I mean yeah it’s obvious that it’s an oportunity for making money on a new marked and so on, but, even if it’s a bit silly, dreaming of VR technology like in Ready Player One(minus the distopian world) for real life it feels like the bad guys already won, when we will have the technology. Like the omni One is just about to be launched for the market and it’s sold in a bundle with the pico 4, which is owned by Tik Tok. Do you get what is grinding my gears about that?
Personally, I actually expect VR to disappear from the market once more, or at least for there to be a long gap before the next stuff comes out.
In fact, I think, the Apple headset was the last notable hardware release of the current hype wave.
So, yeah, the big privacy-invasive companies would definitely be a dealbreaker for me, but I don’t think this cycle really matters yet.
Beat Saber is ridiculously awesome… but I never want to wear a fucking headset to do my work.
VR is useful for recreation not business.
Modded Skyrim in VR is amazing too. I’ve put my Index on and had hours slip by without realizing it. There’s nothing like wandering around Skyrim and killing dragons in VR. And then of course there’s also Half Life Alyx. That game will make you forget you’re in a game…
Originally, I had typed out that IMHO VR never made it beyond being a gimmick. And yeah, Beat Saber is pretty much the reason why I decided to reformulate. Some people buy VR goggles primarily to play Beat Saber. If they’re frequently doing so, then they’re getting their money’s worth out of it, then that is absolutely legit.
And well, I imagine, there will be use-cases for business, like being able to walk around in a CAD design or architecture draft, that’s probably useful, too. But yeah, just for taking a call, I actively don’t want to be embedded into a 3D world every time.
Yea, but how long did you play it? This generation’s guitar hero
Beat Saber is the gateway drug. It’s the VR equivalent of Tetris with how simple, fun and ubiquitous it is.
Have it since 2018, currently play about 5 hrs a week.
It’s fun exercise!
Probably about six hours a week.
VR is the next 3DTV. It’s a neat technology that doesn’t need to be mainstream, but we have no shortage of company marketers desperately trying to create a narrative that every home needs it.
Well, there is the problem that if people spend several hundred dollars or more to buy a VR headset and potentially upgrade their PC/console for it, then they do expect blockbuster titles. A minigame collection, like the Wii had, isn’t going to fly. And blockbuster titles will only be produced, if there’s enough of an audience.
Like, yeah, it doesn’t need to be fully mainstream, but there is currently a disconnect between the number of
rich nerdswealthy techies that may naturally be interested in a VR headset and the audience size needed to pay for blockbuster titles.One problem is that there’s a massive upfront cost to get into VR as a consumer. Even the cheaper headsets are several hundred dollars, similar to a full console purchase. Which means not a lot of people are going to invest in the hardware, which means there isn’t as much of a market to produce games for, which means not a lot of people are going to invest in the hardware, etc etc etc.
On top of that, VR has the awkward problem of locomotion. Either you’re teleporting around the game world, getting motion sick moving around the game world, or standing in one place at all times. None of these options are ideal, and the only real solutions to this issue involve insanely pricy hardware purchases.
Maybe one day we’ll figure it out, maybe we’ll all be living in tubes playing games with our minds or whatever.