Illustration by Andrés Murillo.

Originally published in print September 2020.

 

The digital gaming industry is inseparably tied to consumer electronics. Progress in one field is often driven by demand in the other, leading to impressive new inventions on both sides. Yet at every turning point, there are those who take after the luddites of the 18th century, declaring the old ways “better” and resisting the current of change. They find reason upon reason to discredit a new invention or paradigm. This has happened most recently with the advent of Virtual Reality for the consumer market.  It seems like every other year, VR is enthusiastically declared dead by the mainstream, only for another “must-play” VR title to release shortly thereafter. 

 

So why is there a persistent aversion to VR in the gaming community, and why has the tech stuck around this long in spite of it? Well, VR’s first serious introduction to the gaming space came in 2012 with the launch of a Kickstarter project for a product called the Oculus Rift. The Rift was ambitious, aiming to transport you to another world with the power of your gaming PC. The project was successful and the company began shipping development kits in the following years. After an acquisition by Facebook in 2014, Oculus shipped a consumer version of the headset in 2016. 

 

The new tech was not without its problems. The original Rift was plagued by issues which, for many gamers, were dealbreakers. Aside from the high cost (totalling nearly $1,000USD for the full setup) and requirement for a large physical playspace, most early consumer VR games themselves were… not very good. When you think of a “cool” idea for VR, you probably imagine running around inside a first person shooter, gun in hand, blasting bad guys like they’re going out of style. Or maybe you think of a sprawling open-world RPG or a driving simulator. Many early VR developers thought of the exact same concepts. These ideas would have been great if it weren’t discovered that frame rates lower than 90 frames per second and the mere act of moving forward in VR space would give horrific motion sickness to all but the most lead-bellied players. Perhaps this is what led VR to be viewed as an expensive novelty, with little potential beyond brief amusement. VR tech seemed destined to share the Wii remote’s fate, where evening after evening of motion-controlled bowling with friends gradually yielded to more traditional gaming, while the motion controllers gathered dust on the shelf.

 

But dark as those early days were, VR persisted through the last few years of the decade as developers learned the ropes. Creators in the games industry were starting at square one in completely unfamiliar territory, much like cinema during the advent of sound or colour in film. It has taken a few years for developers to even scratch the surface of what works in VR and what doesn’t. The technology has not only proven it can be interesting, but that it will be absolutely paradigm-shifting. 

 

In the four short years since the launch of mainstream consumer headsets, games have been released that simply cannot be played conventionally. Valve finally released a new installment in the Half Life series with VR-only Half Life: Alyx in 2020. Astrobot Rescue Mission in 2018 showed how VR doesn’t have to mean first-person, presenting an astoundingly fun 3D platformer. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes showed how VR can be applied to the party game genre. One player dons the headset and attempts to disarm a bomb based on written instructions which are invisible to them, but visible to everyone else in the room via the TV screen. 

 

However, my personal favourite showcases for VR have been in the rhythm genre. Games like 2018’s Beat Saber, 2019’s Pistol Whip and 2016’s Thumper showed how rhythm games can be elevated to a new level in VR. Rhythm games have always been about chasing that “zen” state that comes with hitting every note in a song, but the application of VR dials this satisfaction up to 11. In Beat Saber, you slash blocks with light sabers to the beat of the music, driving a light show in the background with every swing. From the moment the song starts, there’s nothing from the real world to distract you. It’s just you, the music and the score counter. Similarly, Pistol Whip has you firing guns at faceless cyber goons to a banging electronic soundtrack. For me, VR rhythm games represent the ultimate form of escapism.

For the VR enthusiasts out there, the future looks bright as the technology advances at a breakneck pace. A mere five years ago, the notion of a fully wireless headset was a pipedream. In 2019, Oculus released the Quest headset, a fully wireless, standalone headset which was sold for a budget price at $399. Further, Sony has confirmed that PlayStation VR will be compatible with the upcoming PlayStation 5. So we can safely say that VR has proven its right to stick around, and some major players in the games industry have recognised that. Video games themselves were once a niche platform, but slowly inched their way into the mainstream. We are seeing the same thing happen with VR. Over the next few years, you can expect to see VR headsets become more and more prevalent in the living room, much like games consoles have.