A virtual world launched by META: Horizon Worlds
Horizon Worlds is a virtual reality video game, available for US and Canada based players.
The platform was released exclusively in North America on the 9th of December 2021, after a closed beta. The project was developed by META (known previously as Facebook Group), to highlight the evolution towards the Metavers. According to Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook, « the Metavers is the next step of the mobile internet ».
Establishment of Horizon Worlds:
Horizon Worlds was not created in just a few months, it all began in 2014, when Facebook bought Oculus, a company specialized in virtual reality.
Actually, Horizon Worlds was born at an Oculus Connect conference in September 2019.
A closed alpha was then launched in 2020, followed by a closed beta, in March 2020, where players had to receive an invitation to be able to connect to Horizon Worlds. And since, December 2021, Horizon Worlds is finally accessible without an invitation system.
The platform that allows its users to play, explore and create, is currently accessible in the United States, and in Canada, for free, on the Oculus platform, for all owners of an Oculus Quest 2 (henceforth META Quest 2), which is META’s virtual reality headset, and of course, provided that they are over 18 years old.
More information about Horizon Worlds:
Virtual reality looks like it could become the future’s new social networking plateform , indeed, it is accessible in multiple situations and spaces, and allows its users to interact with friends but also with complete strangers, up to twenty people can meet in a room.
Using the principles of Second Life, or even Minecraft, Horizon Worlds gives players the opportunity to evolve in a virtual environment. It is possible to meet in exchange spaces and game spaces, some can even be designed by the players.
META wishes to make available libraries of codes, free of charge, as well as objects, so that each player can design their environment as well as possible.
The first sexual assault:
A few days after the release of Horizon Worlds, a woman testified that she was the victim of a virtual sexual assault on the platform. The latter claims that another player would have touched her chest, through the use virtual reality. According to The Verge she said: « Not only was I groped last night, but there were other people present who supported this behavior, which made me feel isolated on the Plaza ».
Horizon Worlds claims that a Safe Zone is available, allowing each player to isolate themselves, however the victim said she was unable to find this private room.
The emergence of those new virtual reality technologies raises a lot of legal questions but the lack of legal provisions surrounding that subject creates an ambiguity and makes it harder for legal professionals to solve existing issues.
New legislation should be set up in the times to come to be able to control the new disputes.
By Zoé Auger
