Blog

This is it! After over a year, I'm finally starting to move Datastream over to a new hosting provider that will allow me to port the whole site over to React. I'm still learning, so bear with me as I discover how the heck this thing really works, and hopefully we'll get the title-screen animation back at some point, fingers crossed!

I also figure I'd mention that I have reworked the way I run the blog and have made it waaay easier to write a new post on. The one issue right now is images, but that's not a dealbreaker when I can add them manually after the fact, but I made a little tool that streamlines the publishing process.

I'm super excited to have Datastream back up and running, and I can't wait to see what the next 3 years hold! Thanks a lot, y'all!

In case you live under a rock, let me rewind just a bit: When Facebook bought Oculus, they told Palmer Luckey that they would never require the use of Facebook accounts on the Oculus Rift. Little did he know that Facebook would discontinue the Rift as fast as possible to void that arrangement. The new headsets, the Oculus Quest and Rift S, are not the Rift, therefore, this agreement need not apply.

Fast forward to 2020, and Facebook announces that all new headsets sold after October 6th would require the use of a Facebook account. Chances are, the Rift branding will be killed on October 6th to avoid this previous agreement. Does this make me mad? Hell yeah. Am I gonna speak my mind? You betcha!

My thoughts

Facebook is testing the waters right now.
They know that this could turn out terribly, with everything happening in Europe right now with these accounts, but it's also clear that they know that there are more people in this world who don't care about their data getting sold without their consent than there are who do. Where will this go? Who knows... but mark my words, I think the Reverb G2 is gonna be a heck of a lot more popular than people were expecting. Personally, I've already become so heavily invested in developing for the Oculus Quest that I don't think I really have a choice. If I want an audience, I'm going to aim at publishing my game in front of the largest audience I can. Right now, that's Oculus.

I just don't have a choice.

That said, I do not agree with Facebook's data collection and management policies and I would like to make it clear that I would rather gouge my eyes out that receive another targeted ad.

Here's my solution, even though no one at Oculus will ever see this:

Oculus announces that they will require Facebook accounts to use the Oculus UXLive features (a name I made up) that are part of their headset. This includes things like Facebook Horizon, Infinite Office, Facebook Venues, and any app that uses personalized Oculus avatars. Without a Facebook account or integration, Horizon, Infinite Office, and Venues will be completely unavailable and games that use the Oculus Avatar system will assign your username a default Avatar. Those accounts will not have data collected and will receive limited features, but can still use the hardware they purchased.

Make sense?

This is actually a really important issue for me, and while I could boycott Oculus and their products, the fact of the matter is that I can't afford even a Vive Cosmos; Beyond that, I've already had my Facebook account linked for ages (still don't know why I did that), and all the damage that could have been done has been done.

Next steps? Just be careful what you share while you use an Oculus headset; we have no idea what is being collected and sold from this point going forward.