, their devices will lack full functionality. “We will take steps to allow you to keep using content you have purchased, though we expect some games and apps may no longer work,” the company elaborated. “This could be because they include...

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[Zarathustra]

Sweet.

That means I'll never buy one.

I keep my online accounts as separate as I can. I don't log in with google or log in with facebook anywhere I don't let my browsers save my passwords and send them to the cloud for me. I maintain all of my own passwords locally.

And I never, ever, buy any device that requires being tied to an account. Any account. They have to stand alone.

 

[Nanobot]

What kind of phone are you using?

 

[LeRoy_Blanchard]

Guess that means I'll never own one.

 

[Grimlakin]

Yea the forced facebook integration for a display device is... questionable at best. But just think of the advertising revenue! we KNOW this person buys XYZ Tech... So advertise your XYZ tech to them!

Anyone remember the facebook phones?

 

[Nanobot]

Yea the forced facebook integration for a display device is... questionable at best. But just think of the advertising revenue! we KNOW this person buys XYZ Tech... So advertise your XYZ tech to them!

Anyone remember the facebook phones?

Just think of the ads popping up while you're playing. "We've noticed you've selected dark sunglasses for your avatar....how about some Raybans?"

 

[Burticus]

I don't book face. And I guess I won't be using an Oculus either. TBH tho, VR makes me want to fill a puke bucket. Until those problems get fixed, no worries anyway.

 

[Zarathustra]

I don't book face. And I guess I won't be using an Oculus either. TBH tho, VR makes me want to fill a puke bucket. Until those problems get fixed, no worries anyway.

I've never used it, but my understanding is that this is a symptom of insufficient rendering speeds. Reprojection rates and frame skips need to be very low, or nausea can easily set in.

 

[MadMummy76]

Sad, I've been hyping myself towards a Rift S, guess they made the decision for me not to get into VR gaming, as HTC is just too expensive for me.

 

[Zarathustra]

Sad, I've been hyping myself towards a Rift S, guess they made the decision for me not to get into VR gaming, as HTC is just too expensive for me.

I had to look it up, as I vaguely remembered them being fairly close in price. I remember the Oculus being cheaper than the Vive, but only by $50-$100 or so.

Yeah. Last I looked Oculus Rift was $399 and HTC Vive was $499. Now Vive systems are selling anywhere from $899 to $1599.

What the hell happened? At that price they should be including the freaking GPU.

A VR system is just a couple of screens and a few gyroscopes. Nothing that warrants that price... Have they gone mad?

 

[Brian_B]

Am I the only one that was just never really interested?

I mean, sure, there are a few things I think it would be insanely great for - the new MS Flight Sim comes to mind, old school MechWarrior would have been super awesome. ~Maybe~ Quake, if it wouldn't make me poo my pants. A remastered X-Wing.

But by and large, I'm just ok with a screen and keyboard/mouse. Not every game I think would translate well to VR, and the user interface (controllers mainly) still are evolving a good deal.

I just never was convinced it was going to take over or catch fire, and I'm still not. I think it's going to pretty much go the same way 3D did - neat, has a few things it's really awesome for, but never really great enough to catch on.

 

[northrop]

@Zarathustra ,well.. you get a free HL:Alyx, so it's not a total waste

Am I the only one that was just never really interested?

Not at all. To me it's still just a gimmick. I remember playing Wolfenstain 3D and Doom with a virtual helmet back in the 90's, and it was cool for all of 5 minutes. My buddy has Vive, and I got to play around with it for a while at his place, and it still didn't do anything for me. I'd love to play HL Alyx, just because it really does look like a fun game, but that one game is not enough to push me into investing into VR tech... not at the current prices, anyway.

 

[Zarathustra]

Am I the only one that was just never really interested?

I mean, sure, there are a few things I think it would be insanely great for - the new MS Flight Sim comes to mind, old school MechWarrior would have been super awesome. ~Maybe~ Quake, if it wouldn't make me poo my pants. A remastered X-Wing.

But by and large, I'm just ok with a screen and keyboard/mouse. Not every game I think would translate well to VR, and the user interface (controllers mainly) still are evolving a good deal.

I just never was convinced it was going to take over or catch fire, and I'm still not. I think it's going to pretty much go the same way 3D did - neat, has a few things it's really awesome for, but never really great enough to catch on.

@Zarathustra ,well.. you get a free HL:Alyx, so it's not a total waste


Not at all. To me it's still just a gimmick. I remember playing Wolfenstain 3D and Doom with a virtual helmet back in the 90's, and it was cool for all of 5 minutes. My buddy has Vive, and I got to play around with it for a while at his place, and it still didn't do anything for me. I'd love to play HL Alyx, just because it really does look like a fun game, but that one game is not enough to push me into investing into VR tech... not at the current prices, anyway.

I agree. For niche stuff where you don't have to deal with the "walking around" problem, like flight Sims, racing Sims, etc, it could be freaking awesome.

Most of my games are first person shooters or strategy games though, so the fit isn't there.

Otherwise I think it is mostly for silly "Nintendo Wii" type of games. Fun for a party with friends, but not really that interesting in the grand scheme of things, and certainly not $1,599 interesting.

All of this comes from a place of mostly book knowledge though, having never tried one of the higher end VR systems. (I did play with Google cardboard once, and it was a neat I guess, but the novelty wore off after about 20 minutes)

Kyle certainly saw something that made him think it was the future, but I never quite got it.

 

[AntiQuark]

There are so many benefits to not getting one, its almost humorous.

 

[MadMummy76]

A VR system is just a couple of screens and a few gyroscopes. Nothing that warrants that price... Have they gone mad?

At that price it will remain a niche indefinitely. You'd expect prices to go down, and not up with VR gaining traction.

 

[Burticus]

I mean, sure, there are a few things I think it would be insanely great for - the new MS Flight Sim comes to mind, old school MechWarrior would have been super awesome. ~Maybe~ Quake, if it wouldn't make me poo my pants. A remastered X-Wing.

I think I read the new X-wing squadrons game would support VR. I would like to see what that looks like, but likely not worth the price of a headset.

And I agree, a Mechwarrior type game would be cool. I remember reading about Hawken around the time of the OG Oculus. But that game kinda died off and haven't heard of any other mech style games.