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CNet:
it's 2019. I'm at CES, and VR is an idea gathering dust for all the wrong reasons, lost in a sea of strange peripherals and pipe dreams. Self-contained VR devices, like Oculus Quest and the newly announced HTC Vive Cosmos, are en route, but it feels too little, too late. VR has lost the attention of mainstream audiences.
In 2019, VR is a sideshow in a theme park, a marketing stunt, a slide in a PR powerpoint presentation, a niche hobby for people locked in rooms with a ton of money to spend, and -- worse -- no one seems to know what direction we're headed in, or even what virtual reality should be.
TFA cites motion sickness as a continuing issue, one of the same reasons VR didn't catch on 20 years ago. What will it take for VR to finally realize the potential everyone keeps believing it has?
(Score: 2) by donkeyhotay on Wednesday January 09 2019, @03:08PM (2 children)
My 20-year-old nephew, who at this time in his life has more disposable income than God, invited me to try out his VR setup. I played three games, each one lasting about 20-30 minutes. They were interesting -- even a little bit fun. But after playing them I had no desire to ever play them again. For one thing, they were all a bit like tv shows or movies. I mean, even if you have some weird desire to get "better" at the game, who wants to sit through all that crappy dialogue and what-not over and over again? VR is dull, boring, repetitious. Hundreds of dollars spent on a few minutes entertainment. I don't get it. Perhaps VR today is where Pong was in 1976. I guess we'll see, but as others have pointed out, they've been working on VR for 20 years now and it doesn't seem to be getting any better.
When I was 20 I spent my disposable income on women and booze. It was a hell of a lot more fun and provided me with a lifetime of amusing anecdotes :-)
(Score: 2) by JustNiz on Wednesday January 09 2019, @05:31PM
You don;t mention what his VR setup is, but it very much sounds like you were more a victim of his personal taste in games, that what is currently state-of--the-art of VR.
Its stupid and incorrect to assume that all VR must necessarily be like that. There are some very good and in-depth PC-based VR games out there.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 09 2019, @06:09PM
There's only so much you can do with an hour of testing out VR. Personally, I suggested a specific title or two to the few people I've shown my VR setup to. You want something that's fun and easy to get into, if you only have 30 minutes to an hour in VR. Probably the most Wow, I've gotten from people I've demoed it to is from a free Roller Coaster demo I've downloaded. You can buy a bunch more tracks, but that demo is a really good way to introduce a new person to VR. They can get the feel of what VR can be, without the need to figure out the interface. My nearly 4 year old kid has tried it a time or two and the thing she loves the most is the robot dog in the Lab VR demo thing made by Valve. She did get to ride in a sleigh with Santa on the roller coaster as well.
Fallout 4 in VR is really fun and has a huge amount of content. The action areas can be quite intense. Ditto with Skyrim in VR. There's also Serious Sam in VR, which I highly recommend. It gave me the wow + fun vibe that I had when the original was first released. It's a really fun VR experience that gets straight to the action/fun. The Wii was/is a console that really made shooters on rails shine. VR definitely makes for awesome shooters on rails as well. That's a fairly niche genre nowadays, but it's a lot of fun anyway. What you're mostly seeing released are "easy dev" games and "VR as an extra feature" games. There's not a big enough market for there to be a "AAA" game designed solely for VR. I did have quite a blast on the Star Trek: Bridge Crew game in VR as well.
VR done right is anything, but dull and boring.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"