DIGITISER
  • MAIN PAGE
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Game Reviews
  • FAQ

VIRTUAL REALITY WILL BE THE DEATH OF US - by Mr Biffo

18/10/2016

22 Comments

 
Picture
I've spent the last two years yelling to tell the world that it wasn't ready for virtual reality, so it's somewhat embarrassing to now admit that I might've been wrong. 

That said, there's a caveat in there that I was also completely right about everything to do with VR. I mean, in all the articles I've written slating the technology, I have always at least said that the best chance it had of breaking through to the mainstream was with PlayStation VR. 

By all accounts, we're seeing the first signs of that happening. A report in Venturebeat suggests that by the end of 2016, 6% of Americans will own VR technology. That sounds quite a lot, when you consider how many Americans there are, but less impressive for the top end of the market, once you look deeper into the figures.

You see, 93% of American VR headset owners will merely have a cheap and cheerful smartphone model, while only 1% will have either an absurdly overpriced Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. The remaining 6% of the market share is being smeared across the stomach of Sony's PlayStation VR.

That figure is set to rise over the next couple of years, with Strategy Analytics predicting that one in four Americans will own some sort of headset by 2018. However, the market will remain throttled by budget smartphone options - aka "Not Proper VR".

Nevertheless, Sony is already declaring the PlayStation VR a success, gesticulating vaguely towards launch sales in the "many hundreds of thousands", while interest is ramping up as word-of-mouth spreads like a male stripper.
Picture
In some respects I shouldn't be worried that I was wrong, because - as already stated - the figures indicate I was also completely right.

And also wrong: VR's mainstream success will be dominated not by PSVR (the cheaper end of the higher end), but by the cheap end of the scrag end: smartphones.

​And there's one other thing I was massively wrong about: just how utterly seductive virtual reality can be. And it's terrifying.


STONE'S THROW
Lob a stone over your shoulder, and you'll hit a sci-fi parable about the dangers of virtual reality.

Steven Spielberg's next movie Ready Player One - based upon the book by Ernest Cline - portrays a world so utterly wretched, that everyone spends the majority of their lives plugged into a massive, multiplayer, virtual fantasy universe, where they can be whomever and whatever they want. 

We're now a hair's breadth away from that being our actual reality.

Being alive is hard. Being who we are - each of us as individuals - can be a daily challenge. We're denied, controlled, herded, and programmed to conform. That process, that restrictive structure, is called society, and for the most part it pulls against our natural instincts. It's why orcas get depressed when stuck in a tank in Sea World, or gorillas smash the glass of their enclosure to try and escape, or dogs get prescribed antidepressants. They, like we, are not the wild animals we were created by Charles Darwin to be. 

How many of us have anxiety, or fight to work within the confines of our lives, or miss the freedom of childhood? If it feels like a struggle, the issue doesn't rest with you, but the society into which you were born.

You only have to look around at the ways so many of us try to escape; before you even get to drink, drugs, or sex, you have more benign escapist pursuits. TV, video games, even books - they all lift us out of our lives, so that we can have respite from the struggle.

You mark my words: virtual reality is going to be the ultimate escape, and people are going to get lost in it.

Picture
MY BRIEFS
In my brief experiences with PlayStation VR, it's evident how all-consuming it's going to become.

If you look at how far graphics technology has progressed in the last 20 years, from those early Virtuality machines, it's not hard to guess that in 20 years time game graphics are going to be almost indistinguishable from the real world.

Except that virtual reality isn't restricted to recreations of reality: you can be anything or anyone in VR, live out those escape fantasies of flying over rooftops, or shooting fireballs out of your hands. It promises to empower the user who typically feels powerless in their own life.

I've been reading a book called Homo Deus - the follow-up to Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. In it, Noah - "Noah! Noah! You were the first one. Noah! Noah! You were the last one!" - details where humanity might be heading, and discusses how the pursuit of happiness will be as much of a focus for our species as, say, trying to achieve immortality.

He writes about how creating a world where we are always happy pulls against our evolutionary needs. Basically, without the low points we have nothing to strive towards. If we're constantly happy and content, and never low or miserable, we have little reason to yearn for something more, or to drag ourselves out of the ditch.

When we reach that point, humanity might cease to evolve or develop. Attaining happiness could, potentially - and somewhat ironically - be the end of us. Which is, in itself, a depressing realisation, that we're probably genetically programmed to have down days.

Still, the same goes for being stuck in such a miserable place that you don't even have the power or energy to pull yourself out, so society finds us a happy balance between making us miserable and making us happy. We're all trapped on an emotional rollercoaster.

​Nevertheless, it got me speculating whether the key to that stagnation of our species could come from VR. Instead of consuming chemicals externally, as Harari speculates, could it come from the constant dopamine hit which we'd derive from virtual power, gratification, and pleasure that's impossible to differentiate from the real thing? 

Picture
THE END?
I know this probably sounds a bit extreme and mental, like some sci-fi nonsense dreamed up by a low-rent author.

Thing is, if you'd asked me about it even a month ago I'd have argued that people, as a general rule, would always prefer to live in the real world.

Unfortunately, with our real world seemingly becoming more miserable by the hour, and all of us feeling our own personal power slipping away, where's the incentive to remain in the real world, when virtual worlds become more and more real?

Until I properly experienced VR, and had my own, brief, moments of not really wanting to remove the headset and return to a world of responsibility and tax bills and work, I would've believed that I'd always choose the real over the virtual.

Yet as VR technology gets more powerful, and cheaper, and the experiences become more connecting and more convincing, our planet risks becoming one where we've all got buckets on our heads, pretending to be spacemen or wizards. And not in the way we did as children, playing in the back garden. 

Virtual reality is incredible. It's Star Trek technology made real. I didn't believe them when they said it was going to change the world. Unfortunately, I hadn't realised that virtual reality is more than just consumer hardware. It's more than simply a new way to play games. 

All those sci-fi stories were right: VR has the potential to be the most powerful drug ever created, and it risks blinding us all.

FROM THE WORLD:
REVIEW: PLAYSTATION VR
​
WELCOME TO THE CROWD OF FUND - BY MR BIFFO
PLEASE SUPPORT MR BIFFO'S FOUND FOOTAGE!

Picture
22 Comments
JeepBarnett
18/10/2016 03:11:37 pm

Not 'overpriced', but 'expensive'. Now that you actually believe in VR, go get a Vive demo to see how it can get even better that what you've experienced so far.

Reply
Kara Van Park
18/10/2016 04:26:14 pm

VR will succeed, because most of the games (FPS) will be tailored to it and it'll be a disadvantage to any luddite that wants to play the game the old-fashioned way. You'll be picked off by those that can quickly dart their eyes to the left while you're using keys and mouse like some steam-powered caveman.

Reply
CM Punk
18/10/2016 05:25:18 pm

Unfortunately FPS doesn't work in VR. Even a slow paced "walking simulator" almost universally makes people sick.

First person shooting games in VR generally have to involve standing on the spot or walking within the confines of Vive's room-scale.

I've seen some of those circular treadmill type devices that are supposed to reduce the sickness but I don't see those becoming mass market! We ain't got the space and I don't think gamers are a, fit enough b, want to sweat their nuts off running around in a 21c room with no air flow or just a fan!



The other option is HTC's teleport mechanic which can work in walking sims and kind of works in Raw Data but that won't fly in popular titles like COD or Doom and multiplayer PVP would be silly!


Plus how do you gobble your Doritos and Mountain Dew when you can't see?!

Reply
SimplicityCompass
19/10/2016 02:05:29 am

"Unfortunately FPS doesn't work in VR."

Take a look at Onward. It uses the Vive's motion controller's touchpad for locomotion. The majority of users don't report sim sickness.

"Plus how do you gobble your Doritos and Mountain Dew when you can't see?!"

The Vive has a camera which obviously allows the user to see the real environment. In time we'll likely see drinks holders with sensors that pick up the Lighthouse laser system for accurate tracking.

Later HMD's will use inside-out tracking, which will also be able to track objects in the real world.

CM Punk
19/10/2016 07:34:04 am

Touch pad movement has been implimented in other games and was equally problematic as indicated by the user feedback. It's hard to get a true view of user opinion of course but feedback on forums had pretty much every user reverting back to teleport.

It still made me sick. Less so than the awful pad games granted as using a stick to rotate the view becomes intolerable after 30 seconds!

PSVR is stuffed as the single camera doesn't allow you to physically rotate more than 45 degrees before you run into occlusion issues. I think in the average gaming environment multiple lighthouse sensors are a hard sell, as is the space requirement as I've found that can be an issue even in standing-still games with Vive controllers bashing into furniture!

The locomotion itself is always the issue in that you are moving as if walking but are stationary in the real world.

The 360 treadmill seems to be the only solution but is simply not practical. You need a treadmill-sized space to place it, somewhere cool with good airflow to stop your body sweating but still your face will sweat like crazy and the headset steam up!

favus
18/10/2016 04:46:35 pm

Playing an FPS makes me violently sick these days - and my eyesight is buggered, so even though i really WANT VR, I know it won't work for me - I will sick up my ring if i go near one, I know it, but I still want it, and almost bought a Rift and then a Vive - I used to be in the top 10 in the UK at Unreal Tournament, now an hour of any FPS makes me nauseous - So i might even give up games for watching TV instead.. :(

Reply
JeepBarnett
19/10/2016 06:40:21 am

Seek out a Vive demo if you haven't already. It's a misconception that VR makes people sick. BAD VR content is what makes people sick. I know many people who can't play FPS games but have no problems in Vive roomscale.

Reply
Retro Resolution link
18/10/2016 05:07:23 pm

I'm sad to say that I'll likely be left behind by the inevitable (if gradual) move into VR, due to a combination of Bad Things:

1. Natural tendency towards motion sickness, even in non-vr games (e.g 60fps first person shooters, if I'm tired). Even felt this watching a YouTube video of the RE7 kitchen demo

2. wearing glasses - a major hassle with VR goggles (even with over-ear headphones actually). Plus, peripheral vision is always blurred for soectacle wearers, even in AR (actual reality)

3. Multiple prominent eye-floaters. Brightly lit scenes are often unbearable

4. 3D cinema (combination of glasses-over-glasses, and motion sickness)

Luckily retro is my main gaming passion, so there's plenty of non VR for me to enjoy.

[It's not plagiarism to cut and paste, expand, and spell correct, my comment from an earlier VR article!]

Reply
Retro Resolution link
18/10/2016 05:09:32 pm

*spectacle
Please Mr. B, can we have an Edit feature for comments?!

Reply
Mr Biffo
18/10/2016 05:28:07 pm

A much requested feature... cruelly ignored by Weebly, who host the site.

Chris Wyatt
18/10/2016 08:41:57 pm

One day I'm gonna come on here drunk and post something I really regret!

As a student, I had a memory blackout (from drunkeness) while on a forum I used to frequent a lot, and I basically posted nonsense. Literally, just random keys, and lots of full-stops! Actually, it probably read a bit like Zombie Dave's ramblings. Hopefully I'd just fallen asleep and mashed the keyboard with my head.

Anyway, found my post the next morning and promptly deleted it!

Superbeast 37
18/10/2016 06:35:52 pm

I think you have been fair in admitting that it is early days.

You were right, you are now wrong and I am sure you will go back to the right opinion given time for that headset to start gathering dust!

I think VR has peaked too soon. A bit like video games in the US in the late 70's/early 80's. It will soon suffer a bit of a set back but not die out entirely. Then eventually it will see a resurgence and become truly mass market.

We aren't at the ET cartridges being dumped in the desert stage quite yet but it is coming.

We are currently at the equivalent of 1980/81 as far as VR is concerned.

Reply
CW
18/10/2016 07:24:12 pm

Funnily enough, I was only just thinking today that the world is going to shit, but it's a thought that I have most days.

E.g. in my office, I go to sit down outside on some steps (that aren't just used by me) and once again found someone's gobbed a load of spit all over them, knowing full well that people use them as a seat.

And on the bus back from work, all 3 people at the back of the bus were resting their filthy shoes on the seats opposite! And when I'm at the back of the bus, it seems like most people do this, but that probably says more about the sort of people that sit at the back of buses, or just that shitty people tend to use buses more. Recently they've added signs telling people not to do this, but obviously it won't make any difference. Images on fag packets didn't work did they?

I've had this nagging feeling for the last 10 years or so that there just seem to be a lot more of these people about. I've felt like humanity has been on a downward trajectory, and I feel like people just become more rude and repulsive as time goes on. Or is it that I'm just noticing it more? I can't really tell? I have a feeling it is probably a mix of both. I just feel different to everyone else, like I'm not part of this new generation, and I'm still 'barely' clinging on to older values.

Maybe it's just Bristol? I let it depress me. I can't help but feel ashamed and disgusted by most of the people in my generation, and I can't figure out if the problem is with me or them? Maybe I just need to lower my standards and be more like the people I hate?

If I said this to most people, they'd probably think I was stupid, and that I was just being a snob, so these are thoughts that I tend to keep to myself.

I want to move out of the city and go to a quiet village somewhere, and get away from people. I want to become a recluse!

Also, I feel like more and more people have a vacant expression on their face, like there's not a lot going on upstairs. Is it caused by our idiotic drinking culture? Drugs becoming more mainstream? Smartphones? Bad breeding? I probably have the same 'broken' look.

This was a bit of a rant which is why I've disguised my name a bit :).

Reply
DJ Bus
18/10/2016 09:11:43 pm

Give in to the dark side and put your feet on the seat. It feel so GOOD

Reply
Starbuck
19/10/2016 12:24:29 am

Not on the number 11 from Temple Meads

PeskyFletch
19/10/2016 02:06:09 pm

Nah, i moved from the bustling city to the country a coupla years back and people here aren't any better, it is just hidden by the large amount of snobbishness. Everyone is well nebby and the other parents love putting the boot (verbally) into the high needs child i care for, if they think i'm out of earshot. People are shit all over, it just varies in the "how"

Reply
Hamptonoid
24/10/2016 08:09:41 am

Congratulations, you have just become your dad...

Reply
CW
18/10/2016 07:39:49 pm

I sort of feel like we need another religion. Christianity was used to brainwash idiotic masses into become more respectable people, and it probably worked. If they could figure out a way to manipulate all the stupid human drones into being nicer people, I might not feel so utterly depressed on the bus every morning!

Just... something needs to change. There will be a big change, some kind of big shift, but when? It's probably why I voted for Brexit--not because I'm a racist cunt, but I've been feeling a long time that 'something' needs to shake everything up, and wake everyone up.

Reply
CM Punk
18/10/2016 07:49:54 pm

I came out of Sainsburys last night and when I got to my car I spotted that someone had stolen the dustcap off my nearside front wheel!

They are only a quid for a pack of four from Amazon or a cycle shop! Why would you steal it from someone else!? Are people that lazy?!

At that moment in time I felt like you do now! We just need a nuclear war or something! Burn it down and start again from cockroaches!

We could have a planet that evolved from cockroaches like the Cat in Red Dwarf. They wouldn't steal each others dustcaps or spit on your steps.

They might eat all the shoe polish and put the empty tin back in the cupboard though.

Reply
Damon link
18/10/2016 11:35:12 pm

I think it depends who you are as a person.

I know that I get fed up if a game is too easy. I'm only interested in things so long as they are new or challenging. I'm a very conceptual person and once I've reached the point where I have sufficiently solved a problem the project no longer interests me. I know there are other people like this in the world.

For us, I think, VR will be interesting as long as it stays challenging. But forcing ourselves to create new experiences and challenges to keep VR interesting would be cultural and social growth, still.

While mainstream media has stagnated there's always been alternative media-- which yes I lump Digi into-- that has done something different in one way or another. Therefore alternative and independent VR experiences will need to emerge or people will lose interest. Maybe not everyone but I think enough.

The idea that VR will trap everyone in a hell of endless pleasure won't happen. The human mind is tuned to find fault and drive people to correct those fault. I remember when I went to Niagara Falls. After two days of new experiences I kept thinking "Did I need a full week to look at a waterfall ffs I have water at home".

I did spend day 3 at Castle, which was interesting then day 4 was spent in the hotel watching TV as I am not big on Casinos. But anyway.

My point is that humans are also wired for happiness to be temporary. We're fascinated by new things but contentment is unsustainable. Your virtual topical island may need bustier barmaids. Then more shade. Then the water could be clearer. People will keep refining, chasing happiness because it is unreachable and the idea of it serves as a mechanism bywhich humans do not stagnate for long.

Humans literally evolved to adapt. That's why the Robustus Allenopithecus died out-- their teeth were no versatile enough. For humans it's survival of the versatile.

Wow this is long and rambly. Ah well.

Reply
Gosunkugi
19/10/2016 12:48:55 am

I still see it as something of a novelty, albeit a dangerous one. No doubt we'll soon start seeing the same news stories we did a few years back with "Teen played WoW for three months straight and died buried in his own poo", only this time it'll be Japanese shut-in syndrome as interpreted by wazzocks at the Daily Mail.

No, my biggest fear concerns augmented reality. That the line between reality and fantasy will be so blurred that even the most fantastical concepts will become normal. There's going to come a point when we're all sharing it, and it's never going to be turned off. Imagine all of us being tied into a scenario where Mickey Mouse does battle with Sonic when you try to shop for groceries, and then they start bumming on the tinned peas, because the very idea of sex and copyright has become something akin to a 4chan user being given a magic lamp.

Reply
Rufio1980
19/10/2016 01:42:36 am

Smartphone VR is the marijuana of VR (just wait for the media storm 'It's making our kids zombies!')People are able to try it for little expense with tech they probably own. It will blow your mind if it's your first experience, some will feel a little sick and never bother with it again, others will wonder what all the fuss is about. But then you have a hardcore few that loved it. Would play the demos over and over. Would fly from space to find their house on the Cardboard app. Oh, the possibilities with something a bit more powerful, the lands I could see, the places I could go, it's like nothing anyone could imagine! I want more! How much?! I'm not paying that.

Not this week... I get paid on Friday... I'm good for it.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    This section will not be visible in live published website. Below are your current settings:


    Current Number Of Columns are = 2

    Expand Posts Area =

    Gap/Space Between Posts = 12px

    Blog Post Style = card

    Use of custom card colors instead of default colors = 1

    Blog Post Card Background Color = current color

    Blog Post Card Shadow Color = current color

    Blog Post Card Border Color = current color

    Publish the website and visit your blog page to see the results

    Picture
    Support Me on Ko-fi
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    RSS Feed Widget
    Picture

    Picture
    Tweets by @mrbiffo
    Picture
    Follow us on The Facebook

    Picture

    Archives

    December 2022
    May 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    July 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


    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • MAIN PAGE
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Game Reviews
  • FAQ