Walking About while Mini Golfing
About two months ago I got my hands on an Oculus Quest for the first time. I had never used a VR headset before, and my experience so far has been truly mind-blowing. The feeling of being completely immersed in a new reality, visually and spatially, is something I could not explain with words. As soon as the headset wraps around your head, you are you, but at the same you are not. Suddenly, you are in a modern villa on the shore (Spatial), you are solving puzzles and enigmas to prevent a bomb from exploding (Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes), you are a squirrel running around to collect your acorns before a tree attacks you (ACRON). The opportunities are endless. You could even be you, going to play minigolf on a Sunday evening.
It had been the busiest week with daily midterms, a new job, and countless hours sitting in class. I had barely had any time to unwind, and I had spent the most beautiful, sunny Sunday sitting in front of my laptop screen. What a waste. I could have gone running, for a picnic in the park, a stroll downtown, or mini golfing. But then my “aha!” moment, when I realized I had my Quest 2 waiting for me to hop on an adventure. I ran into the “Walkabout Mini Golf” VR experience by Mighty Coconut among my downloaded games, and hit “play.”
The menu page provided different golf courses to choose from, and I went with “Cherry Blossom,” as it looked like the most appealing from the icon photos. After this, you can switch your golf club if you would like to, but I chose to stick with the default one. And now, you are ready to embark on your mini golf adventure!
You can walk about the course with the joystick to reach the holes and walk the ball as you get through the course. There are signs indicating directions to the “Practice Green” and the “Driving Range.” Once you strike the hole, the ball jumps back out so you can continue to the next one throughout the entire course. The scenery was majestic and made me feel like I was at a resort in the Bahamas. While I had my head down to concentrate and hit the ball into the hole, it was amazing to look up and be surrounded by water, palm trees, waterfalls, pink rocky cliffs, and the bluest sky. You can design your own avatar and pick a character name.
In terms of what worked, the Walkabout Mini Golf was very interactive and calming. Regarding the attributes to greatness, the experience was beautiful, as the design was curated in detail and provided amazing visuals to the user. It was also very welcoming, as mini golf is an activity enjoyed by a diverse audience, not limited to golf enthusiasts, and thus appeals to a broad range of people. You can decide whether to play solo, like I did, or connect with friends and other users to compete through crossplay across all platforms, such as PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and iOS, which makes it suitable for different contexts and intentions.
In terms of what did not work for me, I had various technical difficulties. For instance, the golf club would not activate until you shook the remote and would deactivate again after every shot. At times, locating and retrieving the ball after a shot posed a challenge. However, I later found that manipulating the cursor by pulling it downward would prompt the ball to return to its original position, essentially allowing me to ‘undo’ the shot. Overall, technical instructions on the modality of the game would have been helpful to understand the game’s modality for those who are not as intuitive yet with VR, like myself. The experience is also not unique. The first alternative that comes to mind is the Mini Golf game on GamePigeon that you can play on iMessage. I believe GamePigeon has easier access, since we typically keep our phones in hand throughout the day and primarily communicate with friends using iMessage. However, on the Walkabout Mini Golf you can decide to play solo here, while on GamePigeon you must wait for your adversary to reply after each turn, which might cause delay in the dynamicity of the game.
Overall, the Walkabout Mini Golf experience gives you the chance to play mini golf from anywhere at any time of the day. As a LinkedIn article by Mighty Coconut addresses, 73% of surveyed respondents said that this VR experience “alleviated feelings of loneliness,” while 89.7% said they “play with intergenerational family members, with weekly VR game nights being a new tradition we’re seeing on the rise.” As a matter of fact, what stood out in my demo experience of the Walkabout Mini Golf is its versatility, social element, and therapeutic essence. I truly enjoyed it as one of my first Quest demos, it was a “hole” lot of fun!
Mighty Coconut. “How VR (and mini golf) is helping address the ‘loneliness epidemic.’” LinkedIn, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-vr-mini-golf-helping-address-loneliness-epidemic-mighty-coconut/
