With VR being a brand new exciting field, it was unsurprising peripherals were going to creep out the woodwork. Each company is competing to bridge that gap between virtual reality and total immersion (yes, I’m using technical terms from everyone’s favourite science fiction show Red Dwarf). I guess I should be ushering this brand new frontier with open arms, but I keep wondering, “is this what is best for us?” I suppose it doesn’t help that “total immersion” makes me think of pod people from The Matrix.
Maybe it was this mental image that convinced me to try Wizdish ROVR? To those unfamiliar, the ROVR is a treadmill where, when combined with a VR headset, you can physically run to convey in-game movement. By scuffing your feet along the treadmill, akin to being on a cross-trainer, it conveys in-game movement.
Already, well, I had my doubts. While it’d take a while to get used to running (hope you don’t slip on the ice-like surface!), I could imagine becoming fluid on it over time. What I couldn’t imagine is people playing more reactionary games like Call of Duty or, even worse, a horror game. I imagine someone trying not to break the expensive device: damage could be caused by fight-or-flight mishaps where the person attempts to actually run. Upon trying it, roughly none of those doubts left me, and I became anxiously aware of how fragile the frame was if I fell over in my panic.
I also became doubtful about the footwear. Oddly this was one of those odd scenarios where the prototype version beat the full product. The form they had people try at the convention had something of a giant sandal that fits over your shoe. Ugly, perhaps, but practical. The full form is said to be trainers you can buy with the required soles. This only ended up making me envision a scenario of me inviting a friend over to my house to try it, and then smugly announcing “oh, so you DON’T have size 12 feet?” before I hop on and cackle in my now-empty house. 
Although, it’s possible I’m overthinking this. I’m mentally trying to envision the uses of ROVR in a gaming environment, and I admit I’m not doing well. It feels too gimmicky for more hardcore audiences, like an added Rube Goldberg machine kneecapping you in reaction-intensive scenarios. For more friendly, casual environments, it seems expensive as hell (although no price has been announced). And this steepness of price is especially pronounced with a VR headset being an extra cost. Even as a fitness running device, sliding seems like it would exert significantly less effort than running, and it wouldn’t train as many muscles.
I’m sure the Wizdish ROVR will have an audience somewhere out there, an audience who will be excited when it hits Kickstarter. It shouldn’t be long now, as it has a working prototype that functions to a pretty astounding reliability. Although, if it attracts a gaming audience, I’ll be watching with curiosity. I’m not sold on it yet, but it likely has some development left to go that may smooth out the issues I have.
Maybe in 20-30 years we’ll all be running on ROVRs, embracing the hyperreality as Baudrillard once theorised? Maybe we’ll turn our backs on reality, pleased to live in a virtual world that will cater to all our psychological needs as our physiological states wane and perish? Maybe this is how it all begins, and then I wouldn’t sound like the paranoid nutcase I am? Hang on, I need to reassemble my tinfoil hat, I think I felt a ray penetrate my brain from the satellites above.
