Nick Heer writes about how Facebook hijacked ‘metaverse’ into a meaningless catch-all.

In the weeks after Meta announced it was retreating from its metaverse efforts earlier this year, I revisited this and other earnings calls, plus presentations and other documentation, as I tried to better understand what the metaverse was pitched as compared to what it ultimately became.

I find it notable that Heer’s post never mentions VRChat. The hype storm stayed centered around Meta and crypto. The term “metaverse” got distorted and stretched to mean everything: online meetings, UGC, multiplayer games, 2D social spaces. Microsoft was calling Teams calls the metaverse at one point. It was bonkers, and it harmed how the mainstream perceived social VR.

VRChat stayed out of the mess and didn’t get branded with Zuck’s version of the label. It benefited from the 2020-2021 VR influx without being permanently grouped in with Horizon the way I feared. Even Dan Olson’s notable video, which Heer cites, only covers VRChat for context. The criticism stayed pointed at the crypto grifters and bullshit industry hype.