Oculus Rift impact on gaming...what do you think?

This is coming out next year...which is only a few days away. If you don't know what it is yet you have been living under a rock, head over to youtube and check out some videos.

At $300 (the expected price) this thing is going to be very accessible, at least to PC gamers who will drop $300 for an upgrade at the drop of a hat. What this means is developers will no doubt start making games just for this piece of hardware. This could be good and bad.

The good:

This is just my opinion, but no more of this 3rd person 360 degree spinning combat crap. I absolutely hate the style of combat such as in the Witcher 2, it wreaks of console to me. Just my opinion so don't get all freaked out about it. Like it or not with Oculus Rift would this style of gameplay have any place at all? What is the point in "being there" if some other dude is doing all the work? First person will be THE way to go in future games just to make Oculus Rift be that much more immersive. I am not saying these games will not exist at all, but I think we will see the corner of this market being competed for intensely, 3rd person gaming will not have a place in this in my opinion, as it just does not seem compatible with the technology.

The bad:

Same as some of the good, we will be seeing nothing but first person games for the next few years with a few others trickled in here and there. This could be really bad, anyone remember when the first 3D movies started coming out? I mean like Jaws 3D old. They were horrific! All people were doing was putting out bad movies that exploited the 3D model as much as they could....just because they could. They were forgetting plot, acting, and everything else that makes a movie good. I fear this will happen to gaming with Oculus Rift as well, at least at first. They will be so busy trying to make the novelty virtual 3D experience shine they will focus less on the important things in a game. We will have the largest influx of crappy fps's PC gaming has ever seen, just a prediction.

Either way I am very excited about this piece of hardware and I think the impact it will have on gaming is going to be huge. Anyone think it will go another way?

I think you will see some changes to adapt to it. I don't think it will kill a whole sub genre though.

I think it will put a huge dent in 3D gaming because it should be an easier setup and more than likely cheaper.

Good points.

I know I hold an unpopular opinion when I say I think it's extremely over-rated. If it weren't for the hype surrounding it, I wouldn't expect it to have any great impact on gaming.

Not going to get myself worked up about it either way, though. What ever happens, happens.

Don't forget it's a 300$ with high end GPU; people with budget limit for high end only or mid system rigs won't buy it unless it goes under 200$

@C_Rule: Yeah I am not to excited about it either. I wear glasses and these type of things normally stink for glasses wearers.

Could be, but for example I use glasses because of myopia, so I wouldn't really need them for something like this.

Just seeing people's reactions to playing games like Skyrim got me excited. To be IN that world as opposed to looking at it through a window will be amazing.

I hate the concept of wearing some shitty screen on my head. I hear the IQ on the screen is the bare minimum to do its concept justice, so it sounds like complete garb. I play PC for better gfx, not worse.

I've got a buddy that plays with his devkit every so often. I haven't been able to go over to try it out yet, but it sounds like a pretty cool experience. I don't think the Rift will affect how gaming is developed any time soon, but its definitely a step in the right direction as far as VR goes. These devices will probably always appeal to a niche demographic until they either cut the cost more or get more core developers on board.

I understand your point, but you can't have your cake and eat it too. The tech just isn't there yet. It may not have the best display devices, but the experience is not going to be replicated by any monitor or group of monitors.

If the tech isn't there yet, it's not there yet. If it's going to stick, it will need to be a little more robust, a little more sleek, and should feature better screens within (with little framerate limitations). Once it's at that point, I'd buy it. Even if it cost $400-500. I don't mind paying a lot more money for quality, I just don't like paying $300 for a relatively cheap looking device that does what it's supposed to do at a bare-minimum level.

I think it will be like 3D Gaming.

A minority will use it, but it will never truly take off as a standard.

@KHAndAnime: With its seemingly huge leap within the VR department, I don't agree that the Rift is doing the bare minimum as much as saying the device, in its current state, just isn't for you. It's definitely an opinion on either side. Especially without an immediate product base to compare it to. But, I do understand where you are coming from.

It will probably be big when it launches, them calm down a bit post launch, then when the next version is announced hype will be through the roof again.

As someone who has used it I will say that it does what it advertises to do, but what it advertises to do alone will not do much to add to the immersion. Your sight will be there, but sight is just one of your many senses, there will be quite the disconnection between your sight and touch which will harm immersion quite a bit, there there are the headaches to consider. All in all, it is a good piece of tech, but I doubt it will ever become truly mainstream and probably wont have much influence on PC game development as a whole.

Interesting points, going to be interesting to see how this plays out.

I like the idea of the product. I'll wait on it. Even though it had a testing/devkit run with many participating users, I still can't help but feel it's very much in "beta". I'll highly consider future versions of the product, I'm just not enthused for anything that I have to wear on my head.

40,000 rift dev kits have been sold and it is not even released yet.....

I'm excited for the future versions. It looks very promising, especially with Carmack jumping onboard. RIP id

Concept is fantastic and just what gaming needs

but as most concepts go (wii, motion capture) its gonna take time, I doubt a respectable version will be around for years.

plus when you look at consoles and pcs most people play with a great tv or monitor with fantastic colour contrast and high pixel counts with 4k steadily becoming more prevalent, will people really want to ditch these beautiful screens for one crammed into the oculus?

I can see resolution limitations being an issue, but the size of your tv or monitor will certainly become irrelevant since in VR size is infinite. I would take 1080p if it meant virtual reality. The dev kit is 720 but from what I read the finished product will be 1080p. Not a terrible resolution by any means.

I think it's a step in the right direction toward 3D that is more than just a gimmick.

@vfibsux:

i would be happy with 1080p yh, but just like tv screens im picky on my colour and vibrancy, unless the device can have the same performance visually as say a mid range 500 pound tv i dont think it would be a sacrafice i, and some, if not many others could take

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/402085/My-Oculus-arrived-and-it-does-change-everything.html

Post from a gamer just like you and me who just got the dev kit. Pretty cool.

oculus rift is like masturbation,

sure its fun to do it when you are alone,

but it looks just sad and creepy to do it in front of others......

If you give a shit about what others think. Hell, tons of people think we are sad and creepy for being gamers anyway.

I haven't met those,

but I do know from my personal assertion that it does look like something I wouldn't do in front of others,

but good for oculus, because if oculus thrives,

than the 3d standard will also thrive,

win/win

It is exciting, but I will hold off for a while, at least until some other companies get in the mix. I don't like buying things, especially tech, when it is new and there is only one offering. There needs to be competition in these markets. And, hell, the thing is not even released yet.

But as of right now, my mindset is that it is a gimmick. Hoping it is not, though.

I think it's an interesting concept as I've always been interested in Virtual Reality. On the other hand I really question the handiness of those devices in their present state. For instance, when playing a video game on a console I often am listening to the radio and checking Internet in parallel; wearing sort of a shoe box on my head might offer a better immersion into the virtual world of the game I am about playing, but at the same time deprive me of some valuable stimuli of my own real environment. So while I'd certainly like to experiment with this kind of device, I am almost sure I wouldn't want using it all the time while gaming, either.

I absolutely hate the style of combat such as in the Witcher 2, it wreaks of console to me. Just my opinion so don't get all freaked out about it. Like it or not with Oculus Rift would this style of gameplay have any place at all?

I don't think it wreaks of console. I like that type of combat. It's a more "intimate" version of a strategy game. Many CRPGs have been 3rd person since the 1980s at least. Offhand, I can't think of a CRPG from the 1970s. Anyway, I could see this style of gameplay live on and work well within the Oculus Rift. You would be sort of an observer in the situation. Maybe a "god" of sorts which commands your PC what to do and be able to fly around the area to get perspectives you couldn't get in a 1st person game. Or maybe even a hybrid, it's 1st person, you press a button and check around the corner to see if an enemy is coming, and then press a button again and you're back "inside" your character as a sort out-of-body experience.

It's a very niche product that is in and of itself a novelty. I can see myself using it regularly if it is good enough, but that doesn't mean everyone will. We may be surprised where this will go, though!

Doesn't it make you sick after using it for a period of time?

Not anymore

I've been reading threads around various forums on the internet regarding the Oculus. I think the majority of people don't really care about it. At the moment it's looking like a product for only a certain type of tech-enthusiast. Unfortunately the novelty of it wears of just looking at people wear it on their head. Perhaps it's because I hate wearing things on my head... but it looks madly uncomfortable to me. Also considering I only play games with other people present - it's 100% useless, I don't like to play games like a loner.