This is a horrible, rude, and insanely demeaning take.
Formerly one of those developers, finally got fed up with the beast and left. I continue to do VR dev.
1. The internals were actually some of the most robust software I've ever seen.
2. People who worked on it originally were some of the best devs I've ever seen across multiple companies
3. They uniformly got burnt out by incredible harassment from people who hated facebook transferring their hate to people who cared about games or VR - or, ironically, wanted to transition away from the facebook teams...because facebook.
4. Don't ascribe to developers what was clearly forced commandments from deeply flawed leadership decisions.
Those people doing the forcing in #4 are the first in line for blame. Not the developers. Maybe a little sprinkling of people similar to you.
Even if your internals were indeed "some of the most robust software" ever, your users didn't see the internals, they just saw the ads.
Even if you were (are) one of the "best devs" ever, you know the software equivalent of Michelangelo cannot be appreciated by anyone except another really good programmer, and there aren't that many of those, and they certainly aren't your users. Your users saw ads.
You cannot work for Facebook and enjoy that sweet sweet Facebook money, without having to accept, that everyone else you meet, will treat you like you sell ads, because that's what you do.
There are a lot of foot soldiers from many terrible episodes of history who I'm sure have your exact perspective. Your 4th point could have been lifted verbatim from just about any documentary about them. And then you throw it back on the OP because your feelings were hurt; time for a little critical self assessment.
Shouldn't have locked it behind a Facebook login then, eh? It could be the best thing since sliced bread, but it belongs on a trash heap as long as it requires a facebook login.
Yeah, but that was an executive decision, not a developer decision. It's absolutely the reason I'm never going to buy an Oculus, but it's a bit unfair to blame it on developers who had no influence on this decision. (Only a bit unfair, because those developers still choose to work there.)
I don't think you get a pass on the basis of "I just work here" unless you're in a position that you can't afford to lose that job. And if you are in that position, you can at least feel an appropriate level of shame for what you had to do.
> It's absolutely the reason I'm never going to buy an Oculus
Same, and that is also why I recommend the same to anyone who discusses VR: Do not buy Oculus.
I'm sorry you had to work there and saw your work get ruined by corporate greed, and I'm sure that you personally hold no blame for this, but that doesn't make the product as it exists today any less awful.
I draw the line at "wishing ill upon its developers". Yeah, we were a part of the beast and responsible for its output. And I did quit, as the sibling comment failed to notice in its blunt anger. Login was beyond controversial even amongst my peers.
My point was: If, as a critic of Oculus, you look for someone to feel a dull sense of non-actionable vengeance against, aim higher.
I left and my headset of choice is an Index, despite its software having much rougher edges.
Formerly one of those developers, finally got fed up with the beast and left. I continue to do VR dev.
1. The internals were actually some of the most robust software I've ever seen.
2. People who worked on it originally were some of the best devs I've ever seen across multiple companies
3. They uniformly got burnt out by incredible harassment from people who hated facebook transferring their hate to people who cared about games or VR - or, ironically, wanted to transition away from the facebook teams...because facebook.
4. Don't ascribe to developers what was clearly forced commandments from deeply flawed leadership decisions.
Those people doing the forcing in #4 are the first in line for blame. Not the developers. Maybe a little sprinkling of people similar to you.