Why virtual reality makes a lot of us sick, and what we can do about it.

  • taladar@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Even if the sickness issue is solved at some point I just don’t ever see VR become a dominant way to game. There are just too many downsides.

    Story-focussed games can not direct you where to look. You are completely cut off from the world so you can’t e.g. watch a child or elderly relative while you use it or chat with friends while you work using it. Environments need a lot more work for a smaller market share if you can look at them from any angle. Hardware is much more expensive (and always will be) compared to a system that just needs to render a screenful of content at the same quality level. Your UI options are more limited if you want to keep things immersive.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Exactly, and that’s why we don’t have one. Maybe I’ll get one when my kids are a little older, but for now, it’s a lot more fun to experience things together than to have someone completely closed off in a VR world.

      Even if I didn’t have kids, I still probably wouldn’t want it because I’d like to spend that time with my spouse, and looking at an avatar just isn’t the same.

      • taladar@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I think the entire line of thinking that you need a first person perspective to be immersed in a game or virtual world is also flawed. As someone who has been on Second Life for more than 16 years now which uses neither VR equipment nor a first person camera 90% of the time I can certainly "feel like I am there" despite all of those factors and in the presence of many other factors that do not exist in RL like teleporting and camming through walls just fine.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Is that ever claimed anywhere? AFAIK, VR has just been marketed as a new way to experience a virtual world, not as the only way to be immersed in a virtual world.

          I think VR would be really cool, but it just doesn't seem to fit with my lifestyle at this point. And I'm not sure if I would be able to handle it since I and my spouse get motion sick quite easily.