@jaydan said:
@darthbuzzard: Thank you for actually being sensible in this thread with valid counter-arguments that don't boil down to saying "u mad" and memes of dismissal. More VR purists should be like you.
To get back at what you said earlier in defense of my post about VR needing a "trend". I think to supplement your counter-argument that VR actually needs to be like a smartphone in the sense everyone needs to have one, I very much see that as a trend of its own right. Being trendy does not necessarily mean it has to come down to a killer app video game being released that entices a consumer to buy one of the sets. I think Pokemon Snap VR would definitely be a trendy killer app that can truly boost VR's profile, and Nintendo would be stupid if they're not considering this - but a trend can be a matter like every house needs a microwave or every pocket needs a smart computer i.e a smartphone. Those were ultimately trends that at one point enticed entire society's to get into these types of innovations. It does not ultimately have to be a video game to boost this profile, but it needs to find the trend that makes owning VR practical for everyone. I just don't know if many VR companies have fully capitalized on that marketing strategy yet.
I see different stages of adoption. It's niche right now, but I can see it being adopted by gamers where it just becomes a standard part of gaming and basically a form of mainstream gaming. I see that happening with 2nd or 3rd gen headsets paired with killer apps because the jumps between generations will be profound. Maybe that market ends up with 100-200 million headsets.
But to get it adopted well beyond that like a smartphone as you brought up, it needs to be something that a grandma wants to use daily, and not just those in a retirement home with nothing else to do. Did you see the video? There are applications which can make VR core to our lives like smartphones are. Social VR and telepresence are the biggest reasons. I'm sure most if not all of us would immediately buy a well-refined headset that could let us go anywhere real or virtual and be with anyone else in the world. It also will just converge with AR and be one device rather than two separate paths that diverge.
The way I see it, socializing in VR is like how phones gave us the ability to call people, but now we can feel like we are with people. Telepresence is like how the Internet gave us access to information, but instead it gives us access to space.
There are some other things as well of course, and some stuff that comes off as weird preaching to most people like how you can change your sense of self and live new lives or have transcendary experiences outside human norms, since that's really weird to think about.
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