Don’t Hold Your [Virtual] Breath
Why virtual reality won’t be a game changer
Since 2012 the Oculus Rift has been making some serious waves in the video gaming community, effectively making virtual reality a common term for gamers.
The unreleased device has provided some serious hype in the gaming community with some amazing demos at this year’s E3 and a slew of games adding Rift support. But it’s not just gamers that are getting excited, Facebook dropped a rather large sum of money, $2B to be exact, to acquire Oculus back in March and has recently stated its hopes for the tech as a new computing platform.
The technology certainly is impressive. We’ve already seen Oculus demos where players sit in a cockpit cruising through space, touring a tropical undersea reef, or riding a roller coaster. These are perhaps some of the best examples of VR gaming so far. And they haven’t scratched the surface of possibilities for VR beyond gaming (defence, medicine, and education). But are these type of experiences enough to make it a game changer?
Traditionally, gaming has always been presented in familiar terms: the player interacts via control input, which then determines what happens on a screen in front of you. There is always a player, there is always a controller, and there is always a screen a small distance away. Because of this relationship, we know we are playing a game and that the game exists within the confines of the screen we are watching it on. VR is about to change the ‘watching’ into something else. For me, the hype just doesn’t have any depth. It’s just another fad waiting to be shelved after a year or two like motion control, 3D gaming, or any number of failed peripherals of the past.
How can Oculus be anything but just another expensive and unnecessary peripheral?
The main reason I believe this to be true is because of complex narratives and the rise of storytelling. Video games have become some of the most important storytelling in the 21st century. They’ve pushed the boundaries in more ways than one: complex and artful cut scenes, motion capture, and even A-list celebs like Kevin Spacey getting in on the game. There has to be a reason you’re shooting at these enemies or running around with your friends in some online world.
[caption id=”attachment_248" align=”aligncenter” width=”510"]
Kevin Spacey as Jonathan Irons in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare[/caption]
Think of a video game as an interactive movie. Your experience as the player is often split between playing (interactive) and watching (movie). Often the parts you are watching are used to set up the times you are playing. These can be UI’s, cut scenes, cinematic sequences, and even the end credits.
In a VR game, players are locked into a first person POV, with the ability to look in 360 degrees. In some sense, this removes a designer’s ability to change views or use traditional means of storytelling (the watching parts). VR is only experiential, and that can be detrimental to the common narrative styles we know and love.
On one hand I’m very excited to see such amazing technology come to the consumer market, and I’m eager to see what it’s capable of, but on the other, I’m not sure this is the future of gaming. Perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of something else entirely.
In order for VR to actually work, the entire concept of narrative in visual media will likely have to change. What will it change into? Your guess is as good as mine.
Odds are, I won’t be sticking around to find out.
