An expensive VR experiment with no audience

The first interaction I had with someone in Horizon Worlds was another avatar telling me to “f— off.”

Horizon Worlds is a social virtual reality application created by Meta that allows users to explore virtual worlds and interact with other participants virtually. This is Meta’s main metaverse platform.

Social etiquette isn’t the same in VR as it is in reality. While I was engaging in another social interaction, a female user’s avatar started hitting my avatar, which is not allowed per Meta’s guidelines. If someone’s behavior is inappropriate, you can report them. You can also set up boundaries so people can’t get too close to you.

There are Community Guides, employed by Meta, who walk around Horizon Worlds and help guide you through your Horizon Worlds experience. I listened in on a conversation others were having with one of the guides. The other users wanted to know more about him and how much money he made, which he said he couldn’t share.

And I thought it was weird when someone asked me how I could afford my Meta Quest Pro.

There were pleasant interactions, too. Many legless avatars told me information about the different worlds I was in and where to go to see a comedy show or play a game. I even played virtual beer pong with some folks, but things turned sour when my opponent said, “If I make this shot, you have to CashApp me $5.” I walked away from the game.

The major issue with the new headset is not its design, it’s the software. There aren’t enough apps that are optimized to take advantage of the Meta Quest Pro’s updates.

The app Wooorld is a perfect example of this. The point of Wooorld is exploration. You are transported by picking a landmark on a topographical map, which then shows you real photos of your surroundings. I was able to travel to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Pyramids of Egypt, and a mountain in Japan.

I can see the use case for this sort of application. Imagine being a middle school history teacher trying to explain the Great Wall of China. Taking the students right to it in virtual reality could help keep them interested.

But the pictures are grainy and getting to different locations isn’t easy. It took me 45 minutes to figure out how to move around in Wooorld. When you make it to your desired location, you can see a 360-degree view of the landmark, but I wish you could see more, walk around and access additional information about the location.

Overall, the experience is not better than the much more affordable Meta Quest 2.

I am an avid meditator; I try to get 10 to 20 minutes of mindfulness practice every day. I typically use a guided meditation app to practice, but meditation in the real world will never be the same now that I’ve done it in the metaverse.

TRIPP is a guided virtual reality experience that fully immerses you in meditation. If you’ve ever tried meditating before, you know that quieting your thoughts is usually the most challenging part. Connecting to the present moment is easy when you are consumed by visuals and auditory instructions.

In TRIPP, users are guided through breathing exercises that use visual cues to help them get into the activity. For example, when you’re inhaling and exhaling, little particles appear to virtually flow in and out of your mouth. The app also incorporates games into mindfulness. You’re tasked with using your head to direct an object that touches different coins, while simultaneously avoiding obstacles. For me, it was pretty hard to stress about my to-do list when I was trying to focus on the object of the game.

I left my meditation sessions feeling a little more connected to the present moment. I was able to better concentrate on tasks afterward without getting pointlessly lost in thought.

I did not find it productive to actually work with my headset on, which is one of the main Pro headset use cases Meta promotes.

“One of the problems Meta is trying to solve is trying to help people collaborate in a hybrid environment,” Munster said.

I used an app called Immersed to project my computer screen in VR. While using Immersed you can co-work with others, write on a whiteboard, type, watch videos — essentially anything you can do on a computer.

There’s also Meta’s own Horizon Workroom, which is a VR workspace that allows you to connect, collaborate and create. The face and eye tracking make the avatar experience more lifelike, but besides that, both apps perform similarly to how they do when used on the Meta Quest 2.

The benefit of working in the metaverse is that you remove outside distractions. Unless you have phone notifications set up, you can only see what exists on the screens in front of you. In theory, this is a great idea. I often get distracted by things going on in the environment around me, and Immersed removes the temptation to talk to people around you or pick up your phone.

But I felt disoriented. I was itching to take the headset off after a few minutes of trying to read an article. My eyes felt tired from stimulation and the headset felt too heavy to wear for more than an hour at a time. While I was able to wear the headset for longer while in Horizon Worlds, for some reason reading and typing felt more strenuous, which is why I had a hard time with work productivity in VR.

Being creative in the metaverse is a different story. I used the app Painting VR and found it really engaging and exciting to put a virtual brush to a canvas. Once you get a hang of the hand gestures, you can mix colors, experiment with different brush sizes and even press against the canvas harder to achieve a thicker line. You can display your paintings on the wall and invite friends to see your exhibition.

These experiences are not new or exclusive to the Pro. All of them can be done on the Quest 2. But everything is faster on the Pro. The visuals are sharper, and the cameras are better and portray your facial expressions in the digital world. The headset is more comfortable. The sensors are more accurate, and the battery life is better. But, besides that, you’ll play the same games and use the same applications with the much less expensive Quest 2.

Probably not.

I see some promising use cases for the headset, especially when it comes to education, but there’s no justification yet for buying the more expensive Pro since you currently get similar virtual reality experiences from the Quest 2.

I’m excited to see how developers can expand on the metaverse and give people access to better apps and learning opportunities that may otherwise be impossible in the real world. I can picture a surgeon practicing in the metaverse, or a celebrity holding a free virtual concert that anyone with a headset can attend. But these applications will only work if Meta improves the graphics and makes virtual reality feel much closer to actual reality.

Meta has made improvements to its headset. The software and hardware are better, but there aren’t new applications to justify the huge price hike. While I’m sure the cost of these adjustments justifies some of the price increase, consumers aren’t getting any more real value or new experiences by splurging for the much more expensive headset.