The Oculus Rift is an up and coming system developed for bringing Virtual Reality Gaming out of Sci-Fi Novels and into our living rooms. (See Holodeck Story for details)

Or rather, it was.

On March 25^th, Facebook purchased the Oculus Rift for an impressive 2 billion dollars, hoping that the adaptation of the Rift to Facebook will create a better online Social Experience. This, however, created an uproar in the gaming community, sparking forums such as “How to cancel your Oculus Rift Pre-Order” on reddit and “Why Facebook Ruins Everything.”

Even professional game designer Markus “Notch” Person, the creator of Minecraft who had been working on a version of the game suitable for the Rift canceled his deal.

“Facebook creeps me out” says Notch, going on to say that he just doesn’t want to work on social experiences.

Many of the individuals who donated to the project on kickstarter are also feeling angry at the transaction. “What in hell was the point of kickstarter if you sell out to a giant company like Facebook?” says donator Michael Cooper. “Very disappointed.”

Although most of the reactions to the news have been negative, there are those willing to find and point out some of the things to look forward to as a result of this ordeal.

“Facebook’s [view] is of people totally immersing themselves in virtual worlds where they will be able to do everything from taking virtual classes together, to communicating with distant friends as if they were standing in the same room.” Says The Economist’s article titled ‘Game of Goggles’, contrasting Facebook’s desired future with the Rift and Google’s Glass.

“They can’t be accused of being short sighted.”