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VR Will Change the World…If We Don’t Screw it Up

VR Will Change the World…If We Don’t Screw it Up

The future is here, people. PlayStation VR and the Oculus Rift are both slated for Q1 2016 releases, and that’s right around the corner. Now is the time to start saving for the hardware or for your necessary PC upgrades. Now is the time to scope out which developers are working on the games you’re most excited about, and now is the time to develop a sound strategy for how you’re going to support VR software development in the future. Wait, what?

If you haven’t noticed, your purchasing decisions send very powerful messages to developers. Take a look at sales charts across the last few years and you’ll notice a few names that never seem to go away. Call of Duty , Grand Theft Auto , FIFA , Madden , Minecraft … these are among the highest grossing titles year after year. We’re effectively opening our wallets, millions of us, holding fistfuls of cash in front of developers and saying, “Give us more of this; this is what we like.” Now I’m not for or against any of these games particularly, but I need you to see that we as consumers have an enormous responsibility to support studios that are going to push the envelope and create games as innovative and novel as virtual reality itself.

Now, I’m not saying that we don’t need a kick-ass virtual reality FPS, because we totally do. That would be incredible. Imagine a rifle-shaped light-gun accessory with buttons and analogue sticks right under where your hands rest on the grip and stock. To aim down the sights all you would have to do is raise the rifle to your shoulder and before you know it, your head is tilted and you have the forehead of a Nazi zombie in your crosshairs. I bet we’ll see a lot of that, and I know a lot of you are going to get platinum trophies for games like Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Fortune (because the gameplay is airtight, right?), but this hardware is meant for more than that. Picture this instead:

Imagine stepping into Shibuya Station in Tokyo at night time, completely surrounded by the colors and glow of neon as you walk amidst the bustling crowds and navigate the busy streets to check out the window displays of some of your favorite shops before driving to work in the morning. Imagine a promising young Nepali student apprenticed to a master engineer who lives on the other side of the planet, working together on a groundbreaking new processor; imagine taking a stroll through a virtual, photo-realistic garden where you can reach out and touch any plant or flower to learn about it through interactive lessons that can take you inside cell walls and show you how the process of photosynthesis unfolds. We stand on the threshold of a virtual renaissance, and everything about the way we learn and communicate is going to be transformed by this technology. We as gamers can’t be left behind, content to splatter brains and ogle at the miracle of boob-jiggle physics in VR.

VR Will Change the World…If We Don’t Screw it Up

We deserve games that challenge us, and experiences that bring us together. We need stories that inspire us and tools that empower us. We need breathtaking, orchestrated moments of interaction and playfulness that force the world to admit that video games truly are art. With every dollar we spend next year, we’ll be telling developers what we want out of this platform so please, let’s not screw this up. Let’s take a chance on some new kinds of games and give VR the chance to really change the gaming landscape.

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