{"id":432,"date":"2016-05-06T17:10:58","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T22:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gaminguncensored.com\/gu\/?p=432"},"modified":"2016-05-06T17:10:58","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T22:10:58","slug":"yeti-corner-the-potential-awfulness-of-vr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaminguncensored.com\/gu\/2016\/05\/06\/yeti-corner-the-potential-awfulness-of-vr\/","title":{"rendered":"Yeti Corner: The potential awfulness of VR"},"content":{"rendered":"

So now it\u2019s time for me to be a total downer.\u00a0 <\/span>In the previous article, I talked about all of the reasons that VR has me excited.\u00a0 <\/span>And while I\u2019m pumped for VR, I\u2019m not naive enough to think it\u2019ll be gaming Nirvana.\u00a0 <\/span>In this article, I will lay out five significant worries I have about VR.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Price<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The first obvious problem with the VR revolution is that the entry cost is prohibitive for the majority of gamers.\u00a0 <\/span>There is a culture of gamers that are able, and willing, to spend huge sums of money on gaming devices and gear.\u00a0 <\/span>I envy those people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I can personally justify spending a reasonable amount of money on my gaming habit.\u00a0 <\/span>As a married man, reasonable is relative.\u00a0 <\/span>I can get away with buying a console or upgrading my PC (modestly) every four or five years.\u00a0 <\/span>I own a PS4, but no other modern consoles and my gaming PC is pretty dated.<\/span><\/p>\n

I cannot shell out $400 for Playstation VR on day one for a device that may just be a gimmick.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m even less able to shell out $600 for Oculus Rift and $1000+ more on a VR ready PC.\u00a0 <\/span>And I\u2019m not alone.\u00a0 <\/span>Most gamers simply can\u2019t afford that kind of cash for an accessory.\u00a0 <\/span>So until the price comes down, VR early adopters will likely make lots of new friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Game Design and Content<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the unknowns about VR is how well developers will be able to utilize the medium.\u00a0 <\/span>Kinect had tons of promise technologically, but it never had the software to support it.\u00a0 <\/span>VR must have great software.<\/span><\/p>\n

The obvious game designs revolve around first-person shooters and experiences.\u00a0 <\/span>And while FPS games are incredibly popular, most games I play don\u2019t fall in that category.\u00a0 <\/span>So the question is, can developers make engaging content that isn\u2019t just FPS, and especially on-rails, experiences?<\/span><\/p>\n

I also firmly believe that for VR content to be truly immersive and not gimmicky requires intentional design for VR.\u00a0 <\/span>Here\u2019s one example: Skyrim has been retrofitted to work with Oculus.\u00a0 <\/span>However, the game image (as I understand it) is still two-dimensional.\u00a0 <\/span>So while the image is right in front of your eyes, it\u2019s still essentially the same image that existed before.\u00a0 <\/span>True VR needs 3D imaging, and that has to be very intentional.<\/span><\/p>\n

Closely related to design is the amount of gaming content that will be available, both early on and down the road.\u00a0 <\/span>As with any hardware launch, the early offerings will be sparse.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s to be expected.\u00a0 <\/span>But can that early content create enough momentum to push VR into future?<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Audio<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I admit, I\u2019m biased on this point.\u00a0 <\/span>I make my living as an audio engineer and as an educator of future audio engineers.\u00a0 <\/span>Sound matters a lot to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

A truly immersive experience needs not only three-dimensional visuals but also fully three-dimensional sound.\u00a0 <\/span>The little foam headphones or earbuds that we\u2019ve seen so far doesn\u2019t give me a lot of hope for great audio.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To be fair, audio is a much different thing than video.\u00a0 <\/span>The processing power required for audio is exponentially less than for video.\u00a0 <\/span>You probably haven\u2019t spent several hundred dollars on a sound card.\u00a0 <\/span>Yet, it\u2019s still a critical part of the gaming experience.\u00a0 <\/span>3D audio simulation exists through stereo outputs (like standard headphones), but in my experience, it\u2019s pretty limited and not very believable.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Health Issues<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are two issues that I fear are too easily dismissed that could really hamper the VR experience. <\/span><\/p>\n

The first is motion sickness.\u00a0 <\/span>I realize that this is not something that everyone is susceptible to.\u00a0 <\/span>But I am.\u00a0 <\/span>My level of motion sickness varies – intense camera movement in movies like Cloverfield doesn\u2019t really bother me.\u00a0 <\/span>Riding in a vehicle that I\u2019m not driving will make me nauseous in a matter of minutes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope that the VR experience is more like the former than the latter.\u00a0 <\/span>Either way, if you can only play for half an hour before you feel the need to vomit, then it doesn\u2019t seem like a lasting experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second is eye strain.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cDon\u2019t sit too close to the TV!\u201d was a familiar refrain when most of us were growing up.\u00a0 <\/span>I live my life in front on screens, so I\u2019m probably already screwed on a macro level, but I still experience eye strain on a micro, day-to-day level.\u00a0 <\/span>If VR makes my head hurt due to beaming images directly into my retinas, it\u2019s again not going to last long.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Isolation<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This may only be an issue for me, but it\u2019s a biggie.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m a multitasker.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m almost always working on multiple things at the same time.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m playing a game while I\u2019m writing this article.\u00a0 <\/span>VR seemingly will take that away.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also play games while hanging out with my wife.\u00a0 <\/span>I can have a game running while watching TV with her on another screen.\u00a0 <\/span>A VR headset will take me out of that connection with the outside world.\u00a0 <\/span>So while the isolation is essential to the immersion of VR, it would also be a radical change from how I play games currently.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let me be clear, I\u2019m still pumped about VR.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m still a homer for the tech.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m still giddy about experiencing it first-hand.\u00a0 <\/span>However, as the revolution is now upon us, I\u2019m also becoming more realistic about what the experience of VR will mean to me.\u00a0 <\/span>And at this point, it\u2019s not an experience that I can justify several hundred dollars for.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So now it\u2019s time for me to be a total downer.\u00a0 In the previous article, I talked about all of the reasons that VR has me excited.\u00a0 And while I\u2019m pumped for VR, I\u2019m not naive enough to think it\u2019ll be gaming Nirvana.\u00a0 In this article, I will lay out five significant worries I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaminguncensored.com\/gu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaminguncensored.com\/gu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaminguncensored.com\/gu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaminguncensored.com\/gu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaminguncensored.com\/gu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaminguncensored.com\/gu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433,"href":"https:\/\/gaminguncensored.com\/gu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaminguncensored.com\/gu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaminguncensored.com\/gu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaminguncensored.com\/gu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}