I agree with you. People don’t want a single, VR metaverse. Even in fiction, like Ready Player One, the metaverse is imagined as a dystopia.
Having experienced Oculus, Hololens, and Pokémon Go, I think it’s much more likely people want AR layers on the real world than to have a VR headset on. There’s plenty of evidence people enjoy owning and designing virtual property, but that can happen with AR or on screens (like it does today in FarmVille, Animal Crossing, and Eve Online). There’s evidence people value an avatar that can enter games on their behalf (Mii, Bitmoji, character builders). I don’t see evidence people want a single company to own a metaverse platform… one company just doesn’t have the skills to pull off enough genres of experience.
Having experienced Oculus, Hololens, and Pokémon Go, I think it’s much more likely people want AR layers on the real world than to have a VR headset on. There’s plenty of evidence people enjoy owning and designing virtual property, but that can happen with AR or on screens (like it does today in FarmVille, Animal Crossing, and Eve Online). There’s evidence people value an avatar that can enter games on their behalf (Mii, Bitmoji, character builders). I don’t see evidence people want a single company to own a metaverse platform… one company just doesn’t have the skills to pull off enough genres of experience.