Closing Thoughts
I was here again, back in the real world. It felt more like stepping off a plane after a long trip than it did setting down a video game, though. I'd been to a lot of places.
I'm buying Valve and HTC's Vive VR system when it comes out. I don't care if I have to shove aside a bunch of furniture and calibrate a couple cameras to use it. Unlike Kinect or something like that, this technology is game-changing. I've never felt so thoroughly transported to other worlds in my entire history of playing video games. Never. And this was in a tiny convention cubicle where I could still hear voices of people mingling through my headphones occasionally. In my own home, with no distractions or Valve employees, I can't even imagine how powerful the illusion will be.
That said, game designers will really need to focus on making things tangible (e.g. letting me touch and pick up basically everything, programming the controller to react appropriately) and minimizing gameplay that might get the cord tangled around my feet/legs. The illusion Valve's VR creates is—authentically, actually, again no hyperbole—incredible, but it's as fragile as it is powerful. So many little things can chip away at it, eventually shatter it. 8
This shit is wildly cool, but Valve VR on its own will not make an experience great. That'll take some damn talented creators with an eye for the system's weaknesses as well as its strengths. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with, even if we get a flood of duds on top of the good stuff