The Simpsons Did VR Right First
Originally published at linkedin.com on October 18, 2016.
As of September 16, The Simpsons reached yet a new milestone: their 600th episode, with many episodes at times defining American culture itself. The Simpsons is the longest-running American sitcom and the longest-running American animated program, and it is no secret their writers have attempted to keep the series relevant, either with skits of Donald Trump in politics or with their latest move: a virtual reality couch gag.
How To Live The Virtual Springfield Experience
With the help of Google, The Simpsons made their virtual reality experience available through Google Spotlight Stories (available both for Android and iOS). Here, fans of the series were able to download the iconic intro couch gags. Given that it was done with a Google partnership, you can watch the video in two ways: through an immersive Google Cardboard, or by utilizing your phone’s gyroscope and rotating in position to get a clear view of your surroundings. The Simpsons understood that the latter was less immersive, and decided to address your perception of their product in the beginning.
The experience was a point-and-look interaction; that means that if users chose to watch mainly the Simpsons family, users would reach the end of the video within 45 seconds of content, but if users chose to actually explore the content (from The Simpsons’s wide array of characters to other TV show references), the allotted time of content they could experience would reach up to two minutes.
The Entertainment Industry In Virtual Reality
Now, it is not to say that The Simpsons were the first in the entertainment industry to experiment with VR — far from it. Other television shows like SNL and even the Rio Olympics have experimented with virtual reality, but most live experiences have often been of that of a passive viewer, not an active viewer. For example, in the Saturday Night Live skit referred to above, the positioning of the viewer plays no other role than that of another audience member. Here, the user has no real boost or emotion other than “I am in the audience”, which lasts for five seconds before the user completely disregards the other 7/8ths of the video surrounding them because they are busy looking at what is occurring onstage — after all, that is where the appealing content is.
However, in The Simpson’s couch gag users got to choose how their experience with the video was directed. My first run-through lasted 45 seconds — I did a quick view of what was around me, but then turned back to check on the Simpsons family because I deemed what they did to be the main focus of the story, but that was not the case. In my second run-through I chose to better see what was around me, and it was full of bonus content that encouraged me to even watch it a third time. If I looked at characters on the complete opposite side of the main characters, the characters would not begin until I looked at them, thus not missing anything due to a default auto-play function. Many virtual reality experiences do not offer this — they often ask to keep your eyes focused on one item and follow it around as it moves; I am experiencing VR how the director wants me to experience it, without my liberty to browse around — otherwise I would miss their content.
Other animated shows have also joined the virtual reality craze before The Simpsons, like Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time VR game. That, however, is categorized as a game, thus interaction is a must. Here, The Simpsons made a virtual reality video interactive, which is the sole point of their achievement with Sunday’s couch gag.
Virtual Reality Is For Active Viewers
Virtual reality is still fairly new to many content creators, and not as easy to create as 2D video. Understandably, virtual reality is by no means as mainstream as I would like it to be, even with Facebook and YouTube’s platform push for 360° videos or photos. As Techcrunch’s Ariel Shimoni puts it, “Virtual reality and the entire VR ecosystem has a lot to gain from top advertisers and brands entering the industry, bringing with them a lot of spending that can drive a VR-based ‘free-to-play’ economy.” Being able to film the content is one step of it, but to produce a successful virtual reality video takes much more effort. The important features of virtual reality to understand is that you are no longer showcasing a product to a passive viewer — now you are selling a story (with a certain emotion connected to your product) to an active viewer.
An active viewer does not want to sit and watch. The active viewer wants to engage, whether throughout the video or back in social media, and be fully involved with the experience that you presented. And it is this that the content producer must realize — virtual reality is not a 3D movie, but a virtual reality where the viewer has the liberty to look at what they deem important and still get the full experience.
What virtual reality experiences have you had with companies? Have you found yourself often missing part of the plot because you are curious about the rest of the environment? Feel free to comment below!
Got any thoughts to add? Tweet me @juliangumbo or comment below!
Julian Gamboa is a UC Berkeley graduate with a focus on marketing. Julian was selected as a LinkedIn Top Voice for Marketing and #Social Media (2017) and a Course Instructor of the marketing and digital publishing course Digital Marketing Today at the Haas School of Business. He is also the founder of Digiviewpoint, a millennial publishing account.
Like what you read? Share, like, and comment. Read Julian’s previous posts and follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
