VR general state of release rant: Square peg -> Round hole
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 2:32 pm
I've been watching the VR situation this past few years from the sidelines while living without a gaming setup to force myself to focus on learning digital art for the last 2 years. I had been and am still a massive proponent of 3D since i first got my totally awesome 2010 Sony "crosstalk" NX711: "extra crosstalk edition", which surprisingly easily beat out my Dell 30" for gaming, sometimes even in 2D because of the massive FOV increase. I felt that if people could just see good 3D that they would "get it" and be able to extrapolate what it could do for immersive games such as story driven games. Especially when combined with a bigger screen FOV which sizes the world up to closer to real world dimensions on the 2d side of things, thus complimenting and better matching the information 3D provides.
There is a lot of good news, for example, if you look at the comments on AngryJoe's recent Sony VR review or the PSVR forums, there are tons of pro-VR comments like: "WOW guys i had no idea it was like this, its incredible!" and i've even seen a comment saying something to the effect of "i can't go back to 2D after trying this". There are even fanatical pro-VR comments. Over-all the PS4 release i think is fantastic for VR and 3D in general. While i think VR/3D is now here to stay, my rant concerns the effectiveness of the current thrust into mainstream. I think they screwed up a tad bit.
I think there are two main types of gamers, those that are into perhaps more traditional styles of gameplay, for points/score and competitive and social aspects, which i think most console gamers fit into. And on the other end are the immersion gamers, who play to have an interesting experience, playing story-driven games, roleplaying, or playing visually engaging games such as Crysis/Halflifes/Metro and enjoying the "experience" aspect" of them. Of course we're all sitting somewhere differently on that scale.
So if a VR headset itself provides more immersion into the game world. Which category of gamer would benefit most from this tech? Seems like immersion gamers to me = square peg. What games are being released for the release of VR? Seems like mostly casual, fast paced, rack up the points, low detail type games = round hole. So, it seems like we are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole to me at the moment.
I know there are exceptions here, but what bothers me most is this lack of a good first person game offering a Halflife-like experience. And why only one post-release VR patch(Eathan Carter)? A Metro 2033 VR patch would have blown some people's loving minds. Is everybody too busy masturbating in VR now? What is going on? Even a 3rd person game like Mass Effect, so SO many people would enjoy revisiting that game in 3D, they would go crazy some people, experiencing 3D/VR for the first time AND re-playing ME, a beloved game for many. What about old games, like Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, released in 2004, which would run very VERY nicely on current hardware! I'm completely biased here because these are some of my favorite games, but why are there no post-release VR patches for great old games? I can't believe nobody thought this was a worthwhile idea to spend some dev money to make these games simply viewable through the device then re-release them for $10 to $20 dollars as VR editions, without any hand tracking mechanics, which are imo gimmicky, but i haven't tried them yet.
Also, what is going on with this teleportation-movement poop. I understand it could have a place for some games, no problem with that, but did people think we were going to stop wanting to go on heroic adventures? I thought VR was made to get you further into heroic adventures. How does Luke Skywalker or Han Solo or Indiana Jones or Garret or Garalt do his/her thing without running and sprinting all the time? Or a band of D&D adventurers or Dovakiin in Skyrim. Many fun games are walking simulators, like DayZ or some MMOs. Teleportation? Are they loving serious? Are you telling me that im first and foremost an massive immersion gamer and VR was not made for games i play?
Space and many cockpit games aren't going to help VR succeed in the mainstream i don't think. Pause a space game in the middle of combat and look at your available options, which probably amount to *continue turning toward the enemy icon and shoot* , now pause a Battlefield game during combat, with a tank somewhere on the left, 3 guys to the right and one forward a ways, and one possibly on your tail and examine the massive increase in available elements to consider, including terrain/structures and your available weapons.
I'd like to introduce these devs to a concept:
Abstraction: "a general idea or quality rather than an actual person, object, or event : an abstract idea or quality" (one of 3,000 versions...)
Does anyone think of moving your thumb forward or pressing a key when deciding to move forward in a game? I know i don't, i just think "move forward" and my brain takes care of the rest. While it might take some getting used to in VR while using a hand tracked device, i have no doubt our brains will get used to it and not even think about after awhile. We can learn, hell, my Dad can't couldn't even pan around a 3rd person character to look around at the environment. I remember playing Quake 1 with arrow keys. I had a headache my first day of 3D use, then no more for 2,000 hours of 3D gaming. Surely every day in the world, a new fisherman gets sick his first day, then acclimates. We gets used to things, surely our brains will learn and then do the work automatically with whatever setup system the come up with for proper movement.
If i had known that they were going to focus on teleportation for movement when they announced VR, i would have told them to save themselves the trouble. Once again, a rhetorical question: Are you telling me that im first and foremost a massive immersion-style gamer and VR was not made for games i play?
Games that i think would have been incredible experiences for VR gamers, with only basic 3D and headtracking (from my PC gamer perspective):
Metro 2033
Mass Effect
Skyrim
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Portal 1/2
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Halflife 2
Soma
many horror games (i don't play these)
Witchers
Chivalry
Hawken
Wheres the loving ALIEN ISOLATION VR PATCH FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!
EDIT: Edited out some of my copy/paste 3D Vision forum contextual stuff and clarified a bit.
There is a lot of good news, for example, if you look at the comments on AngryJoe's recent Sony VR review or the PSVR forums, there are tons of pro-VR comments like: "WOW guys i had no idea it was like this, its incredible!" and i've even seen a comment saying something to the effect of "i can't go back to 2D after trying this". There are even fanatical pro-VR comments. Over-all the PS4 release i think is fantastic for VR and 3D in general. While i think VR/3D is now here to stay, my rant concerns the effectiveness of the current thrust into mainstream. I think they screwed up a tad bit.
I think there are two main types of gamers, those that are into perhaps more traditional styles of gameplay, for points/score and competitive and social aspects, which i think most console gamers fit into. And on the other end are the immersion gamers, who play to have an interesting experience, playing story-driven games, roleplaying, or playing visually engaging games such as Crysis/Halflifes/Metro and enjoying the "experience" aspect" of them. Of course we're all sitting somewhere differently on that scale.
So if a VR headset itself provides more immersion into the game world. Which category of gamer would benefit most from this tech? Seems like immersion gamers to me = square peg. What games are being released for the release of VR? Seems like mostly casual, fast paced, rack up the points, low detail type games = round hole. So, it seems like we are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole to me at the moment.
I know there are exceptions here, but what bothers me most is this lack of a good first person game offering a Halflife-like experience. And why only one post-release VR patch(Eathan Carter)? A Metro 2033 VR patch would have blown some people's loving minds. Is everybody too busy masturbating in VR now? What is going on? Even a 3rd person game like Mass Effect, so SO many people would enjoy revisiting that game in 3D, they would go crazy some people, experiencing 3D/VR for the first time AND re-playing ME, a beloved game for many. What about old games, like Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, released in 2004, which would run very VERY nicely on current hardware! I'm completely biased here because these are some of my favorite games, but why are there no post-release VR patches for great old games? I can't believe nobody thought this was a worthwhile idea to spend some dev money to make these games simply viewable through the device then re-release them for $10 to $20 dollars as VR editions, without any hand tracking mechanics, which are imo gimmicky, but i haven't tried them yet.
Also, what is going on with this teleportation-movement poop. I understand it could have a place for some games, no problem with that, but did people think we were going to stop wanting to go on heroic adventures? I thought VR was made to get you further into heroic adventures. How does Luke Skywalker or Han Solo or Indiana Jones or Garret or Garalt do his/her thing without running and sprinting all the time? Or a band of D&D adventurers or Dovakiin in Skyrim. Many fun games are walking simulators, like DayZ or some MMOs. Teleportation? Are they loving serious? Are you telling me that im first and foremost an massive immersion gamer and VR was not made for games i play?
Space and many cockpit games aren't going to help VR succeed in the mainstream i don't think. Pause a space game in the middle of combat and look at your available options, which probably amount to *continue turning toward the enemy icon and shoot* , now pause a Battlefield game during combat, with a tank somewhere on the left, 3 guys to the right and one forward a ways, and one possibly on your tail and examine the massive increase in available elements to consider, including terrain/structures and your available weapons.
I'd like to introduce these devs to a concept:
Abstraction: "a general idea or quality rather than an actual person, object, or event : an abstract idea or quality" (one of 3,000 versions...)
Does anyone think of moving your thumb forward or pressing a key when deciding to move forward in a game? I know i don't, i just think "move forward" and my brain takes care of the rest. While it might take some getting used to in VR while using a hand tracked device, i have no doubt our brains will get used to it and not even think about after awhile. We can learn, hell, my Dad can't couldn't even pan around a 3rd person character to look around at the environment. I remember playing Quake 1 with arrow keys. I had a headache my first day of 3D use, then no more for 2,000 hours of 3D gaming. Surely every day in the world, a new fisherman gets sick his first day, then acclimates. We gets used to things, surely our brains will learn and then do the work automatically with whatever setup system the come up with for proper movement.
If i had known that they were going to focus on teleportation for movement when they announced VR, i would have told them to save themselves the trouble. Once again, a rhetorical question: Are you telling me that im first and foremost a massive immersion-style gamer and VR was not made for games i play?
Games that i think would have been incredible experiences for VR gamers, with only basic 3D and headtracking (from my PC gamer perspective):
Metro 2033
Mass Effect
Skyrim
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Portal 1/2
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Halflife 2
Soma
many horror games (i don't play these)
Witchers
Chivalry
Hawken
Wheres the loving ALIEN ISOLATION VR PATCH FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!
EDIT: Edited out some of my copy/paste 3D Vision forum contextual stuff and clarified a bit.