Bago at EGX 2016: Wizdish ROVR

<p class&equals;"western">With VR being a brand new exciting field&comma; it was unsurprising peripherals were going to creep out the woodwork&period; Each company is competing to bridge that gap between virtual reality and total immersion &lpar;yes&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m using technical terms from everyone&&num;8217&semi;s favourite science fiction show <em>Red Dwarf<&sol;em>&rpar;&period; I guess I should be ushering this brand new frontier with open arms&comma; but I keep wondering&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;is this what is best for us&quest;” I suppose it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t help that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;total immersion” makes me think of pod people from The Matrix&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Maybe it was this mental image that convinced me to try Wizdish ROVR&quest; To those unfamiliar&comma; the ROVR is a treadmill where&comma; when combined with a VR headset&comma; you can physically run to convey in-game movement&period; By scuffing your feet along the treadmill&comma; akin to being on a cross-trainer&comma; it conveys in-game movement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-114031 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;05194147&sol;IMG&lowbar;1216-768x1024&period;jpg" width&equals;"768" height&equals;"1024" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Already&comma; well&comma; I had my doubts&period; While it&&num;8217&semi;d take a while to get used to running &lpar;hope you don&&num;8217&semi;t slip on the ice-like surface&excl;&rpar;&comma; I could imagine becoming fluid on it over time&period; What I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t imagine is people playing more reactionary games like <em>Call of Duty<&sol;em> or&comma; even worse&comma; a horror game&period; I imagine someone trying not to break the expensive device&colon; damage could be caused by fight-or-flight mishaps where the person attempts to actually run&period; Upon trying it&comma; roughly none of those doubts left me&comma; and I became anxiously aware of how fragile the frame was if I fell over in my panic&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">I also became doubtful about the footwear&period; Oddly this was one of those odd scenarios where the prototype version beat the  full product&period; The form they had people try at the convention had something of a giant sandal that fits over your shoe&period; Ugly&comma; perhaps&comma; but practical&period; The full form is said to be trainers you can buy with the required soles&period; This only ended up making me envision a scenario of me inviting a friend over to my house to try it&comma; and then smugly announcing &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;oh&comma; so you DON&&num;8217&semi;T have size 12 feet&quest;” before I hop on and cackle in my now-empty house&period; <img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-114030 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;05193918&sol;IMG&lowbar;1215-1024x768&period;jpg" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"750" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Although&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s possible I&&num;8217&semi;m overthinking this&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m mentally trying to envision the uses of ROVR in a gaming environment&comma; and I admit I&&num;8217&semi;m not doing well&period; It feels too gimmicky for more hardcore audiences&comma; like an added Rube Goldberg machine kneecapping you in reaction-intensive scenarios&period; For more friendly&comma; casual environments&comma; it seems expensive as hell &lpar;although no price has been announced&rpar;&period; And this steepness of price is especially pronounced with a VR headset being an extra cost&period; Even as a fitness running device&comma; sliding seems like it would exert significantly less effort than running&comma; and it wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t train as many muscles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">I&&num;8217&semi;m sure the Wizdish ROVR will have an audience somewhere out there&comma; an audience who will be excited when it hits Kickstarter&period; It shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be long now&comma; as it has a working prototype that functions to a pretty astounding reliability&period; Although&comma; if it attracts a gaming audience&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ll be watching with curiosity&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not sold on it yet&comma; but it likely has some development left to go that may smooth out the issues I have&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-114032 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;05194323&sol;IMG&lowbar;1207-1024x768&period;jpg" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"750" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Maybe in 20-30 years we&&num;8217&semi;ll all be running on ROVRs&comma; embracing the hyperreality as Baudrillard once theorised&quest; Maybe we&&num;8217&semi;ll turn our backs on reality&comma; pleased to live in a virtual world that will cater to all our psychological needs as our physiological states wane and perish&quest; Maybe this is how it all begins&comma; and then I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t sound like the paranoid nutcase I am&quest; Hang on&comma; I need to reassemble my tinfoil hat&comma; I think I felt a ray penetrate my brain from the satellites above&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;