Virtual Reality Headsets

I don't know about you, but the idea of virtual reality has always been an awesome one.  Now as you all may know Sony is attempting to make this a reality in the near future with a product they are calling, "Project Morpheus".  That name isn't official, as time may reveal this device is still in beta testing.

What we can bank on however is criticism... and lots of it

Motion gaming in general has served it's purpose many ways on the Nintendo Wii U, Microsoft's Kinect, Sony's PlayStation Move/Camera.  I hold onto the notion that motion gaming and the likes leave plenty of room open for wonderment.  Virtual reality will undoubtedly be the next step in gaming, but I feel based on various reports I've read and interviews I've watched our technology still has a ways to go before we can experience something truly immersive and equally functional.  So do I think Project Morpheus will be a bust?  A gimmick? Will it influence gamers to set aside their "controllers" in exchange for something more interactive?  I think so.  I'm seeing a lot of hype, but that shouldn't surprise anyone at this point.  We live in one of the most consumeristic countries in the world.  Hyping up the "next newest" thing is common place here.  While we're on the topic of hype, lets not forget to mention the VR headset that renewed all these VR talks in the first place, the Oculus Rift.

The O.R. is going to be pretty amazing.  On one condition.  That condition is, virtual reality gaming be foundationally centralized around "gaming" and not general social media.  Should there be a caveat included in these VR machines for sharing to other social networks? Sure!  In fact, the inclusion of Sony's "share" feature for example doesn't hinder the console, it enhances it by infusing the ability to share gaming content to social media.  However, as you may or may not know, Mark Zuckerberg (owner of Facebook) recently bought Oculus Rift for approximately 2 billion dollars.  Oculus says they will leverage the funds obtained through this deal to deliver a more consumer minded device (ie cost effective, durable), but they have also agreed to let facebook redesign the headset with facebook software so it behaves essentially like an extension of facebook. I'm against that, but if Oculus's main objective was simply to create a headset for general all purpose uses then that's an entirely different situation.  Unfortunately, here, that is not the case.  Facebook will want to use the headset to try and virtualize ALOT of things outside the realm of gaming (along with streaming in game ads)... Now again I say, if that was the original purpose of the Oculus Rift then I have no qualms but Oculus insist this headset will be a "gaming" headset.

It's hard to say what the final product will look like now

We gamers aren't against the idea of sharing gameplay, stats, or interconnectedness (sp?) amongst our peers....

We're against ads.
We're against wonky news feed formats that always seem to change regardless of our desires
We're against ever changing (vague) privacy settings and policies
Subsequently making us against having to worry who can and who can't "see" us (I'm against that)
I'm against Candy Crush & obnoxious invites from people I never talk to (why are we friends again?)
We're against seeing a good thing get tainted, but then the developers won't admit it
Alas, I think Facebook harbors all these things... So uh, I think you get the gist...

The reality is, Facebook's acquisition has made an impact on Oculus's campaign as most gamers are weary of investing in social media based platforms as a primary means to play video games, LET ALONE for social media...  Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson had a big business deal in place with the Oculus team in which he immediately backed out of upon knowledge that Facebook had recently bought the OR VR project.  You can read more about it here... I'm personally indifferent to the recent change of guard... there will be plenty of other suitors to choose from.  So if Oculus gets too Zucky then I won't have a problem pulling the plug on that virtual candy crush trash lol... Ahem.

Seriously though...Only time will tell.

Maybe game developers will go with Project Morpheus or some other third party VR headset? There may be the off chance Mark allows Oculus to go develop UNDISTURBED too (which would change the whole game...I seriously dount this will happen though...)  In the mean time I think it's just something neat to talk about because let's face it, tech is just as fun to debate than it is to use lol.

If you're a gamer how much do you care about this?  I'm interested to know!

Peace,

Joe Andrew