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Damn, hits home. I would've been one of your friends or family I think. I was immediately excited about VR back in the mid 2010s. And over the past years I've
by NoLinkToMe 3y ago
Damn, hits home. I would've been one of your friends or family I think.
I was immediately excited about VR back in the mid 2010s. And over the past years I've done a bit of reading and have had various fun discussions with friends about the use-cases of VR today, and in 5 or 15 years from now, that all made sense to me.
I really held off as long as I could for both the tech and the content base to develop, to jump in with the best experience. Plus I had already moved away from gaming PCs to Mac + PlayStation, so when 1.5y ago PSVR2 was announced I had an opportunity to get some of the best hardware $550 could buy.
But I've mostly been disappointed. Despite waiting for half a decade to jump into it, and staying home looking out the window for my package to arrive, I spent just 30 min on it the first day, and another 30min over the course of the next week, and since I got it (pre-order) I've spent no more than 1.5 hours. I honestly don't think I've ever in my life, spent so much on something that got me so little value.
I'm not really blaming the hardware, it's all quite impressive, and I've been on the PSVR2 subreddit where everyone absolutely loves a ton of the games. It just didn't get the magic going for me.
I'm still considering selling the PSVR2 and buying a Quest 2. I'm personally less interested in the PS game content, and want to try out museums, concerts, safaris, as well as some indie (game) content and the various mods. I'm still somehow quite excited about the tech, even though I've got no interest in using the hardware I have sitting a meter away from me.
And I have to be honest, the nausea of the 3 experiences I had were a put off. Traumatic is waaaay too strong a word to use. But you know how someone may eat sushi and love it, and then get food poisoning due to bad hygiene at the restaurant, and spend 24 hours throwing up sushi, doesn't feel like having sushi for years? I feel the nausea may have had that effect a bit. All 3 play sessions I ended feeling sweaty, dizzy and sick, and required me to just lay down and do nothing for a few hours. I know it gets better as your brain gets used to it, but it raised the bar to jump in for a quick session to the point of 'why bother'. My gf didn't have this problem at all, although she hasn't asked to play since the first time I showed it to her (and she was really wowified by it all and enjoyed it a lot).
I've definitely come to the conclusion that my enthusiasm for VR was misguided, or just really premature. I don't see myself videoconferencing in VR in 5 years rather than using Teams, playing games, watching VR movies from the POV of one of the main actors, watching the world cup final from the POV of the referee, enjoying a concert from the VIP area, or playing a VR RPG like Fallout or Mass Effect with not just a ChatGTP but also a VR mod.
But who knows. Part of me does still think: if there's tons of good content out there, cheaper than now. If the devices have double the resolution and screen refresh rate, weigh less, cost less, and they're super seamless to put on and make you less dizzy, immerse you more, and get you into experiences that flatscreens can't do... then maybe it'll stay around like the Smartwatch / Apple Watch: a major ($100b per year) product category enjoyed by >200 million, that doesn't change the world but still makes it better. I don't really see VR fading away entirely, unless AR supplants it.
Could you speak to your top 5 or 10 (if you can) VR apps/experiences on the Quest 2, that you would recommend to try out?
- rubicon33 3y agoYou actually fit the bill - almost exactly - to a friend of mine who returned his Quest 2 just a few weeks ago. He was so excited for it to arrive that he took the day off of work just to be sure he was there to receive the package. He spend a total of about 2 hours in it before deciding it was not for him. Frankly, I respect his decision because that's better than leaving it on the shelf for months and months like most of my other friends. I agree with you that someday VR may reach a point where the barrier-to-entry is low enough to captivate the general public. If you ask me, comfort is the #1 issue. People's issues range from nausea, to face discomfort, to (if im being honest) straight up laziness and/or disability. Some people would rather binge netflix on a couch for 3 hours than stand up in a room physically moving around. If Meta can't fix the comfort issues, I pretty much never see VR breaking out of it's niche following. It's got to somehow get to a level where it's as comfortable and convenient as sitting on a couch. Long, long way to go. Anyways, my top VR experiences is an easy list to assemble. I use my VR for games so... not sure there will be an intersection with your interests since you mention museums and such, but here it is: • Half Life Alyx • Beat Saber • Walk About Mini Golf • Dirt Rally 2.0 (with physical pedals, shifter, wheel) • Ghosts of Tabor (Early Access) • Vertigo 1 / 2 • Into the Radius (STALKER clone in VR) • POPULATION:ONE (Battle Royale, kinda like Fortnite) • Edge of Nowhere (Excellent third-person game) • Demo (Table top RPG) • STORMLAND • Lone Echo 1 & 2
- NoLinkToMe 3y agothank you!