Electric Turnip
  • Blog
  • Stories
    • Story 000
    • Story 001
    • Story 002
    • Story 004
    • Story 007 - Unfinished
    • Story 008
    • Story 010 - BattleWagon
    • Story 012
  • Images
    • Adventure Caddie concept gallery
    • Page Design Gallery
    • Older Work
  • 5FEAT Video
  • Videos
  • Game Experiments
    • Climb
    • Super Shapetoy
    • TurboGarbageTruck
    • 031 - Best Games - Enchanter
    • 033 - Shader Test
  • Contact

181

4/18/2016

0 Comments

 
Two of the batch of VR headsets that are coming out have made their Debut. If you haven’t read any of my other thoughts on VR, I’ll fill you in. Good consumer virtual reality, with interesting content can’t come fast enough for me. I have wanted to play games in VR since I had any idea what it was, or could be. So a couple of the headsets are out, and what’s the verdict?
To start off, they are too expensive by at least half. I understand that there is a lot of R&D money sunk into these things, and right now, they are the very definition of an early adopter product. The initial price, both in monies and technical hassle, is going to be very high. The wires alone provide a physical challenge to using the headsets comfortably. The other technical requirements, computer processing power and physical space, are laughably absurd for a consumer product.
They are also first launch products, so the content for them is meager. There are a few games that I would love to try out, but most of the experiences seem like novelties. Some of the games seem like something that might have come out for kinect or wii. Those names don’t really carry a pedigree of technical excellence, or more importantly, fun.
I have only tried one of the headsets on offer, and only a few brief times. The technology works. The feelings it provokes are occasionally stunning, but in the same way that a good amusement park ride is stunning. Powerful, exciting, and best enjoyed in brief bursts. That’s not the sort of experience that video games have traditionally been associated with. Thrill rides, yes, but the sort of thrill ride that sustains for 12 hours over many play sessions.
So is that it? Is the product too much before its time? Will VR become the fad of 2016 - 2017? Will Oculus and Vive units occupy closet shelves alongside plastic musical instruments and motion controllers? Maybe, but probably not.
The first version of the Ipad was not a good product. The screen was awful, the performance was mediocre, and very little of the content took advantage of what was there. The experience of using an Ipad in 2010 simply did not justify the price, size, weight, or hassle. It was a bad product in every measurable dimension, and people loved it. Current Ipads are fantastic machines, and the problem facing apple now is convincing customers to buy a new one when the one they have does what they want it to do so damned well.
The promise was apparent in that first Ipad. It wasn’t what people wanted it to be, but it was very easy to imagine the version a year or two down the road that worked like you expected. Like you imagined it would. Like you wanted it to. This is where we are with VR. People are buying the promise. By the look of the sales numbers, they are buying the promise in enough volume that a second or third version of this hardware is inevitable. A version that is lighter, with higher resolutions. A version that has no wires tethering it to a computer. A version that presents the content that justifies its existence.
I probably won’t be buying one of the current headsets, but I am excited about the promise they represent. I’ve tried it out. It works. It needs just a little more time before VR hits that Ipad moment.

​
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    June 2012
    October 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010

    Categories

    All
    Adventure Caddie
    Best Games

    RSS Feed

Owen McManus
  • Blog
  • Stories
    • Story 000
    • Story 001
    • Story 002
    • Story 004
    • Story 007 - Unfinished
    • Story 008
    • Story 010 - BattleWagon
    • Story 012
  • Images
    • Adventure Caddie concept gallery
    • Page Design Gallery
    • Older Work
  • 5FEAT Video
  • Videos
  • Game Experiments
    • Climb
    • Super Shapetoy
    • TurboGarbageTruck
    • 031 - Best Games - Enchanter
    • 033 - Shader Test
  • Contact