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I have an oculus, which I bought mostly out of interest. Not really a gamer. Anyway, I use it once or twice a month to play a zombie shooting game with my brot

by netcan 5y ago

I have an oculus, which I bought mostly out of interest. Not really a gamer. Anyway, I use it once or twice a month to play a zombie shooting game with my brother, who lives overseas. We shoot zombies for an hour and chat. It feels kind of similar to golfing, bowling or somesuch. We can't do those in person, so we do it in VR. So for me, VR is kind of a comms tool. A place to catch up. Alternative to video calls. Calling is great, but doing something together it just a normal way of bonding. As always, the tech is a canvas. You can paint any pictures on it. That said, yeah... This kind of tech & gaming has shown a real proclivity for isolating us from reality and each other. OOH, I think social VR has a lot of immediate potential, with current and next generation tech. It'll take a while before the user base, hardware, etc. will support blockbuster gaming, films and such. Social stuff can be more lightweight and simple. In that sense, fb is a sensible home for VR. OTOH, fb's approach to software if goddam awful. Their whole paradigm is making software that makes people do things, not software that people do stuff with. That's likely to tip the balance in the antipattern favour.

cheschire 5y ago
Meh? Everything you described has been occurring over the internet for 30ish years already. We didn’t need Facebook or VR for it.
- netcan 5y ago
  Of course. We definitely don't need fb. VR though, is another mode. We don't necessarily need it, but having it does give us something new.
  - philjohn 5y ago
    VR has much more feeling of "presence" than just video calling, or texting. I've been doing meetings in VR for a few months now and it beats Zoom etc. hands down IMHO, being able to look around, coalesce around a whiteboard, positional audio - it may look a bit cartooney, but for me it's less draining than video conference and more engaging.
    - netcan 5y ago
      Yeah, but I actually think zoom meeting aren't the ideal proving ground. It's a head-2-head between two tools that can do the job, with certain advantages to both. For hanging out with a younger sibling, zoom doesn't work too well. Video (or audio only) calling enables only a certain kind of interaction. In the physical world,we play tennis, have dinner, cook together, etc. We don't just sit in front of each other and talk intensely all the time. VR opens this up a little.
- istorical 5y ago
  It seems to me as if you're simply missing the fundamental difference in that you don't understand (likely because you haven't experienced it firsthand with a friend or loved one) the value of physical/social presence enabled by VR. There are two things so far VR does that 2d doesn't, 1) you feel like you are really in the room with someone even if you are not, 2) boobs look 3D in VR porn.

by netcan 5y ago

cheschire 5y ago

Meh? Everything you described has been occurring over the internet for 30ish years already. We didn’t need Facebook or VR for it.

netcan 5y ago
Of course. We definitely don't need fb. VR though, is another mode. We don't necessarily need it, but having it does give us something new.
- philjohn 5y ago
  VR has much more feeling of "presence" than just video calling, or texting. I've been doing meetings in VR for a few months now and it beats Zoom etc. hands down IMHO, being able to look around, coalesce around a whiteboard, positional audio - it may look a bit cartooney, but for me it's less draining than video conference and more engaging.
  - netcan 5y ago
    Yeah, but I actually think zoom meeting aren't the ideal proving ground. It's a head-2-head between two tools that can do the job, with certain advantages to both. For hanging out with a younger sibling, zoom doesn't work too well. Video (or audio only) calling enables only a certain kind of interaction. In the physical world,we play tennis, have dinner, cook together, etc. We don't just sit in front of each other and talk intensely all the time. VR opens this up a little.
istorical 5y ago
It seems to me as if you're simply missing the fundamental difference in that you don't understand (likely because you haven't experienced it firsthand with a friend or loved one) the value of physical/social presence enabled by VR. There are two things so far VR does that 2d doesn't, 1) you feel like you are really in the room with someone even if you are not, 2) boobs look 3D in VR porn.