Jay recently sent me a video containing a compilation of VR Fails – people’s experiences in VR that went bad. I can totally relate, although our VR experiences haven’t been anywhere near as costly or painful as these. I wasn’t able to find that same exact video to post here, but I was just as satisfied when I search YouTube for “VR Fails” and found that there are literally thousands of them. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. This one’s pretty good if you’re curious.
It seems to me, the ideal VR setup would be a dedicated, padded, EMPTY room with well-defined in-game indicators for room boundaries. I don’t know if all VR systems have these, but SteamVR seems to handle it pretty well, but still gives the user the option to turn all of these off, in case the user wants an experience that’s as immersive as possible. I think that’s where things go very bad in a lot of these videos. You put an inexperienced user in VR, turn off these safety features, and let them go to see what happens. It’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. And having a big-screen TV in your VR room is a HUGE no-no, but most people can’t afford to dedicate a whole room as a VR environment, and just set up their VR in their game room or rec room (where the big-screen TV is).
It CAN be played safely though, and more often than not, the things in that video don’t happen. After a few months with VR, we’ve only had two minor issues: Kevin punched a lightning ball and it exploded (I wish I had a video) and Connor punched the wall pretty hard. Ironically, he punched my Ready Player One poster, but no damage was done. Nothing so pricey as a big-screen TV being destroyed or any physical injuries. Then again, maybe we’re not playing the really intensely-immersive games that can cause these issues. But I think Richies Plank Experience is possibly one of the most intense ones I have. And I haven’t even set it up with a real plank like this guy did:
JimTrottier.com 