What All the Outrage Over the Oculus Deal Says About Facebook, the Brand

By Simon Dumenco. Hostility Toward Facebook Seems More Deeply Felt Than Ever.
When a start-up gets swallowed whole by a global conglomerate, there's always going to be moaning and groaning. We're all used to that now -- and so is Facebook (see, for instance, the reaction to its mid-2012 acquisition of Instagram).
But since Facebook announced yesterday that it's buying Oculus VR, the maker of Oculus Rift, an upcoming virtual-reality headset, the outrage online has been completely off the charts, with Facebook-haters wielding their virtual pitchforks in scary, mob-like formations.
Why? Part of it has to do with the fact that Oculus VR scored a big chunk of cash with a hugely popular Kickstarter campaign. On Aug. 1, 2012, Oculus VR set a goal of $250,000 for itself to create a ''developer kit for the Oculus Rift -- the first truly immersive virtual reality headset for video games." Thanks to the hype surrounding an Oculus Rift prototype shown off earlier that year, the gaming community fell in love, and Oculus surpassed its $250K target within the first four hours, and ultimately pulled in nearly ten times its goal when the fundraiser ended a month later with $2,437,429 banked. More...