Facebook Spaces Review: First Impressions
Facebook has revealed Facebook Spaces, and part of the reason why it bought Oculus in the first place. The "Facebook for Virtual Reality" provides a way to interact with friends via virtual reality (VR) through social avatars. How does the experience rate so far?
The social media giant unveiled the new Facebook Spaces VR social platform in their yearly Facebook F8 Developers Conference. The event, held at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California on Tuesday, April 18, took the wraps off the VR platform for attendees to try for themselves.
Going into Facebook's virtual reality realm starts with designing an avatar, a process likened by Digital Trends to that of the earlier Nintendo Mii. Logging into Facebook first, of course, the user is asked to choose a photo as the basis for the new social avatar. The service will attempt to design the avatar based on the photo selected, which the user can refine by a set of tools allowing them to adjust their VR persona to their liking.
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Entering the VR world that Facebook Spaces presented, PC World called the experience "cold and sterile." Their take on the Facebook VR experience is that on the whole, the presentation seemed to err too much on the safe side. Aside from the lack of "novelty" features or customizations that are more than the usual safe choices, the review pointed out that the whole thing demonstrates how "Facebook is Serious Business."
"That problem extends into Spaces as a whole, really. It's just so cold and sterile and boring and Facebook-y. Once done sculpting your Very Realistic Persona, you're put in a room with a single table, a few tools, and a stretched image of a campsite around the edges," PC World's review describes the experience. "That campsite and accompanying campfire is the one cozy touch in what's otherwise a very safe and business-like environment. Games of tic-tac-toe and a floating piece of pizza can't hide how un-corporate Facebook's Space feels," the review commented.
A few interaction features were available, such as drawing in 3D space, being transported to another VR locale, and interacting with other avatars. VR fans can watch for updates while Facebook works to make this experience more exciting.
