How VR gaming is taking over Chinese arcades
It has been a hot minute since China cracked down on the amount of time its youth can spend playing online video games (that is strictly between 8pm and 9 pm on Fridays, weekends, and public holidays). Outside of this limit, a window pop-up will prevent players from continuing.
It is the severest restrictions on game-playing of any country where internet access is widely available.
I can think of a few ways around this; using an older relative’s ID; sneakily pinching an older sibling’s device and visiting arcades instead, perhaps?
I don’t mean arcades with your common claw machine and basketball hoop games, but arcades with comprehensive gaming machines using VR and 4D technology.
Just have a look at this to get an idea of what I mean:
They include VR pods that use eight 4D effects such as motion, wind, heat and even olfactory elements; driving games with headsets and wrist trackers that allow you to ‘throw,’ items around the racetrack and gaming enclosures with room-scale soundproof kiosks.
You wouldn’t really expect to go to an arcade and to go parachuting on the same day — now you can! You can be strapped up into a machine, whip a headset on and pull parachute handles that help you navigate the skies.
Perhaps the ultimate gaming development is the creation of a 360° motion platform that incorporates the use of a robotic arm to throw the rider around.
Surprisingly, there is a lot of focus on games specifically for children around the ages of three and six. This includes four-rider merry-go-rounds using VR viewers and conventional prize machines that require players to win a virtual game for their real prize to be released.
The government is pushing hard for China to become a world leader in next-generation technologies, including VR, so perhaps it won’t matter so much if kids cannot access mobile gaming as easily anymore — there are plenty of other gaming devices out there with no age or time limit.
Maybe sales in PC and console gaming devices will rise, and if that fails to entice the hungry gaming youth of China, a trip to the first virtual reality theme park in Guangzhou, VR Star Theme Park, could do the trick too.
Does the world really need to take this step in replacing everything with virtual reality? Well, I often think the same when Disney remakes their classic movies into live-actions: they can still be enjoyable, but nothing can replace the original for those who have been there from the start.
