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Same here. I organized a trip to a VR center for the entire team at work. Everybody had fun, but more like going to a theme park. Nobody ever talked about it a

Same here. I organized a trip to a VR center for the entire team at work. Everybody had fun, but more like going to a theme park. Nobody ever talked about it again or bought one, just zero interest. And these are tech people.

rubicon33 3y ago
Many people even by their mid 20s begin to lose the ability to embrace or even enjoy paradigm shifts. Moving from flat gaming to fully immersive 3D gaming just doesn't do enough to budge the hardened neural pathways that have embraced 2D gaming over the years. It's a frankly common case of being "stuck in ones way". Will VR and AR be the future? Absolutely, and a large part of the current population will be left behind. Happens with every new technology.
- p1esk 3y ago
  Will VR and AR be the future? No one doubts that. The question is whether this particular product will be successful. That’s not clear yet.
  - simiones 3y ago
    Many people absolutely doubt that. There is absolutely no reason to believe it so far - from all of my experience, both VR and AR are technically inferior to a screen in almost every way that actually matters, except for a short demo.
    - p1esk 3y ago
      from all of my experience We are talking about the future.
      - simiones 3y ago
        Sure, but we need to base our predictions of the future on our experience of existing similar technologies to have any credbility. For example, if I predicted that phones the size of a coin are the future, you could meaningfully say "in my experience, bigger phones are actually more sought after, so I don't believe your prediction".
        p1esk 3y ago
        if I predicted that phones the size of a coin are the future My phone is on my wrist currently (Apple watch), I left my iphone at home. To me your prediction would have been correct (for now). If you insist on basing your predictions on existing experiences, think of your sunglasses: light, comfortable, stylish. I predict that 10-20 years from now your sunglasses will offer great AR/VR experience, most likely through improvements in retinal projection technology. It will take nothing away from your experience using sunglasses and will add a whole lot more. Similar to traditional wrist watch —> Apple watch transition.
        simiones 3y ago
        > My phone is on my wrist currently (Apple watch), I left my iphone at home. To me your prediction would have been correct (for now). Your Apple Watch is still dependent on your iPhone. You're also unlikely to be browsing the web, watching YouTube, or browsing social media on your watch, and these have been the biggest factors for smartphone adoption by far - so I don't think such a prediction works. We can also see that the market for smartwatches is dwarfed by the market for phones, and this trend shows no sign of reversing. > I predict that 10-20 years from now your sunglasses will offer great AR/VR experience, most likely through improvements in retinal projection technology. The problem with a glasses form factor is that it fundamentally can't create enough contrast for a good quality image, especially not for VR - that requires blocking out most light coming into the eye, which no additive technology can do. I do believe that some equivalent of a smartwatch could work very nicely in a glasses form-factor (i.e. a device that acts as an accessory to your main computing devices, for small specialized tasks). I still don't see any plausible way it could replace phones or laptops/tablets with any technology visible on the horizon. So I'm not saying AR/VR won't have a place or even be wildly successful - just that I don't believe they will ever be "the future of computing" in any reasonable sense, say like the smartphone was to the PC.
- starcraft2wol 3y ago
  > large part of the current population will be left behind What does "left behind" mean?
  - ulfw 3y ago
    They will be able to live a normal life out and about instead of sitting in their tiny room with a headset on dreaming of being in said normal life.
  - dahwolf 3y ago
    It means you say way less pixels than insiders. Because that's absolutely a problem, us not having enough screen time.
- NovaDudely 3y ago
  I think you are taking the idea of hardened neural pathways as being absolutely unbend able. If that was the case, smart phones would have been the realm of people in the early 20's and below on release. But even the elderly figured these things out very quickly. While anecdotal, I know of many folks in their teens that use VR a few times and then just move on. VR is a neat toy but for a lot of people it is something that they forget about very quickly. Personally it was the same, the tech was brilliant but after you take the headset off - you just forget about it.
- sn41 3y ago
  I have no doubt that AR will be the future (VR? I don't know: I'd like to retain a sense of my surroundings when I'm working). However, I think most of the population will adapt. Smartphones for the 60+ age group was a paradigm shift. It was very difficult at first, but within 3 or 4 years, it became pervasive worldwide. Somehow I feel that AR is less of a disruption than the "swipe" mode that touchscreens introduced around 2008 or so.
  - throwaway742 3y ago
    I just tell people that VR makes me feel sick, but really I just find not knowing what is going on around me disconcerting. It's nice to see someone express a similar sentiment.
- suprfnk 3y ago
  This is a pretty short-sighted take. VR just doesn't offer much of anything currently. Some games work well, but most games are pretty clunky. Office work isn't substantially improved. A big warm sweaty headset is not nice to have on your head for extended amounts of time. There's a plethora of reasons why VR in its current state is little more than a gimmick.
- mathisfun123 3y ago
  >Many people even by their mid 20s begin to lose the ability to embrace or even enjoy paradigm shifts. That word paradigm is doing so much work in this sentence. You realize we're talking about a gadget/product here, not a new system of government or medicine or locomotion right? So what you're basically saying is "some people lose the need to buy useless gadgets foisted on them by marketing".
- dahwolf 3y ago
  Young one, let me tell you that as you gain responsibility (employment, find a home, start a family)...your gaming days are as good as over. It becomes a casual infrequent hobby at best. As for a paradigm shift, we've had AR for 10 years now. With the exception of navigating a city by foot, there's zero successful mainstream use cases. There's not a single VR game that has appealed to the masses so much as to buy a headset. Not one. It's expensive, inconvenient, anti-social and it doesn't stick.
jkaptur 3y ago
Yeah, it's a little bit fun. Definitely something I'd do once every few years.
JuanPosadas 3y ago
I went to a VR center with coworkers, all the games felt like tech demos or low effort minigames ported from the Nintendo Wii.

rubicon33 3y ago

Many people even by their mid 20s begin to lose the ability to embrace or even enjoy paradigm shifts. Moving from flat gaming to fully immersive 3D gaming just doesn't do enough to budge the hardened neural pathways that have embraced 2D gaming over the years. It's a frankly common case of being "stuck in ones way". Will VR and AR be the future? Absolutely, and a large part of the current population will be left behind. Happens with every new technology.

p1esk 3y ago
Will VR and AR be the future? No one doubts that. The question is whether this particular product will be successful. That’s not clear yet.
- simiones 3y ago
  Many people absolutely doubt that. There is absolutely no reason to believe it so far - from all of my experience, both VR and AR are technically inferior to a screen in almost every way that actually matters, except for a short demo.
  - p1esk 3y ago
    from all of my experience We are talking about the future.
    - simiones 3y ago
      Sure, but we need to base our predictions of the future on our experience of existing similar technologies to have any credbility. For example, if I predicted that phones the size of a coin are the future, you could meaningfully say "in my experience, bigger phones are actually more sought after, so I don't believe your prediction".
      - p1esk 3y ago
        if I predicted that phones the size of a coin are the future My phone is on my wrist currently (Apple watch), I left my iphone at home. To me your prediction would have been correct (for now). If you insist on basing your predictions on existing experiences, think of your sunglasses: light, comfortable, stylish. I predict that 10-20 years from now your sunglasses will offer great AR/VR experience, most likely through improvements in retinal projection technology. It will take nothing away from your experience using sunglasses and will add a whole lot more. Similar to traditional wrist watch —> Apple watch transition.
        simiones 3y ago
        > My phone is on my wrist currently (Apple watch), I left my iphone at home. To me your prediction would have been correct (for now). Your Apple Watch is still dependent on your iPhone. You're also unlikely to be browsing the web, watching YouTube, or browsing social media on your watch, and these have been the biggest factors for smartphone adoption by far - so I don't think such a prediction works. We can also see that the market for smartwatches is dwarfed by the market for phones, and this trend shows no sign of reversing. > I predict that 10-20 years from now your sunglasses will offer great AR/VR experience, most likely through improvements in retinal projection technology. The problem with a glasses form factor is that it fundamentally can't create enough contrast for a good quality image, especially not for VR - that requires blocking out most light coming into the eye, which no additive technology can do. I do believe that some equivalent of a smartwatch could work very nicely in a glasses form-factor (i.e. a device that acts as an accessory to your main computing devices, for small specialized tasks). I still don't see any plausible way it could replace phones or laptops/tablets with any technology visible on the horizon. So I'm not saying AR/VR won't have a place or even be wildly successful - just that I don't believe they will ever be "the future of computing" in any reasonable sense, say like the smartphone was to the PC.
starcraft2wol 3y ago
> large part of the current population will be left behind What does "left behind" mean?
- ulfw 3y ago
  They will be able to live a normal life out and about instead of sitting in their tiny room with a headset on dreaming of being in said normal life.
- dahwolf 3y ago
  It means you say way less pixels than insiders. Because that's absolutely a problem, us not having enough screen time.
NovaDudely 3y ago
I think you are taking the idea of hardened neural pathways as being absolutely unbend able. If that was the case, smart phones would have been the realm of people in the early 20's and below on release. But even the elderly figured these things out very quickly. While anecdotal, I know of many folks in their teens that use VR a few times and then just move on. VR is a neat toy but for a lot of people it is something that they forget about very quickly. Personally it was the same, the tech was brilliant but after you take the headset off - you just forget about it.
sn41 3y ago
I have no doubt that AR will be the future (VR? I don't know: I'd like to retain a sense of my surroundings when I'm working). However, I think most of the population will adapt. Smartphones for the 60+ age group was a paradigm shift. It was very difficult at first, but within 3 or 4 years, it became pervasive worldwide. Somehow I feel that AR is less of a disruption than the "swipe" mode that touchscreens introduced around 2008 or so.
- throwaway742 3y ago
  I just tell people that VR makes me feel sick, but really I just find not knowing what is going on around me disconcerting. It's nice to see someone express a similar sentiment.
suprfnk 3y ago
This is a pretty short-sighted take. VR just doesn't offer much of anything currently. Some games work well, but most games are pretty clunky. Office work isn't substantially improved. A big warm sweaty headset is not nice to have on your head for extended amounts of time. There's a plethora of reasons why VR in its current state is little more than a gimmick.
mathisfun123 3y ago
>Many people even by their mid 20s begin to lose the ability to embrace or even enjoy paradigm shifts. That word paradigm is doing so much work in this sentence. You realize we're talking about a gadget/product here, not a new system of government or medicine or locomotion right? So what you're basically saying is "some people lose the need to buy useless gadgets foisted on them by marketing".
dahwolf 3y ago
Young one, let me tell you that as you gain responsibility (employment, find a home, start a family)...your gaming days are as good as over. It becomes a casual infrequent hobby at best. As for a paradigm shift, we've had AR for 10 years now. With the exception of navigating a city by foot, there's zero successful mainstream use cases. There's not a single VR game that has appealed to the masses so much as to buy a headset. Not one. It's expensive, inconvenient, anti-social and it doesn't stick.

jkaptur 3y ago

Yeah, it's a little bit fun. Definitely something I'd do once every few years.

JuanPosadas 3y ago

I went to a VR center with coworkers, all the games felt like tech demos or low effort minigames ported from the Nintendo Wii.