Virtual Reality: overpriced gimmick or the future?

Juno

Juno

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    * a part of the future, at least - I don't see it fully replacing consoles or PC gaming any time soon.

    What are your thoughts on virtual reality in gaming? It's a technology that's been around for a while now and improving over the years - in the past it's been kind of a novel gimmick that I wouldn't consider for myself but lately I can see the merits and immersive experiences that VR can provide too.

    Have you played any games in VR? What did you think of it?
     
    Well I think it has a lot more potential than stuff like gaming in 3D, which was definitely a gimmick and didn't really revolutionise the gaming world. I honestly think that when VR technology has been developed to the point where the games and everything are amazing, it'll be a big part of gaming because it offers an unbelievably immersive and brilliant experience which could utilised really well in the gaming industry.
     
    I think I've always been one of the biggest Pro-VR people on PC. I love what has been done so far, from VR designed games like Accounting and Job Simulator, to traditional genres with a VR injection, like Out of Ammo a RTS, and Pavalov a FPS.

    I think there is a good future for VR aswell, as things get more advanced and cheaper. More high quality content will be able to release and limitations of VR will be solved. This leaves open Yuuuuuuuuuge potential for VR. Who knows, maybe one day we'll be playing games on some crazy sci-fi projection thing that projects the game around you, like real life!
     
    The current "VR", aka having a screen right at your face/eyes, imo isn't virtual reality at all. I have a more virtual reality experience playing hide-and-seek, playing pretend, using imaginary objects with friends, or even throwing invisible fireballs while LARPing.

    As of now, VR as a technology does not exist to me. Participating in gaming by freely moving around a room while waving my hands and looking at a distant monitor feels more VR to me than wearing those released devices.
     
    I still feel like it's a gimmick more than anything at this point, though I'm sure in the future a lot of the limitations can be overcome. But there's also a large amount of the community that prefers playing games on a TV or Monitor with traditional controls.

    I can't pretend to know the future, but I feel it's far more likely that VR would exist alongside traditional gaming than replace it entirely.
     
    I once used an early VR system (not a virtual boy, but an arcade-based system from a similar time) and it was very obvious it was early technology, an experement, and wasn't ready for mainstream, and I think the same of today's VR.
    We've not really got past the techdemo stage, maybe got some early games available, and the hardware is prohibitively expensive.
    I think if it's given more time for the technology to improve (headsets being less heavy, resolutions and frame rates being better) it could possibly become a larger part of gaming in the future but never replace 'traditional' gaming, partially due to the limit of how many things you can do with VR without causing motion sickness or confusing people (for example, a 3rd person VR game wouldn't work too well in my opinion)
     
    I always hear talk of VR replacing things, as if that's the natural progression of gaming.

    And that's never really made sense to me. Take SAO, for instance, because that seems to be the go to example for semi-idealistic VR Gaming (without all the death, of course). Even in a world where SAO existed in an almost the exact form that it does in the anime, there would still be a market for traditional MMOs like WoW and Final Fantasy Online, there will still be a market for online ARPGs like TERA and Blade and Soul. They won't be replaced- after all, they're different enough that doing away with one in favor of the other would be wasteful.

    And this really goes for most of the game industry as well. Even if they were able to successfully make, say, a VR Mega Man or Call of Duty, the novelty of playing those same games with controllers won't go away. People will still clamor for more of what that, even if VR works. After all, the way I see it, it's an extension to the medium rather than the natural progression of it.
     
    Arsenic said:
    I think I've always been one of the biggest Pro-VR people on PC. I love what has been done so far, from VR designed games like Accounting and Job Simulator, to traditional genres with a VR injection, like Out of Ammo a RTS, and Pavalov a FPS.

    I think there is a good future for VR aswell, as things get more advanced and cheaper. More high quality content will be able to release and limitations of VR will be solved. This leaves open Yuuuuuuuuuge potential for VR. Who knows, maybe one day we'll be playing games on some crazy sci-fi projection thing that projects the game around you, like real life!
    Click to expand...
    I believe I saw you playing Virtual Rick-ality on Steam a while ago! That game was actually what prompted me to make this thread and I thought it looked like fun. What did you think of it?
     
    I feel it's a gimmick, VR could be great and everything but I think the technology right now is so limited and requires a certain type of gamer, the type that doesn't just want to sit on a sofa and play games, rather the type of gamer that doesn't mind moving about a bit with some space behind them.

    As soon as technology makes us able to just put on a headset and play I think it will really pick up steam.
     
    Juno said:
    I believe I saw you playing Virtual Rick-ality on Steam a while ago! That game was actually what prompted me to make this thread and I thought it looked like fun. What did you think of it?
    Click to expand...

    It wasn't as crazy funny as Accounting (a free short game by R&M writers) but it was still rather fun! I still have some stuff to finish in it eventually.

    It plays like you'd expect a Rick and Morty job simulator to play, solve goals by using items in the environment. Normally incorrectly and in crazy ways.

    I think the studio that made it just got grabbed by google actually.
     
    Gimmick, or else people would've jumped onto it already. It's not everyone's thing and it's rather expensive I think. I don't think it has enough to dominate the mainstream gaming market.
     
    Bebop said:
    I own a Vive and I love it. I think it's going to become the dominant way people play video games in the next 5ish years. That said, it does have some issues:


    • It's heavy and not very comfortable. Strapping a heavy thing to your face gets pretty old pretty quick.
    • It's still tethered. The cord isn't THAT big of a deal, but it can still be frustrating or immersion breaking when you pull at it or step on it
    • The screens aren't perfect yet. They're high enough quality that it's possible to feel immersed, but every now and then I start to see pixels and it's annoying
    • Minimal content. Most of the things released so far are small demos or little things that are fun, but tend to be short. Which is fine, but in the context of something to take over part of what "traditional gaming" currently claims, there needs to be longer content.

    That said, it does nail one thing perfectly: sense of presence. You really feel like you're in these virtual spaces, and until you try a full room scale Vive experience, you won't grasp it. No, Oculus doesn't cut it. No, GearVR or anything like that with a phone doesn't cut it. Full room scale Vive with its perfect tracking of your hands and head. It doesn't take a big leap of imagination to realize that this very early version of this machine is offering the beginnings of an incredible experience, and the next steps are gonna come really quickly.

    That said, they're fundamentally different than the kind of games we play now, so whether not it's a natural evolution... I dunno. iOS games kinda carved themselves a slice of people that don't really fit into the traditional continuum of gamers... maybe VR will do the same. Maybe it'll be total replacement. Most likely it'll take a chunk somewhere between.
    Click to expand...

    Don't worry buddy! Valve is going to save us with the Gen2 vive, has one of those hard mount head pieces like the rift, lighter, better sensors and controllers, and they said wireless might be compatible in the future! It looks very nice! Oh and they said it'll be cheaper than the current vive I believe

    Just remember to pray every day to Gabe Newell and he'll push up the release date!
     
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