this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2024
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I've played VR before. But I don't see it as a necessity just to play video games. It's also incredibly disorienting after playing for a while, and it's expensive to get the VR headsets, usually, also requiring you to already have a console, or PC to hook up to, so why wouldn't we just play regular games then?
1: VR motion sickness is an issue some people get, unfortunately. It happens if you have a mind that refuses to acknowledge and accept conflicting information from your inner ears and your eyes.... which people with motion sickness often have. When you try to "push" yourself to accept VR movement when you are already feeling sick from it, it gets worse. You're supposed to only do a few minutes of movement in VR at a time, and stop when you start feeling sick. Getting over this is referred to as "getting your VR legs". Once you do, you will be able to do hours without it showing up, and motion sickness irl might get less problematic.
2: Standalone VR, which runs a special version of Android, as much as I'm not a fan, is already here and usable with the (absurdly affordable) Meta Quest series, the (Chinese alternative) Pico, the (Apple tax'ed expensive) Apple Vision, and possibly Valve's new Index.
3: Not every game is meant to be played in VR, but vehicle games and a lot of other unique experiences that require you to have your head on a swivel or interact with lots of in-world objects in a 3D space? Amazing. Playing Flight Simulator without a VR headset just isn't the same.
VR is great when playing Warthunder in aircraft, where you can easily track an opponents plane while maneuvering your aircraft after them.
For tank and naval battles - meh.
All of the things you listed are either being worked on, or are mischaracterizations of the state of VR.
While I do agree, I also find that even though I find VR a lot more intense and enjoyable than any flat screen game I've played, I also only rarely use mine even still. There's something about it that seems to make it a hassle to use casually somehow, between actually getting the headset straps feeling comfortable, getting the passthrough cables plugged, launching driver programs on both the pc and the headset just to get to steamvr. It's not a problem at all if I'm feeling specifically like doing VR stuff for a couple hours as it doesn't take that long, but if I'm recently home from work and want to just chill for a bit without really knowing what, even that inconvenience means that the VR stuff basically never gets used for me.
My current VR headset feels a lot more polished than my previous, older one, or previous experience with earlier devices owned by people I was visiting, and admittedly I bet it's probably a bit smoother on standalone than on pc passthrough like I go for, but I feel like to really take off, putting it on is going to need to not feel like setting up a printer whilst wearing a box on your head.
I'm just not sold on it. I can play the same games without VR, and they work just fine for me. I think most people feel the same way.