Yeti Corner: The potential awfulness of VR
So now it’s time for me to be a total downer. In the previous article, I talked about all of the reasons that VR has me excited. And while I’m pumped for VR, I’m not naive enough to think it’ll be gaming Nirvana. In this article, I will lay out five significant worries I have about VR.
1. Price
The first obvious problem with the VR revolution is that the entry cost is prohibitive for the majority of gamers. There is a culture of gamers that are able, and willing, to spend huge sums of money on gaming devices and gear. I envy those people.
I can personally justify spending a reasonable amount of money on my gaming habit. As a married man, reasonable is relative. I can get away with buying a console or upgrading my PC (modestly) every four or five years. I own a PS4, but no other modern consoles and my gaming PC is pretty dated.
I cannot shell out $400 for Playstation VR on day one for a device that may just be a gimmick. I’m even less able to shell out $600 for Oculus Rift and $1000+ more on a VR ready PC. And I’m not alone. Most gamers simply can’t afford that kind of cash for an accessory. So until the price comes down, VR early adopters will likely make lots of new friends.
2. Game Design and Content
One of the unknowns about VR is how well developers will be able to utilize the medium. Kinect had tons of promise technologically, but it never had the software to support it. VR must have great software.
The obvious game designs revolve around first-person shooters and experiences. And while FPS games are incredibly popular, most games I play don’t fall in that category. So the question is, can developers make engaging content that isn’t just FPS, and especially on-rails, experiences?
I also firmly believe that for VR content to be truly immersive and not gimmicky requires intentional design for VR. Here’s one example: Skyrim has been retrofitted to work with Oculus. However, the game image (as I understand it) is still two-dimensional. So while the image is right in front of your eyes, it’s still essentially the same image that existed before. True VR needs 3D imaging, and that has to be very intentional.
Closely related to design is the amount of gaming content that will be available, both early on and down the road. As with any hardware launch, the early offerings will be sparse. That’s to be expected. But can that early content create enough momentum to push VR into future?
3. Audio
I admit, I’m biased on this point. I make my living as an audio engineer and as an educator of future audio engineers. Sound matters a lot to me.
A truly immersive experience needs not only three-dimensional visuals but also fully three-dimensional sound. The little foam headphones or earbuds that we’ve seen so far doesn’t give me a lot of hope for great audio.
To be fair, audio is a much different thing than video. The processing power required for audio is exponentially less than for video. You probably haven’t spent several hundred dollars on a sound card. Yet, it’s still a critical part of the gaming experience. 3D audio simulation exists through stereo outputs (like standard headphones), but in my experience, it’s pretty limited and not very believable.
4. Health Issues
There are two issues that I fear are too easily dismissed that could really hamper the VR experience.
The first is motion sickness. I realize that this is not something that everyone is susceptible to. But I am. My level of motion sickness varies – intense camera movement in movies like Cloverfield doesn’t really bother me. Riding in a vehicle that I’m not driving will make me nauseous in a matter of minutes.
I hope that the VR experience is more like the former than the latter. Either way, if you can only play for half an hour before you feel the need to vomit, then it doesn’t seem like a lasting experience.
The second is eye strain. “Don’t sit too close to the TV!” was a familiar refrain when most of us were growing up. I live my life in front on screens, so I’m probably already screwed on a macro level, but I still experience eye strain on a micro, day-to-day level. If VR makes my head hurt due to beaming images directly into my retinas, it’s again not going to last long.
5. Isolation
This may only be an issue for me, but it’s a biggie. I’m a multitasker. I’m almost always working on multiple things at the same time. I’m playing a game while I’m writing this article. VR seemingly will take that away.
I also play games while hanging out with my wife. I can have a game running while watching TV with her on another screen. A VR headset will take me out of that connection with the outside world. So while the isolation is essential to the immersion of VR, it would also be a radical change from how I play games currently.
Let me be clear, I’m still pumped about VR. I’m still a homer for the tech. I’m still giddy about experiencing it first-hand. However, as the revolution is now upon us, I’m also becoming more realistic about what the experience of VR will mean to me. And at this point, it’s not an experience that I can justify several hundred dollars for.
