As tech companies like Microsoft and Facebook’s parent Meta plow money into development of the 3-D virtual realty world known as the Metaverse, users are growing discouraged over poor graphics and sub-par user experiences. Whereas tech companies had promised ultra-realistic, even photorealistic environments, where intricate user avatars could traverse freely like a real life version of the movie “Ready Player One,” actual users report comically poor graphics and cartoon-like avatars which do not even have legs.

Marc Petit, Epic Games’ VP and general manager of Unreal Engine, told Yahoo Finance, “People have kind of lost interest in the metaverse, because characters look like cartoons with no legs. I mean, who wants to be that? This is not attractive.”

Additionally, the lawless nature of the semi-reality in the metaverse has sparked acts which would be punishable crimes in the real world, but which are just experience-degrading events in the Metaverse, such as sexual assaults, which are not able to be controlled or punished.

Tech companies, meanwhile continue to plow ahead, with companies like Facebook even changing their name to try and assert dominance over a sector which is till only of interest to a small group of committed early-adopters. Companies like Microsoft have tried to expand their market, as they have looked at creating platforms which can be used for both entertainment by individuals, and as meeting places for businesses to conduct work,

Both Google and Apple have expressed interest in the concept, with Apple possibly introducing their own virtual reality headset, later this year.

Despite the interest of tech firms, even the most tech-savvy teens seem not only uninterest, but even uniformed about this new technology. Piper Sandler’s latest Taking Stock With Teens survey, found that while 26% of teens own a VR device, only 5% use it daily and only 17% use it weekly. furthermore, half of teens are either have no intention of buying a VR device, or are unsure what the metaverse is.

Part of the problem is poorly developed, low-grade content. As Marc Petit said, “The metaverse needs to be about places and content that consumers will want to consume. That should not look like 1980s graphics, like a lot of things we see even today.”

However given the present state of technology, photorealistic content which will excite users is at least years away.

Petit continued, “We have to pace ourselves. The pandemic kind of forced that awareness around the metaverse upon us, those social experiences. But it took us 30 years already to get where we are…In my mind, we haven’t seen anything yet about the metaverse.”

Meta spent $10.2 billion on metaverse projects in 2021, building virtual and augmented reality headsets and the software to access its virtual reality. But Mark Zuckerberg says that won’t be profitable for at least 15 years.

Others however see a world where one day the Metaverse will be used for more than just escapism. Some think it will be wired into glasses and car windshields, where any citizen can delve into it quickly to get educated on a subject or find some specific piece of data quickly.

Until then, users will just have to get used to floating without legs.