Tech companies such as Facebook parent Meta (FB) and Microsoft (MSFT) are plowing money into their plans for the metaverse, the 3-D virtual world that tech executives are obsessed with. But so far, the experiences that users can get their hands on are nowhere near Silicon Valley’s promises of hyper-realistic avatars and seamless interactions with the real world. And it could be turning consumers off.

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

Petit’s critique is a not-so-thinly veiled reference to Meta’s “Horizon Worlds” platform. The company’s primary metaverse experience, “Horizon Worlds” features avatars without legs and graphics that are far from those found in modern big-budget video games.

And that kind of overpromising could push users away in the long run.

We’re years away from the metaverse we’ve been promised

The concept of the metaverse was first popularized by Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel “Snow Crash.” Technology companies have chased the idea of 3-D virtual worlds could visit for even longer, though.

Meta even changed its name to signal its focus on the metaverse, while Microsoft is exploring ways of using it for both entertainment and work. Google has also expressed interested in the concept, and Apple is reportedly working on its own augmented reality headset that could debut later this year.

But the way the metaverse has been marketed to consumers so far has been both vague and full of far-off technologies. During an October presentation, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off a world where you can talk to realistic projections of your friends via augmented reality glasses and have the ability to play games with friends in “Ready Player One”-style worlds.

But what we have now is a far cry from that. Rather than a boundless online world, Meta’s “Horizon Worlds” is more of a small gathering space for early adopters.

What's more, there are signs that even young people have a fuzzy understanding of the metaverse. According to Piper Sandler’s latest Taking Stock With Teens survey, while 26% of teens have some kind of VR device, just 5% use it daily and 17% use it weekly. What’s more, 50% of teens are either unsure of the metaverse or have no intention of buying a VR device.

Of course, Epic Games produces the incredibly popular game “Fortnite,” which is, itself, an early form of the metaverse. Gamers can participate in the game’s "Battle Royale" or watch Ariana Grande concerts or discussions on race with Killer Mike and Jemele Hill.