Facebook Horizon Is A Huge Virtual World Where Players Can Escape Their Real Life

Facebook recently announced that its Ready Player One Oasis is currently under development. Facebook Horizon is the company’s take on Second Life. Basically, it is a virtual reality sandbox where users create their own games, environment, socialize with other players and roam around the landscapes they create.

Facebook Horizon will be launched in 2020 in closed beta. Users can make their avatars and travel from a location to another via Telepods, a kind of portals. Other features include playing multiplayer games and watch movies with friends. For assistance, users will have the help of Horizon Locals, people who can also protect them in the virtual world so that trolls cannot inflict harm.

Before Facebook Horizon is launched, on the 25^th of October, the company will put an end to the existence of Oculus Rooms and Facebook Spaces, two of its social VR experiences. So we will have a gap until Horizon is released next year.

Oculus Room was introduced back in 2016 as users’ VR apartment where they can decorate as they wish. A year later, Spaces was released, and it allows users to take VR selfies, watch movies, and also chat. However, both of them feel more like stepping stones for a complete VR game.

At first, you might think that Horizon seems like a modernized version of Second Life. In 2016, Facebook gave all Oculus’s new employee a copy of the novel Ready Player One, and it appears that the company has been working on this project since then.

Facebook Horizon will start with a town square. Users have the choice to choose what they wear and how they look from the wide range of avatar tools. When they begin to play, users can make use of Horizon World Builder to create vacations spots, activities, and gaming arenas, all while knowing nothing about code.

Users can create things like an island and then invite other people to drop by and spend time together in your world. A tool that works in the same way with Oculus Medium sculpting feature will allow you to make anything, even an outfit for your avatar to wear. Developers can use visual scripting tools to create interactive experiences.

In the “Citizenship” page, Facebook highlights the safety feature of Horizon:

About the Horizon Locals, they are like customer support staff that can double as VR police.

Whenever users want to step out of their world temporarily, they can press the shield button to pause to immerse in the space of their own, parallel to Horizon. This personal space can be customized so that no other user can get in. They also have tools like blocking, reporting, and muting.

Horizon fits perfectly into the business plans of a company that focuses on social interaction, all while making money through ads. There are lots of ways the company can monetize a world like Horizon. Users may see malls filled with brands like Supreme or Nikes, or a billboard with an ad on it. Or it may just set up shops to sell furniture or toys. Facebook can even build a premium world and charge users to get access to them.

Facebook’s development is slowing down after around 15 years on the market. Many users have already left Facebook for pictures on Instagram or Snapchat. If the company does not act fast, it may be pushed to the side of the competition.