As this shall be the first of these we've done here I'll start by explaining before I get lazy and simply copy another mod's work.
As some thing are poorly fit to post about in a sub with a focus we've been running a weekly post on some random topics over on Reddit. Since we're here we will be doing the same here.
So this week's topic, Virtual Reality
This week for discussions we are going to talk about VR and what people are doing with it. Playing video games, VR chatting, watching movies, whatever else is done on there.
Personally I've not done anything VR since sometime in the 90's where I played something in a arcade at Cedar Point... so let me ask those who do play with it, is it worth it?
I have a Rift and a Rift S and am pretty big into VR. Really I think playing games is one of the weaker points of the concept, as beyond first person shooters or first person RPGs its hard to make a game that doesn't just feel more cumbersome than a flatscreen one. That doesn't mean there aren't some great VR games out there, Alyx and Boneworks are great, but that style of game really is all you can do with VR. Third person games feel pointless, and first person hack and slash titles lack weight and feel wrong. Adventure games can work well I think, but a lot of the current ones have this problem where the puzzles can be brute forced by just touching everything. Room VR is awful at this, and The Rig isn't much better.
Where VR shines imo is in social and productivity. I can talk naturally to strangers around the world from the comfort of my living room, or I can jump on a late night WebEx meeting on a large virtual monitor while relaxing in a dark forrest. The sense of presence is powerful in VR, and in industry it has a lot of actual power. A great example of this is VR Regatta, which is an "intro to sailing" class in virtual reality. If you're actually into sailing I can't see why you would bother with it as it is pretty basic, but as someone who hasn't touched a sailboat in my life it was fascinating. The game teaches you the basics of driving a sailboat with vocal instructions at your own pace and lets you interact with the rigging and controls. Its a practical and low-cost way of teaching something and after a couple of hours playing I feel quite confident I could pilot a small sailboat IRL.
So in short, I do think VR is the future and I don't regret spending more than $1400 on VR hardware over the years. That said, I don't think VR is the future of video games, and it thats all you're interested in I don't think it is worth your time in its current form.