Xbox One and PS4: Does Anyone Actually Want VR Gaming?

<p>For such an innovative industry&comma; gaming has actually stayed pretty consistent&period; Yes&comma; the graphics have got better and the story lines have got deeper and the themes have got grander and the consoles themselves have become more technologically advanced&comma; but at the end of the day you still sit in front of a TV with a controller moving around an avatar&period; This is gaming&comma; and developers are constantly finding ways of making this more exciting&comma; so what else do we need&quest; Some people in the industry would cry out &OpenCurlyQuote;VR’ at this stage and I think they need to be quiet&period; VR is a passing fad&comma; that might in the future be a viable gaming alternative&comma; but right now it’s too much in its infancy and people are jumping the gun a bit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>1&period;&rpar; The Situation<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So let’s just begin with a quick overview of the situation as it stands today&period; There haven’t actually been any ground-breaking VR productions&comma; yet&comma; but we are assured they are all in production&period; The most we’ve seen is the occasional YouTube video of someone blindfolded guy stood in a Zimmer frame type harness playing a <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;elderscrolls&period;com&sol;skyrim&sol;">VR version of Skyrim<&sol;a> or Fallout 4&period; Now&comma; whilst this is exciting&comma; there are some problems&comma; which I will come onto in a bit&period; This is a very exciting time for traditional gamers&comma; as not only have we had a host of exciting games already this year&comma; but there is mass of exciting remasters on the horizon &lpar;Bioshock&comma; Skyrim&comma; Arkham&rpar; as well as stunning new entries in existing franchises &lpar;Final Fantasy&comma; Battlefield&comma; Dishonored&rpar;&comma; so my question is&comma; do we really need VR when the traditional concept is going from strength to strength&period; Who needs a Batman VR game when we have the Arkham series and the upcoming <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;uk&period;ign&period;com&sol;games&sol;batman-a-telltale-game-series&sol;pc-20046659">Telltale Batman game<&sol;a>&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>2&period;&rpar; Sick<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If reports are to be believed it is making people <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;riftinfo&period;com&sol;oculus-rift-motion-sickness-11-techniques-to-prevent-it">feel really ill<&sol;a> after only a few minutes of playtime&period; The human brain isn’t trained to be immersed in a world of videogame visuals and alien movement systems&period; If videogames have achieved actual photorealistic visuals &lpar;so that our eyes physically couldn’t tell the difference between real and fake&rpar; then the concept might work&comma; but at the moment&comma; there is some definite tweaking needed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>3&period;&rpar; Too Real<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This hasn’t got any science to back it up&comma; but it’s a feeling I have&period; I get terrified playing <em>Alien&colon; Isolation<&sol;em> in the traditional sense&comma; can you imagine what would happen if I played the VR version&quest; I think I would actually die of fright&comma; which I see as an actual problem&period; The human brain is easily tricked and I don’t want to think about the long term problems them might arise by tricking it into thinking it is actually about to be killed by an Xenomorph&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"bwLUHEG4oNs" title&equals;"How Scary Is Alien&colon; Isolation With Oculus Rift&quest; &ast;EXPLICIT&ast;"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;bwLUHEG4oNs"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;bwLUHEG4oNs&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"How Scary Is Alien&colon; Isolation With Oculus Rift&quest; &ast;EXPLICIT&ast;"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>4&period;&rpar; Changes the Medium<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I said at the beginning but I think VR will just be a fad&period; I know people have been dreaming about it since the 80s&comma; but the truth is I just think it’s going to have a stalled start and people will forget about it&period; Just think about the Nintendo Wii&comma; Kinect&comma; PlayStation Move&comma; the 3DS&comma; they were all seen as innovative and ground-breaking at the time and everyone thought the industry would be forever changed&comma; but it only took a few months for everyone to get bored and went back to the traditional way of playing&comma; because we saw them for what they were&colon; gimmicks&period; We are too accustomed to controllers and TVs now and I don’t think VR is going to survive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>5&period;&rpar; Other Uses<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I’m just referring to console gaming here as I think the VR has some excellent uses in the fields of <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;immersivevreducation&period;com&sol;">education<&sol;a> and travel &lpar;visiting somewhere in VR before you go there&comma; for example&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>6&period;&rpar; Price<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Finally&comma; I just want to talk about the impracticality of it at the moment&period; It’s very expensive and if you want to move around without a controller &lpar;to stop you feeling sick&rpar; you need one of those Zimmer frame things I mentioned earlier and where are you going to store that in your one bedroom flat&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;