Defending Virtual Reality: ABC’s Jaunt
After viewing ABC’s Jaunt project, there was a lot of mixed reactions to their work in our senior seminar class. In this short virtual reality piece, ABC took us on a tour to Syria to experience the more peaceful side of the country and view ancient monuments sights that someone from America may never see before.
The majority of the students thought that this Syrian project was too boring and extremely bland in its presentation. I recollect hearing certain complaints like the tour guide was being too obvious with his statements such as “look to the left to see the mountains.” Other criticisms include the ABC logo at the feet when the user looks down, to eliminate the shadow of the 3D camera. After discussing this project, I tended to disagree with a lot of what my classmates were saying.
First off, it is hard to complain about anything involving virtual reality. In my opinion, the process comes off as extremely fascinating. To be placed in a city or country that could be hundreds or thousand miles away, and feeling a sense of realness inside of a cardboard headset is pretty insane. Although the information the tour guide was giving about certain monuments was difficult to retain and possibly even remember a week later, I still thought this was neatly put together. His instructions were clear on where to look, and this aspect of a virtual reality piece is necessary. Simply because, how am I supposed to know where to look in Syria? I’ve never been here before, and a guide attempting to explain what I am seeing is vital. Of course there are technical difficulties with the ABC logo and the shadow of the camera being thrown on the tour guide, no project is perfect.
If you think about it, this is only the beginning of virtual reality and its growth, and from what our class continues to study and hear from people from the New York Times, this form of journalism/entertainment will continue to expand.
Was the ABC Jaunt project the best thing I’ve ever seen? No, but why bash something when in a couple years virtual reality is anticipated to sky rocket? It’s against my nature to turn on something without giving it a chance, especially while journalists are just beginning to get their feet wet with virtual reality.
