[HN Gopher] Oculus Quest is removing the Facebook account requir...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Oculus Quest is removing the Facebook account requirement
        
       Author : simonjgreen
       Score  : 358 points
       Date   : 2021-10-29 08:02 UTC (14 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (gamerant.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (gamerant.com)
        
       | emreb wrote:
       | Is sounds like now you will need an Oculus account that is linked
       | to your Meta account which is then linked to your Facebook and
       | Instagram.
        
         | zorr wrote:
         | At least now it will become possible to use Oculus without
         | being forced to have a Facebook social media account. Just like
         | it is possible to use Whatsapp without a Facebook identity.
        
           | GuardianCaveman wrote:
           | This is the big point even if we have to have a meta account
           | we are not at the whim of being suspended from using our
           | headset because of something we said on a separate social
           | media platform
        
             | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
             | The bigger point is how much of your personal info and
             | psychographic profiling will, one way or another, still
             | make its way to The Company Formerly Known As Facebook,
             | which remains to be seen
             | 
             | Do you think they will just ignore those micro-head-
             | movements when they start A/B testing different stuff on
             | screen to figure out the algorithm that is _you_? Who needs
             | a real, physical Westworld?
             | 
             | I hear the next version might even track retinal movement.
             | So many useful audience-segmenting and personalized
             | targeting capabilities!
        
       | square_usual wrote:
       | That's great, but I've already signed into (and made purchases!)
       | on mine with Facebook, so I think I'll have to stay signed in for
       | the near future :(
        
         | rtcoms wrote:
         | What if you hard reset it ?
        
           | Shish2k wrote:
           | Hard reset would log you out, but the more significant
           | question is "are my existing purchases tied to my FB
           | account?"
        
       | willis936 wrote:
       | It begs the question: if they host the social media account and
       | VR account and can reliably identify / link them on their end,
       | and the laws and terms allow them to do so, does it really matter
       | if they're different accounts?
       | 
       | It's still a win if you don't have a facebook account. For
       | everyone else: I would assume that they will identify your
       | accounts reliably.
        
         | theknocker wrote:
         | This is not what begs the question means.
        
           | beeboop wrote:
           | It isn't and I've long given up on correcting people.
           | Language evolves and sometimes it unfortunately evolves in
           | ways that actually make communication more difficult (such as
           | the over usage of literally). I've come to terms that if
           | someone uses "begs the question" and then actually follows it
           | with the question it's _raising_ then it 's fine. It's still
           | annoying in the same way as using "utilize" instead of "use".
           | It just sounds like someone trying to project themselves in a
           | certain way and it coming across sort of stilted
        
           | dragonwriter wrote:
           | > This is not what begs the question means.
           | 
           | Yes, it is what "begs the question" as a transitive verb
           | phrase means (though the colon was superfluous, there.)
           | 
           | It is different from what "begs the question" as an
           | _intransitive_ verb phrase, which is older, means, but it
           | also serves as something of a generalization and
           | rationalization of the older phrase that makes the dubious
           | and at best quite outdated translation from Latin have the
           | appearance of some sensible relationship to the common
           | definitions of English words in the phrase, so the pointless
           | pedantry of opposing the clear and distinct transitive use
           | which makes the intransitive use _less_ detached from the
           | rest of modern English is dumb. And tiresome.
        
             | svachalek wrote:
             | What is "the question" in the intransitive sense, that
             | makes it not the object of the verb?
             | 
             | I've given up complaining about the common usage, except
             | that it's a nonsense phrase that apes the technical usage;
             | there's no "begging" involved so the only reason not to say
             | "raise the question" is because it sounds more scholarly to
             | use the Latin, even incorrectly.
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > What is "the question" in the intransitive sense, that
               | makes it not the object of the verb?
               | 
               | The phrase "begs the question" is an idiomatic phrase
               | that operates as a verb phrase. It can be either
               | intransitive ("X begs the question" or transitive "X begs
               | the question Y"). In the intransitive use it refers to
               | applying the _petitio principii_ fallacy; in the
               | intransitive form it refers to creating a demand for the
               | answer to a specific question (the former can be viewed
               | as a special case of the latter where the specific
               | question is the justification for the same claim the
               | argument was intended to justify.)
               | 
               | > I've given up complaining about the common usage,
               | except that it's a nonsense phrase that apes the
               | technical usage; there's no "begging" involved so the
               | only reason not to say "raise the question" is because it
               | sounds more scholarly to use the Latin, even incorrectly.
               | 
               | "begging the question" isn't Latin, its an (arguably
               | quite bad even when it was coined and definitely dated)
               | translation of Latin into English.
               | 
               | The Latin is " _petitio principii_ ".
        
         | GuardianCaveman wrote:
         | I guess it depends on what you're worried about so if it's
         | identification and targeted ads you're probably right but I was
         | just worried about losing access if I close or get banned or
         | something from my Facebook account for whatever reason.
        
         | ComodoHacker wrote:
         | > does it really matter if they're different accounts?
         | 
         | Yes. If you lose access to one, you can keep the other.
        
           | phone8675309 wrote:
           | You assume that linking them will prevent any bans from
           | propagating from one to the other.
        
             | Mindwipe wrote:
             | Yes, because that's literally what they said was the reason
             | for doing so in the stream, but I agree that until there's
             | more clarity here and an explanation of how the terms of a
             | Meta account would work then that's only of so much use.
        
           | ncann wrote:
           | Also if you have a Quest that is shared in the family, you
           | don't need to worry about your family members poking around
           | your FB stuffs anymore.
        
             | Siira wrote:
             | Can Facebook reliably find fake, empty profiles created
             | just for Oculus?
        
               | Digit-Al wrote:
               | I recall reading something about having to have "an
               | account in good standing", which certainly suggests that
               | they can tell if an account is a real one or a dummy one.
        
               | Damogran6 wrote:
               | I wouldn't bet against them. They can tell if you longer
               | on an ad, just by measuring how fast you're scrolling the
               | feed.
        
         | chaostheory wrote:
         | If they would have just stuck to this strategy, there would
         | have been a lot less drama around the Quest 2 and more sales.
        
         | tw04 wrote:
         | >It's still a win if you don't have a facebook account.
         | 
         | That's making the assumption that Facebook isn't just going to
         | eventually force everyone to a "meta" account that spans all of
         | their properties. Which is exactly what I expect they're going
         | to do.
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | After the "Facebook pixel", yes.
        
           | impulser_ wrote:
           | They aren't planning on it, based on Mark's keynote. They are
           | opening up the products to multiple different account
           | integrations. You will most likely be able to create an
           | account with your Google account or Microsoft account.
        
           | mrfusion wrote:
           | Reminds me of google plus
        
             | ehnto wrote:
             | Google Plus is interesting because whilst the social
             | platform failed, getting you to sign in across a huge swath
             | of properties with your Google account certainly worked.
             | They even had me along for the ride until they started
             | automatically managing Google accounts through their
             | browser.
             | 
             | I think both Google and Facebook have pushed their luck
             | recently and found the edges of their domain and their
             | user's complacency. I imagine they'll just keep pushing and
             | we'll eventually cave, but there has at least been some
             | sensible backlash.
        
               | Macha wrote:
               | A unified google account predates Google+. Really the two
               | pushes in that direction that Google+ contributed was
               | when they decided to force the holdouts on legacy
               | unlinked YouTube accounts to make G+ brand accounts, and
               | when they shuttered orkut which had its own account
               | system iirc.
        
               | thruway516 wrote:
               | They all have Apple envy
        
             | xtracto wrote:
             | And Microsoft Passport ... or later .net Passport
        
           | slim wrote:
           | That's making the assumption that they are not going to
           | identify you using your ip + some heuristics
        
           | vineyardmike wrote:
           | There was a recent interview with MZ on HN that addressed
           | this. He was asked if it was a mistake to require one
           | account, and he basically said "we wanted a single-login, but
           | we didn't think about how combining accounts would be
           | undesirable, but we recognize it is"
           | 
           | So I think the end state is a single-log in Meta account with
           | discrete FB and Oculus accounts to accompany it, logged in
           | through Meta?
        
           | willis936 wrote:
           | If so then it would be a repeat of what they did with Oculus.
           | They've certainly demonstrated their capability. I personally
           | won't be considering any Meta hardware or software until
           | they've demonstrated some seriously benevolent and sustained
           | changes.
           | 
           | I was just trying to comment about what this means right now
           | for people invested in hardware and on the fence.
        
         | Mindwipe wrote:
         | It seems like it is better in that the arbitrary suspension of
         | your Facebook account for moderation purposes (which is, due to
         | how moderation at scale with machine learning just doesn't
         | work, inherently random) won't cause you to lose access to your
         | Oculus content and paid media.
         | 
         | It's not a total win, probably, but part of the issue is that
         | it's very unclear if you can have multiple redundant Meta
         | accounts, what the ID requirements are for Meta accounts, what
         | the process for appealing against moderation decisions for Meta
         | accounts are, and what the terms of use for Meta accounts are.
        
         | KaiserPro wrote:
         | They are explicitly banned from "soft matching" account now, by
         | germany of all places.
         | 
         | I suspect that what they are planning to do is to allow
         | thirdparty authentication for "professional" VR devices.
        
       | coding123 wrote:
       | I prefer no account at all. If you still have an account you
       | don't really own the device outright. You had to agree to some
       | level of things by buying it at a store. Then you have to
       | continually agree to a barrage of ever changing legal
       | requirements.
       | 
       | I honestly don't know if I can ever buy a new car, I might have
       | to stick with ICE. At some point even your car might show a
       | screen that says, hey before driving to work, do you agree to the
       | following terms? NO? Then you don't get to go to work.
       | 
       | I think we have too many "agreements" and a lot of it is
       | parasitic because they want to sell data about you.
        
       | vegetish wrote:
       | "Here, have a sense of freedom. Something Apple will never give
       | you."
        
       | MrPatan wrote:
       | Interesting, I didn't expect mine to unbrick itself.
        
       | mawise wrote:
       | Owner of a Quest 1, so I've never linked to FB, but that's also
       | locked me.out of Venues (which was how they broadcast Connect in
       | VR). Any speculation on whether Venues will still require a FB
       | account?
        
       | morjom wrote:
       | Any idea if this applies to other sets like the CV1 or Rift S?
        
       | christophergs wrote:
       | I'll pay the extra money and get the valve index just to avoid
       | doing business with FB
        
         | ldehaan wrote:
         | You're a Ghot damn American patriot! Thank you for not giving
         | Facebook money, glad to hear there are other ethical people
         | with at least half an eye open. I'd upvote this a billion times
         | but once will have to do ;)
        
         | Thaxll wrote:
         | Valve left the ship of VR, pain me to say it but Facebook is
         | the future.
        
           | throwuxiytayq wrote:
           | Facebook is an obsolete term.
        
             | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
             | How many people refer to the Blackwater PMC as "XE" or
             | "Academi" after THEY changed their name following weeks of
             | massively bad PR?
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | wutbrodo wrote:
               | I doubt Facebook's name change is driven by the last few
               | weeks of bad PR. The relevant model seems Google's change
               | to Alphabet, which wasn't driven at all by an attempt to
               | flee the negative associations with their previous name.
        
               | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
               | I agree Zuckerberg had probably been thinking about it,
               | particularly since Snow Crash is assigned reading for
               | some of his employees.
               | 
               | It seems, though, that the timeline was moved up
               | dramatically to both distract from other Facebook-related
               | news, and to escape from the toxic branding that is
               | Facebook at this point.
               | 
               | Switching to a name which is already a common english
               | word with many uses, seems like an attempt to make future
               | criticism more confusing, as well.
        
             | tomc1985 wrote:
             | Do you really buy into that
        
           | terafo wrote:
           | I wouldn't count them off that easily. Valve is making their
           | own autonomous headset, should be out next year. It will be
           | more expensive, yes. But it will be faster and it will be
           | full blown Linux PC with access to whole library of PC games.
           | Might be very competitive(still will lag in units sold
           | though, but mostly due to supply constraints). Any you
           | shouldn't forget that Sony is still on the market(autonomous
           | PSVR is not out of the question) and Apple is making their
           | own headset.
        
         | Someone1234 wrote:
         | Not wireless, don't care.
         | 
         | Glib but true. Wireless Vs. non-wireless is apples vs. oranges,
         | now that I've experienced apples I want apples and Valve is
         | only currently selling oranges.
         | 
         | Plus you're comparing a "good enough" $300 device to a superior
         | but cost prohibitive $1K device. I feel like people who compare
         | a Valve Index to a Quest really don't get what makes Quest
         | uniquely good to its audience currently.
         | 
         | Nobody is denying that the Index is technologically superior
         | across the board, what I am saying is that the measures we're
         | using are completely different. I consider the Steam Deck a
         | closer comparison than the Index for example.
        
           | everyone wrote:
           | Theres more than 2 VR headsets, Quest and Index, available at
           | the moment. Just have a brief look. https://www.vr-
           | compare.com/
           | 
           | .
           | 
           | Eg. If you want wireless one like the quest, the HTC Vive
           | Focus or HTC Vive Focus plus have similar specs to quest 2..
           | they can play games by themselves without a pc and are
           | wireless
           | 
           | .
           | 
           | If you have a pc and want higher resolution / framerate like
           | the index then DecaGear and HP Reverb G2 look good.
           | 
           | .
           | 
           | I would not get a quest cus of fb, and apparently atm the
           | build quality of index is atrocious.
        
             | doublerabbit wrote:
             | > atm the build quality of index is atrocious.
             | 
             | I've dropped mine, walked in to objects several times. Had
             | the light house trackers fall from a distance and ripped
             | the DP plug out of its port. I've had no issue with the
             | quality; actually been quite impressed.
             | 
             | What source of claims are you using here?
        
               | gravypod wrote:
               | There's a few VR reviews on YouTube. Many things break
               | for a lot of the user base. One reviewer has been through
               | three headsets and a bunch of controllers. The RMA
               | process is good.
        
             | metalliqaz wrote:
             | The Vive Focus is marketed as a business headset.
        
           | kapp_in_life wrote:
           | Also outside in vs. inside out tracking. Being able to take
           | the Quest from living room to rec room without setting up
           | cameras is a game changer.
           | 
           | And if you care about the higher performance you can still
           | tether yourself to a gaming pc.
        
           | ldehaan wrote:
           | Well let's get some edumacation goin here, you can be
           | wireless. Tracking is night and day on a vive vs. fb trash
           | device. Are you really running around with a vr headset on?
           | No, you mostly stay in one area and usually the same one. My
           | vive pro not only has insanely good tracking. The video is
           | amazing and the tracking, you can't say enough good things
           | about it. Vive costs more because it's that much better. So
           | while I'd buy the facebook trash costs less, that's the only
           | reason to get one. Not even imo, fact.
        
             | Someone1234 wrote:
             | You replied to the wrong post. My post was a response to
             | one comparing the Quest to the Valve Index, whereas your
             | post is seemingly something about Quest Vs. Vive Pro.
             | 
             | Although regardless of who you were trying to respond to,
             | comes across likely ruder than you intended just fyi.
        
             | KaiserPro wrote:
             | > Tracking is night and day on a vive vs. fb trash device
             | 
             | Is it though? I mean given the price difference it should
             | be miles ahead. However I don't see any meaningful
             | difference between the two.
             | 
             | Yes, in low light it might suffer, but then occluded base
             | stations will cock up the vive
        
         | spaceisballer wrote:
         | I sort of have a hard time dishing out $999 for a Index but I'm
         | also in the same boat regarding FB. I don't want anything to do
         | with them. Even though they have all my information from back
         | in the day when I used it.
        
           | 3np wrote:
           | I'm holding out. Even if it means waiting several years
           | before getting into VR or AR.
        
         | Tijdreiziger wrote:
         | Index: EUR1100 + the cost for a VR-capable PC, if you don't
         | already have one
         | 
         | Quest 2: EUR350, standalone
         | 
         | They're not really in the same class at all.
        
           | terafo wrote:
           | It looks like Valve is making their own standalone VR headset
           | ,and made Steam Deck along the way to meet minimal amount of
           | orders for custom chip. The chip can deliver 2.5 TFlops if
           | it's clocked like other RDNA2 GPUs, it's almost 2x of Quest 2
           | GPU performance. Not sure about price though, it will be
           | definitely higher than 300$ of heavily subsidized Quest 2,
           | and I think price will be closer to current "Oculus for
           | Business" offering, which is 800$. Not sure how it will
           | compete with project Cambria.
        
             | krastanov wrote:
             | Is there any actual substance behind this rumor? It is
             | propagating without not even a shred of supporting
             | evidence.
        
               | chaostheory wrote:
               | There is, but it's not even close to being here yet so I
               | don't know why everyone keeps bringing up. Meta's Cambria
               | will be released before Valve's wireless headset.
        
               | terafo wrote:
               | Mostly SteamVR datamining. But it's a reasonable thing to
               | do and SteamDeck looks like a nice byproduct.
        
       | supermatt wrote:
       | Facebook account will become meta account. Oculus will transition
       | to meta account. There will be no difference.
        
         | darrenf wrote:
         | UploadVR asked Andrew Bosworth directly.
         | https://uploadvr.com/quest-2-unlinking-facebook-accounts/
         | 
         | Quote: _We asked Bosworth directly if we could unlink and
         | delete our Facebook accounts from Quest and still keep our
         | software purchases, to which he simply replied: "Yup"._
        
           | 2Gkashmiri wrote:
           | Plot twist. When you _delete_ your fb account, your identity
           | is switched to your shadow profile and any account you
           | subsequently link to your oculus is linked to that shadow
           | profile
        
           | bni wrote:
           | I have an Oculus account with some games that I have never
           | connected to Facebook despite multiple reminders to do so.
           | 
           | Wonder what will happen to it.
        
         | YetAnotherNick wrote:
         | Umm, what again is the criticism for crating meta account vs
         | creating oculus account(without fb)? I think at this point
         | whatever fb does it will be criticised?
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | ldehaan wrote:
         | Yep, this is exactly it, they are going to let people use it
         | freely and once meta crashes hard they'll force it back in just
         | to lock vr customers to their trash platform so they can patch
         | the heart bleed that is their userbase running away as fast as
         | they can click. Every time a Facebook account is closed, a baby
         | in California doesn't die of a cov9d vaccine. ;) <- post that
         | comment and watch your twitter world melt :D
        
           | lexpar wrote:
           | This is really not a high quality comment.
        
         | loeg wrote:
         | No, this would be an Oculus-specific account. There are enough
         | legitimate criticisms of Facebook that we don't have to go
         | around inventing false ones.
         | 
         | Edited to cite the announcement transcript[1]:
         | 
         | > And as we've focused more on work, and frankly, as we've
         | heard your feedback more broadly, we're on making it so you can
         | log into Quest with _an account other than your personal
         | Facebook account_.
         | 
         | > ... I know this is a big deal for a lot of people. Not
         | everyone wants their _social media profile linked_ to all these
         | other experiences.
         | 
         | [1]: https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/meta-facebook-
         | connect-2...
        
           | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
           | Would Facebook be physically prevented from ever accessing or
           | linking to data on the Metafacebookulus account, ad vice
           | versa?
           | 
           | If not, sounds like a Facebook account by another name.
        
             | micromacrofoot wrote:
             | It's literally the same company, why would it be prevented?
        
               | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
               | Exactly, so an "Oculus-specific account" would not
               | actually be an account specific to Oculus, it would be a
               | differently-branded Facebook account, too
        
               | long_time_gone wrote:
               | Because of the security and risk implication of not
               | preventing it. Goldman Sachs is both an investment bank
               | and an asset management firm, literally the same company.
               | However, they have clear protocols in place to separate
               | the two sides because otherwise the opportunities for
               | impropriety are too high. I could see a similar argument
               | for separating Facebook and Oculus accounts.
        
               | micromacrofoot wrote:
               | Sure, but Goldman Sachs business model isn't aggregating
               | and selling data. Facebook's is.
        
               | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
               | The fact that the two components of an analogy are not
               | the same thing is the point of the analogy. If they were
               | the same thing, the analogy would be useless.
               | 
               | In this specific analogy, the point is, despite having
               | different business models, society benefits from either
               | conglomerate separating their respective two
               | aforementioned business units.
        
               | long_time_gone wrote:
               | No, their businesses are managing money and taking
               | companies public. They're overall revenue would benefit
               | from aligning those businesses, but they aren't allowed
               | to. They are kept separate because of the risks of having
               | them together. The Facebook scenario is a different (but
               | comparable) situation.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | AlexandrB wrote:
           | > No, this would be an Oculus-specific account.
           | 
           | This is not stated anywhere. I don't see why Facebook
           | couldn't create a Meta SSO that you can use for Facebook
           | and/or Oculus and call it "job done". For them it's a
           | win/win. Most people would choose to "migrate" their Facebook
           | login to Meta. Those annoyed by this could just create a Meta
           | account. Notably there's no mention of whether you'll need to
           | use your real name for logging into Oculus as you do with
           | Facebook. My bet is: probably.
        
           | Closi wrote:
           | > No, this would be an Oculus-specific account.
           | 
           | Hmm, the statements you posted don't quite say that.
           | 
           | I guess it's still possible that users could be required to
           | register a "meta" account which is separate to your personal
           | Facebook account, although you can sign into your personal
           | Facebook account with your meta account via single sign on. I
           | think this would technically meet their wording while also
           | not fulfilling the spirit of what everyone wants.
           | 
           | For instance, you can have a Google account that isn't linked
           | to your personal Gmail account, because not everyone wants
           | their search history linked to their email - just change
           | Google to Meta, Gmail to Facebook and search history to
           | social media.
        
           | micromacrofoot wrote:
           | Oculus no longer exists. It's Meta, which is The Facebook
           | company.
        
             | CharlesW wrote:
             | And just to add a bit more color, Oculus-the-subsidiary
             | became Oculus-the-brand in Sep 2018.
        
           | nixpulvis wrote:
           | Why the fuck do I need to log into my monitor?! it's bad
           | enough the driver demands a running application which tries
           | to sell me shit and pushes me into a place I don't want to be
           | at all. It's literally hijacking my computer.
        
             | onion2k wrote:
             | _Why the fuck do I need to log into my monitor?_
             | 
             | Because you bought a system that only has apps from your
             | monitor's app store available, and that means you have to
             | prove who you are to use them.
             | 
             | It's no different to phones, consoles, etc.
        
               | filoleg wrote:
               | > Because you bought a system that only has apps from
               | your monitor's app store available, and that means you
               | have to prove who you are to use them.
               | 
               | Blatantly false. You can either play Oculus games (must,
               | if you are playing without PC; basically the app store)
               | or you can connect to PC and play any SteamVR games just
               | like you would with any other headset (supported
               | officially).
               | 
               | So with Quest 2, I get to play both the Oculus-only
               | standalone games made for the headset specifically, as
               | well as any SteamVR games that my friends with other VR
               | headsets might want to play together.
        
               | nixpulvis wrote:
               | False, I purchased a VR headset to use with Steam VR
               | (mostly), but I fully expected it to work in a standard
               | way, with understanding to the variations in the handheld
               | controllers.
        
               | q3k wrote:
               | > It's no different to phones, consoles, etc.
               | 
               | You can use a Nintendo Switch or an Android phone without
               | an online account.
        
               | tl wrote:
               | Not really. Nintendo eShop and Google Play Service will
               | dark pattern you towards having an account in cases where
               | they don't outright require it like DLC expansions to the
               | "physical" cartridge you "bought".
        
               | tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
               | You can't install apps through "normal user" means on the
               | Android phones I've had unless you add an account.
               | 
               | De facto, that means you need an account.
               | 
               | Yes, I know you can try to find copies of your banking
               | apps on apkmirror and sideload, but... no. (Also,
               | wouldn't that mean that you have to manually confirm
               | every single app update, so a 10-minute button pushing
               | session every week?)
        
               | croes wrote:
               | You can use via Link with a PC or side load apps, so
               | Oculus apps aren't needed. Since when is it ok that I
               | need an third party account to access my computer?
        
             | smoldesu wrote:
             | This is the iPhone-ized future we signed up for!
        
             | playpause wrote:
             | The Oculus isn't just a monitor, it's a complete computer
             | system with its own OS. If you just want a VR headset that
             | is purely a monitor, buy one of those.
        
               | eli wrote:
               | And an app store. It obviously needs some kind of login.
        
               | arsome wrote:
               | I can use an Android or iOS devices without logging into
               | their respective app stores easily, hopefully they allow
               | similar on Oculus.
        
               | eli wrote:
               | What would you do with it? Side load apps? The games in
               | the app store are presumably the reason 99% of people buy
               | it.
        
               | croes wrote:
               | This wouldn't change if it were a store account instead
               | of a device account. Most people use google's play store
               | but this doesn't mean every android device needs a
               | mandatory google account.
        
               | gpm wrote:
               | On android - yes.
               | 
               | Specifically I would sideload fdroid, and then install
               | (free) apps from there since it doesn't need a login.
               | 
               | Or maybe I'd (say, on windows) "sideload" steam, and
               | install apps from there instead of from Oculus.
               | 
               | The idea that the only place I can get apps from is the
               | "official" appstore is ridiculous.
        
               | gregallan wrote:
               | Also MacOS and Windows have "App Stores" that you
               | certainly don't need to be logged into.
        
               | gpm wrote:
               | The MacOS "App Store" (as in the thing they call the app
               | store, rather than all the other ways you can pay for and
               | install apps) does require you to login. Worse, they
               | block updating the non-os software that came with your
               | computer with logging into that app store.
        
               | ryandrake wrote:
               | I agree with OP for regular wired Oculus devices. They
               | are essentially monitors, and I wouldn't expect to have
               | to have an account in order to use a dumb peripheral. For
               | the Quest, you're right, it's more like a computer system
               | with OS, apps, etc. I'd still rather be able to use it
               | without an account, and only create an account if I
               | wanted to interact with online services like apps and
               | games.
        
               | nixpulvis wrote:
               | Still! why must I log in to simply download an app!?
               | Perhaps _publishing_ an app is a more sensitive matter,
               | then _maybe_ it 's worth validating things strictly
               | behind closed doors... but to simply download and use
               | software on a device I own, I can't fathom how we've
               | slipped so far.
        
             | bananabreakfast wrote:
             | That's silly, you don't.
             | 
             | An oculus is not a monitor, it's an entire game console
             | that includes a screen. Are you this incredulous about
             | having to log in to an iPad or a Switch?
        
               | SantalBlush wrote:
               | Yes, there was a time when we didn't need accounts for
               | every piece of hardware we use.
               | 
               | It is a fact of life that companies will impose more and
               | more profit-maximizing inconveniences upon the customer
               | as long as the customer is willing to accept them. It
               | only stops when enough customers push back.
        
               | pseudalopex wrote:
               | Yes.
        
             | jensensbutton wrote:
             | You log into an ipad. What's the difference?
        
               | nixpulvis wrote:
               | I do not own an iPad. Also... do you really have to? I
               | haven't used an iOS in a little bit now.
               | 
               | Apple is hardly the model for technology we should be
               | using these days. Their walled garden has rotten fruit
               | and it doesn't even get you drunk, you simply fall ill.
        
               | modeless wrote:
               | You have to if you want to install any software. Even
               | free apps from the app store. No side loading allowed.
        
               | micromacrofoot wrote:
               | A massive network of cross-site tracking and a terrible
               | track record for protecting personal information.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
               | I don't own an iPad, but I flashed my tablet with an
               | Android Open Source Project ROM so that I have the option
               | to not send data to anybody I don't want to.
               | 
               | Is Facebook planning to let us do this? Or are they just
               | changing the brand logo on the login page for their
               | required login?
        
               | ootsootsoots wrote:
               | I use a pin code or thumbprint to unlock my iPad and
               | login to Apples store
               | 
               | I can root it and install alternative store
               | 
               | What alternative software can I run on Occulus?
               | 
               | That and all the extra engineering for managing users for
               | business reasons not technical wastes real resources to
               | prop up a technology company that isn't interested in
               | novel discovery, but servicing contemporary business
               | obligations
               | 
               | If they're so smart and capable of pulling useful
               | metadata off unstructured data, why do they need me to
               | maintain a specific profile?
               | 
               | Really kind of feels like they rely on having concrete
               | data and the meta part is marketing
        
               | BbzzbB wrote:
               | You realize iOS roots are developed by third-party geeks
               | and void your warranty (unless that changed in the years
               | since I've interacted with iOS, but I'd be shocked)?
               | Maybe we should indeed force hardware manufacturers to
               | offer a rooting/open OS option by default, but it's a
               | weird criticism when you start off the comment by licking
               | Apple's boot. Further, Facebook actually does offer to
               | open up your deprecated Oculus Go headset now that they
               | are done with the 2 years of guaranteed support to its
               | devs. As such, people can keep tinkering and keeping it
               | up to date (Carmack's opening remarks yesterday address
               | this) with the _help_ of Facebook. That puts them quite
               | objectively ahead of Apple in this regard, the company
               | which was fined in court [1] for draining older iPhone 's
               | batteries and slowing them down thru software updates.
               | 
               | Guaranteed all these people in this thread wouldn't be
               | losing their shit over a hardware account if it wasn't
               | from Facebook's holdco. Forcing a Facebook account was
               | creepy, a dedicated Oculus (well, Meta) account is normal
               | and defensible.
               | 
               | [1] https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/19/tech/apple-battery-
               | settlement...
        
               | jensensbutton wrote:
               | > I can root it and install alternative store
               | 
               | Well if you can root an Oculus you can do whatever you
               | want there as well. That's the whole point of... root.
        
               | evilduck wrote:
               | I mean, thats a complete lie. Got anything else?
        
               | jensensbutton wrote:
               | Oh? The overwhelming majority of people don't log into
               | Apple accounts when setting up their ipads?
               | 
               | Do better.
        
               | evilduck wrote:
               | You can just click the skip button and use an iOS device
               | without any account. Whether or not people want to do
               | this is an entirely different conversation but Apple does
               | not require it.
               | 
               | You do better and stop moving the goalposts and lying.
        
               | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
               | Heya, I noticed that, in responding, you switched your
               | premise from, "You log into an ipad", to, 'The
               | overwhelming majority of people log into their apple
               | accounts when setting up their ipads'.
               | 
               | Since this is disingenuous on your part, telling the
               | person you responded to, to "do better" seems
               | hypocritical.
        
               | jensensbutton wrote:
               | I wonder who you think I meant by "you"? Did you assume I
               | specifically know the parent in person and how they use
               | their ipad at home? If so, and I can only assume you did
               | otherwise your comment would be nonsense, I can see how
               | that would be confusing and seem disingenuous to you.
        
               | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
               | If you're suggesting that by "you", you meant "The
               | overwhelming majority of people who set up ipads", that
               | doesn't sound like a very credible retroactive
               | explanation.
               | 
               | Like, it's confusing for sure, but not on the part of the
               | reader. It doesn't even make sense. Most people don't
               | even _have_ ipads.
               | 
               | And even if they did, you're basically saying, "this
               | small subset of self-selecting people who are okay with
               | their tablet requiring a login to work, are okay with
               | their devices requiring a login to work", which isn't
               | very convincing to others, either.
               | 
               | And even if _that_ made sense, 'these other people are
               | okay with it' is probably one of the weakest possible
               | arguments in favor of /anything/.
        
               | jensensbutton wrote:
               | > this small subset of self-selecting people who are okay
               | with their tablet requiring a login to work, are okay
               | with their devices requiring a login to work
               | 
               | I'll go ahead and assume English isn't your first
               | language. I was saying the vast majority of people who
               | own ipads are fine with needing to login to an account to
               | get the most out of it. Doesn't seem like a particularly
               | controversial statement.
               | 
               | Now go ahead and find some way in which the above
               | sentence is technically incorrect, but you're starting to
               | look silly.
        
               | [deleted]
        
           | croes wrote:
           | That's FB's claim at the moment and after so many tricks and
           | lies by FB I'm pessimistic. Their contract excuse to
           | circumvent the GDPR does not make them credible.
        
           | iforgetti wrote:
           | Does Meta provide a guarantee that data won't be unified
           | between Facebook and Oculus accounts ever? If not, what is
           | the value of this distinction beyond PR?
        
         | Shish2k wrote:
         | I'd assume this is the case, but is there actually any evidence
         | either way, or are we all just speculating?
        
           | blitzar wrote:
           | I am speculating here - but it looks a whole lot like a move
           | to head off anti trust
        
             | BbzzbB wrote:
             | It looks like a company that's been talking about this
             | direction for ~6 years already which decided to precipitate
             | the rebranded holdco (and maybe speed of R&D/capex) in
             | light of recent controversies. Bit of this, bit of that.
        
           | loeg wrote:
           | Transcript[1]:
           | 
           | > And as we've focused more on work, and frankly, as we've
           | heard your feedback more broadly, we're on making it so you
           | can log into Quest with _an account other than your personal
           | Facebook account_.
           | 
           | > ... I know this is a big deal for a lot of people. Not
           | everyone wants their _social media profile linked_ to all
           | these other experiences.
           | 
           | To me this strongly suggests that it is a separate account,
           | and is not required to be linked to a Facebook account.
           | 
           | [1]: https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/meta-facebook-
           | connect-2...
        
             | piva00 wrote:
             | I'd love if they clarified if not being directly linked to
             | a Facebook account would mean it's not being harvested and
             | shadow profiling the user to end up linking to whatever is
             | their definition of a "person" in their ad systems.
             | 
             | This corporate-speak makes me very cynical and I hate it
             | but given FB's history I would like a completely clear
             | statement that data harvested from Oculus is not
             | immediately linked to an identity of myself in some system
             | of the FB colossus.
        
               | krinchan wrote:
               | I think the other key feature they're angling for is
               | suspension or banning of a Facebook account for whatever
               | reason will no longer cost you your entire Oculus
               | library.
               | 
               | It's a very long standing problem. Many people created
               | new Facebook accounts just for Oculus, bought maybe
               | $80-$100 worth of games, and then got their Facebook
               | account banned[*]. There is pretty much no recourse but
               | to whine on the Oculus subreddit till the community rep
               | escalated them past tier 1 support. Even then, the result
               | would be "We've refunded your purchases please use your
               | actual Facebook account."
               | 
               | It's probably gotten bad with charge backs and returned
               | headsets that they're finally doing something about it.
               | 
               | [*]: The common speculation is that this would trip a
               | similar heuristic to "Egg Accounts" on Twitter and would
               | be banned without recourse because that particular piece
               | of Facebook's automation didn't have visibility into the
               | Oculus-side purchase activity. The assumption by Facebook
               | being the account didn't have any content so if it was an
               | actual human they'd just create a new account.
        
               | micromacrofoot wrote:
               | Unless it's part of some legally binding document I
               | wouldn't trust it anyway. Despite the name change they're
               | still Facebook. Data harvesting is their business.
        
             | Uberphallus wrote:
             | Without giving much detail, where I work many accounts from
             | different businesses aren't linked... in customer facing
             | systems. But internally everything is linked, and well
             | linked (for good reasons). FB will profile you even more
             | even though you can use a different email.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | zzzeek wrote:
       | im sure the ongoing FTC investigations have nothing to do with
       | this
        
       | moron4hire wrote:
       | The biggest questions (and anxiety) that I have right now is
       | regarding the Oculus for Business (OfB) program.
       | 
       | I develop a social VR experience for students of foreign
       | languages. It's an activity we provide in addition to our
       | traditional classroom based instruction. Our students are
       | primarily government employees, in diplomatic, defense, or
       | intelligence roles.
       | 
       | When the pandemic hit, we had a huge problem. We needed to pivot
       | our experience away from in-person and figure out a solution to
       | continue development and testing with remote learning. So we
       | built a new teleconferencing feature into the app and started
       | shipping headsets directly to the student. They use them a couple
       | of times for their classes and then ship it back.
       | 
       | This pivot also came at the exact same time that we had the first
       | kerfuffle over the Quest 2 requiring a Facebook login, which made
       | it a complete non-starter for organizations like US intelligence
       | agencies.
       | 
       | Our product is a WebXR experience, which can technically run on
       | any headset on the market. Any sort of PC tethered devices would
       | mean we would have to also ship a gaming laptop to the students,
       | because we can't count on their PC being powerful enough to run a
       | VR headset at all. That would be significantly more expensive and
       | would overcomplicate the setup for students. We can't ship Pico
       | Neo headsets because their employers are fearful of the Chinese
       | ownership of the company. We can't ship Vive Focus devices
       | because, well, the lenses suck and have made even me, a hardened
       | VR user, sick. The OfB Quest 2s that we have are really the best
       | user experience we can provide right now.
       | 
       | With Oculus for Business, the users of the headsets did not need
       | any sort of login whatsoever. It was the best case scenario for
       | us. WebXR nominally keeps us from being platform-locked-in, and
       | the enterprise licensing terms keep our customers happy. I say
       | "nominally", because the only other, realistic option for it
       | right now is PC tethered devices. All of the non-Quest
       | standalones only have an ancient version of Firefox available as
       | a browser. Mozilla laid off all of their VR developers and has
       | not had anyone releasing updates to Firefox Reality in over a
       | year. There are spec changes and defects that they've not kept up
       | with that are significant impediments to continued development.
       | On the other hand, Facebook builds a version of Chromium as the
       | browser on the Quest, that they keep very up to date and have
       | some excellent performance optimizations built in.
       | 
       | But Meta is ending new OfB purchases at the end of this year [0].
       | There is a Quest for Business (QfB) program that they have
       | announced, but it won't be generally available until at least
       | 2023. In an FAQ [1], they talk about options for migration.
       | Migrate the existing OfB headsets to use the consumer Quest 2
       | software, migrate to QfB "when it becomes available" (starting a
       | closed beta later this year, going to open beta "sometime in
       | 2022"), or continue using OfB (which means no system updates in
       | the near future [2]).
       | 
       | What is not clear is what that means regarding headset users
       | being required to have some sort of device login. They say QfB
       | will have "Work accounts" to log in instead of a personal
       | Facebook account. But what, exactly, does that mean? Are these
       | accounts that we can provision per headset, so users can check
       | headsets out of a locker or we can ship to the students and they
       | can just use them? Or will they have to be per-user accounts?
       | 
       | I can abide per-headset accounts. Our clients are not going to
       | abide per-actual-user accounts.
       | 
       | This has been a frustrating experience, to say the least. I keep
       | hoping Microsoft will wake up one day and realize that waveguide
       | displays are stupid, rip them out of the HoloLens, put in some
       | opaque displays, and give us a standalone VR headset, with a
       | decent browser, that my USG customers can abide. But they aren't
       | listening to me.
       | 
       | [0] https://developer.oculus.com/blog/evolving-from-oculus-
       | for-b...
       | 
       | [1] https://business.oculus.com/faq/
       | 
       | [2] OfB devices are currently on v28 of the system software,
       | whereas the consumer SKUs are on v33, which has significant
       | defect fixes and performance improvements. They've stated that
       | v29 will be the last version deployed for OfB, so that's pretty
       | annoying.
        
       | spywaregorilla wrote:
       | Meta's pulling out for a bit while it finds a bigger strap on.
        
       | planb wrote:
       | > During the recent Facebook outage, certain Oculus devices were
       | effectively rendered useless due to their inability to connect to
       | the larger Facebook platform. It's unclear if that specific
       | incident is partially to blame for this change.
       | 
       | No, it's absolutely clear that this has nothing to do with the
       | outage. WhatsApp and Instagram were down too. Their
       | infrastructure does not care if the parent corp is called
       | Facebook or Meta.
        
       | peter-m80 wrote:
       | It now requires a Meta account
       | 
       | (jk)
        
         | Uberphallus wrote:
         | You joke but that's literally what I expect.
        
         | micromacrofoot wrote:
         | That's exactly what this is. They killed off the Oculus brand
         | and now it's Meta. You will need a Meta account. I'd be
         | surprised if it doesn't use the Facebook auth system with a
         | different skin.
        
       | 2pEXgD0fZ5cF wrote:
       | Oculus won't require an account? Where have I heard that one
       | before... This is just another attempt at being clever (and
       | dishonest), isn't it?
       | 
       | "Sure we said it won't require a FACEBOOK account, but Meta is
       | something totally different and <insert more marketing
       | sentences>. And because of that, a Meta account is required."
        
       | AstroDogCatcher wrote:
       | Too little, too late.
        
       | bastardoperator wrote:
       | Wake me up when the resolution isn't garbage. I have two Oculus
       | kits collecting dust due to facebook and the fact that looking at
       | my monitor is still a more pleasurable experience.
        
         | Cromation wrote:
         | Isnt there a hack out there that removes the facebook account
         | requirement?
        
       | stevespang wrote:
       | Zuck going "all in" with VR headsets and FacePlant.
        
       | pitched wrote:
       | I have an old grandfathered Oculus account and haven't upgraded
       | to Quest 2 because I don't want to link my Facebook. If this ends
       | up being true, they've made at least one extra sale.
        
         | senectus1 wrote:
         | if its true i'll buy them for my kids xmas pressies.
        
       | gregjw wrote:
       | Shouldn't have been implemented in the first place.
        
       | chadlavi wrote:
       | In the future: "good news! Your oculus, Instagram, WhatsApp and
       | Facebook accounts are all merging into a single Meta account
       | later this month"
        
       | KingOfCoders wrote:
       | I will be a Meta account in the future.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | someperson wrote:
       | Great news! Mandatory Facebook account was a massive "own goal".
       | 
       | I can't believe it took this long for the policy to be reversed.
       | 
       | The damage to Oculus among enthusiasts was huge. But I guess the
       | Oculus brand is going away anyway leaving just 'Meta' and
       | 'Quest'.
        
       | melvinmt wrote:
       | Oculus will also no longer be known as Oculus:
       | https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/28/facebook-errr-meta-uncerem...
        
         | micromacrofoot wrote:
         | So it sounds like they did some focus groups and figured out
         | that no one wanted a "Facebook Quest"
        
         | mrfinn wrote:
         | Terrible decision, Oculus is a well known brand, the name is
         | catchy, it has good reputation. So, Facebook decides, let's
         | kill off the brand and replace it with. something completely
         | unknown!
        
       | ldehaan wrote:
       | Ohsnap am I gonna get my kids one now? No. Hell no. Facebook Is
       | Trash, I'll never give a cent to them on purpose and do my
       | damndest to bring it down, put it down, throw Facebook away
       | whenever I get a chance to educate someone. Im getting the G2
       | headset baby! If you want to Easily make the world a better
       | place, never give Facebook your money. You don't need to join
       | Greenpeace or sort recycling, just Get Rid Of Facebook.
        
         | smoldesu wrote:
         | Yeah, all those poor people who can't afford ethical headsets
         | can _go fuck themselves!_ I 'm getting a fully loaded headset
         | with all my money, I simply can't _imagine_ being unfortunate
         | enough to get locked out of the Metaverse!
        
       | ta988 wrote:
       | For me it sounds like they are still requiring a form of login so
       | some sort of oauth. And they probably track you with that anyway.
        
       | mupuff1234 wrote:
       | Only to add it later on once they capture enough additional
       | users.
        
         | deltron3030 wrote:
         | The sunken cost strategy.
        
       | nixpulvis wrote:
       | I haven't been following this closely, but what's the state of
       | this ridiculous requirement on the Rift S?
        
       | kgc wrote:
       | To be replaced with Meta account?
        
       | newhouseb wrote:
       | Mark's statement was worded carefully in that he stated access
       | would not longer require your _personal_ Facebook account. I
       | interpreted this to mean you'll still need a Facebook account,
       | but it would be through a Facebook for Work account (although I'm
       | not sure if today these are distinct entities).
        
         | snarf21 wrote:
         | I assumed that you would be able to have a new Oculus only
         | account. However, all you really have is an Oculus (by
         | Hatebook) account. They promised to keep IG and WA separate
         | too, so this is a bit of "Hey regulator, no it is a different
         | account" non-sense signaling.
        
         | hellweaver666 wrote:
         | nah, they'll create a new single sign on service for Meta and
         | you'll be required to have a Meta account (and Facebook and
         | Instagram and WhatsApp will all also require a Meta account).
        
           | whywhywhywhy wrote:
           | This is the real answer, your shadow profile will become your
           | public profile. No more pretending your IG and WhatsApp are
           | siloed.
           | 
           | More just instead of a star with each on a spoke and FB in
           | the middle, Meta will be in the middle and FB just another
           | spoke.
        
         | AlexandrB wrote:
         | Yeah. This article seems to be jumping to conclusions based on
         | a vague statement sandwiched between a bunch of PR claptrap
         | about "hearing feedback". The actual statement could mean
         | anything from the return of standalone Oculus accounts to just
         | unifying SSO under a "Meta" account instead of a "Facebook"
         | one. The only concrete detail was support for Facebook "work"
         | accounts for logging into Oculus.
         | 
         | > and frankly, as we've heard your feedback more broadly, we're
         | working on making it so you can log into Quest with an account
         | other than your personal Facebook account. We're starting to
         | test support for work accounts soon, and we're working on
         | making a broader shift here within the next year. I know this
         | is a big deal for a lot of people. Not everyone wants their
         | social media profile linked to all these other experiences and
         | I get that, especially as the metaverse expands.
        
           | agar wrote:
           | This article covers it more completely, with additional
           | clarifications from Zuckerberg:
           | https://www.theverge.com/22749919/mark-zuckerberg-
           | facebook-m...
           | 
           | > There were all these subtle ways in which, because the
           | company brand was Facebook, a lot of stuff flowed through
           | Facebook and the Facebook app in ways that may have not been
           | optimal. Facebook is still clearly the app that people use
           | the most out of all the ones that we do. But there are people
           | who want to just use WhatsApp or want to just use Instagram,
           | or just want to have Quest and be in VR or AR and not have to
           | use these things.
           | 
           | > So I think it's about being able to pick and choose which
           | of the services you want to use and know that, no matter what
           | happens to your Facebook account or your Instagram account,
           | you're still going to have all the content that you bought in
           | VR or all your virtual goods. You can set up an avatar and it
           | can be tied to one of those accounts or could just be tied to
           | your overall identity across the different family of apps.
           | And you can use it in all these places if you want. I bet
           | that's going to be pretty powerful.
        
       | throwaway123x2 wrote:
       | Would anyone recommend the Oculus Quest for getting exercise?
       | This might be what pushed me to get it.
        
         | GuardianCaveman wrote:
         | I haven't used it for that purpose but I follow Alanah Pearce
         | and she swears by it for helping her drop weight after she
         | gained a bunch because of an injury. I've heard a few other
         | anecdotes about the app she used helping others too called
         | supernatural. Also the boxing ones too.
        
         | ilarum wrote:
         | Yes, I recommend it. Beat Saber and Thrill of the Fight are
         | great.
        
         | machiaweliczny wrote:
         | Boxing, Audio Trip, Pistol Whip and even Beat Saber are all
         | nice
        
         | mrfinn wrote:
         | Quest 2 owner here, "The thrill of the fight" has been my most
         | amazing related discovery. Just 20 minutes playing before
         | shower and you'll be sweating like there's no tomorrow. First
         | days, if not already in gym, you are gonna feel for sure the
         | aches.
        
         | shafyy wrote:
         | Yes, for sure. Much more fun than going to the gym or doing
         | boring exercises at home. Main use would be cardio and stuff
         | like squats etc, not weight lifting. Although Carmack said (in
         | his FB Connect keynote yesterday) that they will soon be
         | fitness apps that incorporate weights as well.
        
           | randoglando wrote:
           | Carmack said (although he wouldn't recommend it due to safety
           | concerns etc.) that he ties arm weights while playing Beat
           | Saber!
        
         | philjohn wrote:
         | Beat saber is a surprisingly good cardio workout - lots of
         | squatting, moving around etc.
        
           | Iefthandrule wrote:
           | Does sweat not affect the Oculus Quest?
        
             | kroltan wrote:
             | Not a Quest (I've used both and think it's the same
             | answer), but with the HTC Vive the foam pads do a good job
             | of not letting sweat get to your eyes.
             | 
             | In general, the facemasks are pretty tight around the eyes,
             | and the sweat glands are on the forehead, so it doesn't
             | affect operation.
             | 
             | Of course, it still gets gunky and you'll want to regularly
             | clean the facemasks if you do any exercising in VR.
             | 
             | The Quest specifically has the face mask directly
             | integrated to the spacer, so you have to remove the whole
             | thing to clean it, but it's doable.
        
             | Taylor_OD wrote:
             | You can buy little covers to keep the sweat from stinking
             | up the device but yeah sweat is a small issue.
        
       | ENOTTY wrote:
       | Facebook could just as easily change the policy again. Meh
        
         | chaostheory wrote:
         | I believe EU laws are the main driver for this change.
         | 
         | As an aside, the Quest 2 would have been a break away hit, if
         | they didn't make the FB login a requirement last year though
        
           | shafyy wrote:
           | It's crazy that they still sold that many, considering that
           | it's not sold in Germany, one of the biggest markets in the
           | world for them.
        
           | jensensbutton wrote:
           | Was still a breakaway hit.
        
             | jcpham2 wrote:
             | Absolutely a favorite in our household. Regrettable that it
             | requires a Facebook account.
        
             | chaostheory wrote:
             | By break away hit, I meant more in line with Nintendo
             | Switch sales. I doubt it's even close due to the login
             | requirement. They lost a lot of word of mouth marketing
             | from would-be evangelists. It's near impossible to defend
             | Facebook / Meta.
             | 
             | The Facebook login was unnecessary friction since they
             | didn't even take advantage of it from the start. It wasn't
             | until a few months ago when I could even find my friends
             | from Facebook.
             | 
             | I do love my Quest 2 though.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | sowbug wrote:
       | Glad to hear about this. I sued Facebook in a California small-
       | claims court to rescind my purchase of the Quest 1 (and all
       | accessories and game purchases) after I declined the change in
       | ToS adding the FB account requirement. It took a while
       | (negotiated with their customer support, then sued, then finally
       | months later got an intelligent response), but we settled for
       | what I asked for. I can't be the only one who got my money back.
       | I liked the product except for the added account requirement, and
       | I would now consider buying again.
        
         | schaefer wrote:
         | You are my hero.
        
         | Diederich wrote:
         | Agree with the other reply to you: I'd love to hear more about
         | the nuts and bolts of this if you have a few spare minutes!
        
         | djbusby wrote:
         | Curious how much time you spent and total time to resolve. Can
         | you share?
        
           | sowbug wrote:
           | I used to practice law, so the process is a little more
           | natural for me. Summary:
           | 
           | 1. I read the terms of service that I originally agreed to.
           | Found a requirement to first negotiate any dispute with their
           | general counsel in good faith. So I wrote to them explaining
           | that I declined the change in ToS terms, and asked for a
           | refund of everything I'd purchased in connection with the
           | headset, plus the dollar amount that it added up to. Sent by
           | registered mail. Waited a few months, got no response. This
           | was summer 2020.
           | 
           | 2. Filed a support ticket basically saying the same thing. I
           | got very prompt responses but of course they were templates
           | -- sorry, 30-day return window has expired, please create FB
           | account, etc.
           | 
           | 3. Drafted up the small-claims complaint. This is actually a
           | very easy and short form in California.
           | 
           | 4. Sent a courtesy copy of the complaint to Oculus general
           | counsel. This can sometimes get their attention and resolve
           | things right away without involving the courts. No response.
           | 
           | 5. Filed the complaint, then served Oculus/FB at their
           | Sacramento address for their registered agent for service of
           | process. This cost something like $100 (filing + service).
           | 
           | 6. Got a summer 2021 court date.
           | 
           | 7. Sent them another courtesy reminder that the court date
           | was approaching and asked to resolve before trial.
           | 
           | 8. In the late spring of 2021 got some activity on the
           | support ticket saying sorry for the delay, please dismiss the
           | case, we'll send you the $$$ plus a box to ship back the
           | goggles.
           | 
           | 9. I accepted their offer, shipped the stuff back, got the
           | $$$, and filed a dismissal of the case.
           | 
           | Total wall clock time > 1 year. Actual human time on the case
           | probably 5 hours. Out of pocket expenses about $100, which I
           | added to the settlement demand, and which they paid. So I
           | ended up back where I started before the Oculus Quest
           | purchase, except for the time I lost writing the court papers
           | and support/legal communications. Which is what I wanted and
           | expected.
           | 
           | As I hope you can tell, I wasn't angry or out for revenge. I
           | just didn't want the FB account requirement, and I especially
           | didn't like that they tried to change the contract terms
           | after we had a deal. It was just a business deal to me, and
           | that takes pretty much all the emotion out of it, which can
           | make many legal cases easier to resolve.
        
             | djbusby wrote:
             | Awesome and detailed response. Appreciate you taking the
             | time.
        
             | Cpoll wrote:
             | What's the worst-case scenario here? What would have
             | happened if they met you in court? What would have happened
             | if they won?
        
               | redis_mlc wrote:
               | It would have cost the company thousands in legal fees,
               | subjected the company to wide-ranging interrogation under
               | oath and the case entered in public records.
               | 
               | It's the latter two that really gets their attention, as
               | a customer dispute escalated into the business affairs of
               | the top of the company where there's actual consequences.
               | 
               | For him, some time and possibility of dismissal.
        
         | hairofadog wrote:
         | I'm a little fuzzy on why people are upset at the idea of
         | linking their Oculus devices to a Facebook account, but not to
         | a _Meta_ or Oculus account, which are surely part of the same
         | data ecosystem. Genuinely asking, is there some reason to
         | expect less - I don 't know, _zuckerberginess_ - from Meta or
         | Oculus than from Facebook?
        
           | nickthegreek wrote:
           | If your facebook account gets banned for some reason, you
           | would lose your entire paid game library and would not be
           | able to use the hardware you spent your cash on.
        
             | arthur_sav wrote:
             | Bingo. I don't want my online persona to be tied to one
             | account or company.
             | 
             | Big tech companies are pushing for a 360 approach where all
             | you media, entertainment, work and even finance happens on
             | their platform.
             | 
             | But what happens when one of their "AI" bots flags you for
             | some arbitrary reason or they simply don't like you? Google
             | is notorious for automatically banning accounts and it's
             | virtually impossible to get a resolution. Bots ban you and
             | bots "answer" you plea for resolution "We've looked into
             | the issue and you're still banned. Bye."
             | 
             | So yeah, facebook bundling all their services under one
             | account is not acceptable.
        
               | Digit-Al wrote:
               | That's the big problem with these massive tech companies.
               | They want to suck more and more of your life into their
               | ecosystems, but they don't want to take on the
               | responsibility that comes with it.
               | 
               | When losing your account just meant not being able to
               | look at a few emails or social media their attitude was
               | (almost) acceptable, but when losing access to your
               | account could mean not being able to pay for things
               | (apple pay, google pay), not being able to access stuff
               | you've paid for (any digital content purchases through
               | the account), possibly not even being able to access your
               | phone; then it becomes a more serious responsibility and
               | just suspending an account for arbitrary reasons is no
               | longer acceptable.
               | 
               | Unfortunately, the tech companies don't seem to have got
               | the message and still regularly ruin people's lives by
               | banning accounts for no discernible reason and giving no
               | recourse to getting them back.
               | 
               | I think if they are going to continue on the course they
               | are on there needs to be some sort of campaign to force
               | them to take more responsibility and to give people a
               | proper channel to get bans investigated. Enforced by some
               | sort of ombudsman or something.
               | 
               | Another option could be that if an account is banned for
               | ToS violations the account holder can still log in and
               | access "essential" services such as payments, plus have
               | read-only access to stuff like emails and photos so they
               | can still rescue their lives.
               | 
               | I would say a mix of both will be essential.
        
               | vineyardmike wrote:
               | > Another option could be that if an account is banned
               | for ToS violations the account holder can still log in
               | and access "essential" services such as payments, plus
               | have read-only access to stuff like emails and photos so
               | they can still rescue their lives.
               | 
               | In some countries (France?) requires that online
               | purchased products are transferable like in the real
               | world. Mostly this is used for game resale, but it should
               | enable you/the company to transfer purchases to a new
               | account. "You banned me, but give my wife the games I
               | bought"
        
             | sillysaurusx wrote:
             | This has actually happened, too! I remember a big article
             | about it on HN. Unfortunately I have no time to scrounge it
             | up, but perhaps someone else remembers and can link to it.
        
               | elliekelly wrote:
               | IIRC there's also a similar lawsuit against Apple.
               | Someone who had purchased quite a lot of content with
               | their Apple ID had their account suspended. I don't
               | recall the details either but I do remember reading their
               | complaint and thinking they had quite an interesting and
               | creative angle to get around Apple's TOS that purport to
               | allow Apple to cancel your account at any time for any
               | reason.
               | 
               | Edit: Thread discussing the Apple ID suit
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26890055
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | Sure, but that's true whether it's a Facebook account, an
             | Oculus account, a Quest account, or a Meta account, right?
        
             | 8ytecoder wrote:
             | Isn't that true for Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft as
             | well? I have games on Xbox, movies in iTunes, books and
             | audiobooks with Amazon. I've hedged my bets but it still
             | would be non-trivial loss for me.
        
               | vineyardmike wrote:
               | This is one of the few good thins about streaming only.
               | Apple Music ban you? Switch to Spotify!
        
             | nsxwolf wrote:
             | Now your Meta account can get banned for some reason. I
             | assume the ToS will be very similar. It's a platform, you
             | can say things on it, you can potentially abuse people on
             | it.
             | 
             | There may come a day where the world is utterly broken for
             | the unaugmented, just a confusing sterile landscape
             | camouflaged in QR codes. Getting kicked off the Metaverse
             | will be a terrifying form of exile. But it will all be a
             | private company's decision, so that will make it OK.
        
               | 14 wrote:
               | It is still better to keep as many accounts separate as
               | possible. At least right now if you get banned from
               | Facebook your google account doesn't get banned also. And
               | though I have never been banned from Facebook I wouldn't
               | want to tie real life game purchases to a social media
               | account where saying the wrong thing might end you up in
               | trouble. Hard pass.
        
               | Liquix wrote:
               | Not being banned is nice, but keeping your accounts
               | separate does nothing to prevent the data points you
               | mentioned being linked, especially within the Meta
               | ecosystem. Even outside of the ecosystem, there are
               | billion dollar companies that are very very good at tying
               | together all your 'unrelated' accounts/data points and
               | selling these packages to the highest bidder. It's
               | prudent to assume that big brother and anyone else who
               | cared enough to look could link said activity to you.
        
               | hairofadog wrote:
               | I keep thinking of that scene from The Beatles' _Help_ in
               | which they all walk into the same apartment through four
               | different doors.
               | 
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx_7xjpySK0
        
           | jeffwask wrote:
           | In most gaming spaces, I would rather not give people the
           | amount of info associated with my Facebook account
        
           | emsy wrote:
           | It still sucks, but there is no obligation for your real name
           | and it shouldn't be that hard find an anonymous payment
           | method.
        
           | tomc1985 wrote:
           | Why do we need an account anyway??
           | 
           | How about ... no accounts.
        
           | pronlover723 wrote:
           | This is a problem in general (not just FB) but, here are some
           | apps I'd like to run on a VR device (Quest) but I don't want
           | FB/Meta or anyone else to record that I'm running them or how
           | often.
           | 
           | NSFW
           | 
           | https://www.patreon.com/meshedvr
           | 
           | https://sexgames.citor3.com/
           | 
           | http://www.illusion.jp/preview/honey2_dx/
           | 
           | This is also a reason I will personally never buy an adult
           | game from Steam. I don't want my gamer account and my sexual
           | preferences to be linked.
           | 
           | Let me also add that inside out tracking means effectively
           | the device is filming me in various states of undress and I
           | have to trust that they aren't collecting any of that data
           | for "quality assurance" etc...
           | 
           | And with FB/Meta, that same data is data that's used to
           | connect me with my Mom and family on FB. No, just, no!
        
           | suprfnk wrote:
           | > zuckerberginess
           | 
           | Zuckiness, if you will.
        
             | na85 wrote:
             | Zuckery.
        
               | kevin_thibedeau wrote:
               | Dumb Zuck.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | georgeecollins wrote:
           | It's unknown what a Meta account will be, but I can explain
           | the difference between a FB account and an Oculus one.
           | 
           | Having an Oculus account was pretty much like having a Steam
           | account. It keeps track of your devices, your purchases, and
           | you get emails or notifications (if you enable it)about
           | products it thinks you want. Not perfect, but an a tradeoff I
           | will accept for great devices and a good service.
           | 
           | Having to log into FB means you have to create an FB account,
           | and they try to stop you from setting up a fake one not
           | connected to your real phone number and emails. Using your
           | device will mean that sometimes you have to log into FB which
           | can be a real hassle on your home browser or phone. You have
           | to think about leaving cookies, not leaving certain apps on
           | your phone, particularly if you are on Android, and if you
           | are a Quest 2 developer you are an Android developer so all
           | the security questions are x2.
           | 
           | Plus, FB probably keeps this account you set up just to use
           | your Oculus device and they post to it every time you buy a
           | game or maybe every time you get an achievement. I have no
           | idea if anyone actually has the misfortune to see those
           | posts, but I wonder if they collect money on ads that are
           | served to the accounts that have no other activity than
           | automated Oculus posts. Someone here would know.
           | 
           | I love the Quest 2 and I am really happy FB is doing this.
           | Thank you FB for this.
        
             | kerng wrote:
             | This entire rebranding is just a stunt to steer away from
             | the mess Facebook creates in our society - it's still the
             | same people in charge, even worse the Facebook people are
             | moving more and more over to RL teams - so absolutley
             | nothing will change, it will actually get worse as Facebook
             | culture takes over.
             | 
             | Maybe some fun startup like Magic Leap or maybe Snap
             | rebrands to Antimeta.
        
               | georgeecollins wrote:
               | I don't disagree, but keep in mind that any VR headset is
               | probably going to involve an account and a login. When I
               | download a game from Nintendo or Valve I am signing up
               | for something and giving them personal info.
               | 
               | We are going to have to strike some balances. It's really
               | annoying to have FB (or anyone) mandate that you join a
               | multi-platform surveillance ecosystem to use their
               | hardware. On the other hand, a platform with a digital
               | library-- like say a kindle-- requires a login and some
               | personal info. We just need to set some limits so that
               | companies don't abuse these relationships.
        
           | sbilstein wrote:
           | admittedly a very personal reason but I _don't_ want to be
           | able to log in to facebook. Each property of theirs has it's
           | own flavor but I personally find facebook with its treasure
           | trove of decade old memories and connections to people i
           | haven't seen in ages to be a bit of a despair and depression
           | pit.
           | 
           | I deleted my account specifically cause I felt like "why am I
           | still looking at this stuff?"
           | 
           | I would love to be able to use oculus or instagram (which i
           | can now) without an FB account. Recently I created an account
           | to use ad manager for my job and it's been really annoying
           | how many friends (from the past) I get suggested and how much
           | the algo seems to want to rebuild my old account...
        
         | greggman3 wrote:
         | I bought a Quest 2, three weeks ago. Tried to set it up.
         | Already have a Rift S with an Oculus account. To use the Quest
         | 2 required me to switch my Oculus account to FB. (Not gonna
         | happen). I tried 8 times to create a new FB account, it failed
         | the first 7 (no idea why, nothing about the data I entered was
         | strange). When it finally worked the device would not pair with
         | my iPhone6S+ (which I used as it's on a different Apple account
         | than my FB and FB app). It failed to pair which was enough for
         | me to just say "f this" and I took it back.
         | 
         | If they drop me having to associate my Quest usage with my FB
         | account I'll be happy to go buy one again.
        
           | blowski wrote:
           | During lockdown, my son's school delivered lots of material
           | through Facebook. Despite quitting 8 years ago, I signed up
           | again. I didn't add any friends or make any posts, though,
           | and within days the account was blocked. When I tried to sign
           | up again, it said my phone number was blocked. I contacted
           | the "you've blocked my account in error" service twice,
           | submitted documents - didn't hear anything back.
        
             | closetohome wrote:
             | I think this speaks to my issue. Facebook is far too ban-
             | happy and obsessed with verifiable identity for me to ever
             | be comfortable associating it with an expensive piece of
             | hardware.
        
       | fartcannon wrote:
       | How many frogs will fall for the scorpions plan?
        
         | tempodox wrote:
         | We know the answer to that: Billions.
        
       | Cromation wrote:
       | Wouldnt trust them. I'd follow the hack recently put out that
       | gave you access without needing an account. Only thing you lose
       | is access to their social media related functions if I remember
       | correctly
        
       | 74d-fe6-2c6 wrote:
       | I'm confused. Is this valid as of now? As in ... I can buy an OQ2
       | and use it without an FB accunt?
        
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