Do you guys kinda feel alone?

I know how you feel, or at least I did. Been into VR since the 90's but after the "haydays" seems most people lost interest. Just recently has there been increased popularity, and I think the success of the Rift proves there is a market. Of course, its still early adopters right now. But the interest is there. I think the coming months and years are going to be key for the progression of VR. It's basically up to us now to prove to the mass market that VR is what everyone dreams it to be.

We are early adopters. We are the trailblazers. I see that when given the opportunity to try the RIFT, nobody says no. Experiencing it 1st hand, will be the best way for the RIFT to gain traction. Getting the Dev Kit out to the people who make the games, is paving the way for that 1 game/experience that will put this hardware on the map. It will prob be a "FLYING" experience that captures the interest of the masses. The dream of flight is universal. When someone tweaks a 3D VR flying experience to perfection, it's gonna lite a fire under the mainstream hype machine. It's not something worth worrying about, until the consumer version becomes available. I'm enjoying being in the ELITE early adopters club.

I don't feel anymore alone than I have with my other eccentric interests over the years.


At this stage VR is still extremely niche. Yes it might explode with growth thanks to the Rift but we are still a long way from mass adoption.

When HMDs like Rift become less than $250, are compatible with all consoles and PCs and smartphones, have a massive amount of content including games, movies, virtual social media, and of course porn, only then will they be mass market, mass culture devices.

If Rift never grows beyond the bounds of enthusiast gamers that would be unfortunate but at this early stage Im not entirely sure society will adopt VR as voraciously as it has smart phones. Many people just find the whole concept of "going to a different perceptual reality" as very awkward and strange. That's subject to change though, just like most people thought you were some pretentious twat if you carried a mobile phone in the 80s or 90s but now everyone has one.

I am very glad someone took the time to post this concern (and that so many others have experienced it).

There seems to be very few people who share our vision for this technology. Most of the reactions I get when I explain how cool VR could be if it went mainstream are patronizing nods, yawns or snickers at the idea of "strapping a big TV to your head". It is hard to even hold someone's attention long enough to explain immersion, and six degrees of freedom.
Maybe it's my delivery.

I think that the concept of VR was ahead of the technology of the 90's. And, I agree, it made promises it couldn't keep, causing some broken hearts. However, I think the current lack of interest simply comes from lack of exposure. The idea of VR lit a flame in the imaginations of the mass media and made for some wonderful pop-culture creations. This began with Lawnmower Man for me and seemed to trickle off at The Matrix. Now people barely remember it.

So how do you market a technology that was the "wave of the future" in the 1990s?

Tallsie mentioned Sword Art Online; an anime about a game that uses the "Full-dive" whole brain & body immersion system that is hijacked by the game creator turned terrorist. Players were trapped and could potentially die within the game if their avatar died. Tallsie mentions this in a negative light, but, while I see his point, I feel media like this is the perfect way to get people excited about this technology again. Though he's right in that there will be some interesting social/psychological changes if VR does become mainstream.

Hopefully the idea sharing between the Japanese pop culture and the U.S. pop culture continues and we also jump on the VR bandwagon. Otherwise it might be a long road getting the hype back.

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There is no such thing as bad publicity - Barnum (Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey)

Well, I brought my Rift in to my workplace to showcase it to my coworkers, it ended up drawing a lot of attention and some skeptic comments, however everyone who tried it ended up blown away by it. A majority of them are non-gamers, though tech interest varies per person. (I work in the US Air Force, with a bunch of fighter pilots.) Several of them were wondering about when a consumer version might be available - so I think, that interest will drum up as more publicity hits the main stream. Once you see a solid line of gaming/ 3d movie titles being supported and consumers being able to demo or hear about the quality via word of mouth, it'll really pick up steam. Just my thoughts :D (Also, it was interesting for me to see how difficult it was for a bunch of 30-40 year old guys not knowing where WASD and shift are attempt to navigate...)

If you don't happen to work in a programming environment, or you do work around a lot of non-gamer/tech people, bring in your rift on a laptop for a day and let people play around in the demo world!

I've found that a lot of people don't immediately understand what an HMD is when I tell them about it. I showed a few people that video of the grandma using the Rift and they got the idea. My friends that are gamers are all excited about it, and are waiting for my to receive my Rift so they can come over and try it.

Quite a few people I know are more excited about Google Glass. I guess I'm more interested in creating new realities than augmenting the existing one ;) .

Ohhh hell yeah i feel alone :D

I study computer visulisation and i am focused on games. I am so excited about the rift that i spend the last few weeks just googling oculus rift over and over again :D .
The first day i told my fellow students about this they were like " Wow this is so awesome. Imagine Mirrors Edge... blabla" but after a couple of days all the hype was gone :o and i belive for computer visualisition this should be the holy grail!

My girlfriend is so sick of this thing already :D .

All my "normal" friends arent intersted at all :o :o :o :o :o and i really dont understand this :D . I mean i tell them that people who have tried it said: it was like teleporting in a whole different world and my friends say : well you are probably getting a lot fatter when you have this thing :D :D . WTF ?

I have HUGE difficultys to understand someone who is not freaking out just by hearing about the rift. :evil:
One of my fellow students is a true gamer and he played like every single game that was developed but he doesnt care about the rift at all :o :o
well long story short he is not my friend anymore until i put this thing on his face :D :D

So i will show off this technology to every single person that i know because i cant handle non excited people anylonger :D :D

PS: Maybe it has something to do with German People (i live in germany) because they are not very excited about anything. :roll:

"halfshay" wrote:
(snip)

Dude, ease off the smileys.

Butanyway, I see your point, but I think it's understandable that not everyone is freaking out about it. after all, technology and video games don't play as large a role in most people's lives.

I started thinking, and for this to take off I think it'll have to be sold in retail stores like Best Buy with demo's set up so people can actually understand what it is - there are a lot of people from my generation and older who experienced the 90's "VR" and it left a bad taste in their mouth.

The downside - checking out a demo of something that's been on 100 other people's faces. :o

"halfshay" wrote:
Ohhh hell yeah i feel alone :D

I study computer visulisation and i am focused on games. I am so excited about the rift that i spend the last few weeks just googling oculus rift over and over again :D .
The first day i told my fellow students about this they were like " Wow this is so awesome. Imagine Mirrors Edge... blabla" but after a couple of days all the hype was gone :o and i belive for computer visualisition this should be the holy grail!

My girlfriend is so sick of this thing already :D .

All my "normal" friends arent intersted at all :o :o :o :o :o and i really dont understand this :D . I mean i tell them that people who have tried it said: it was like teleporting in a whole different world and my friends say : well you are probably getting a lot fatter when you have this thing :D :D . WTF ?

I have HUGE difficultys to understand someone who is not freaking out just by hearing about the rift. :evil:
One of my fellow students is a true gamer and he played like every single game that was developed but he doesnt care about the rift at all :o :o
well long story short he is not my friend anymore until i put this thing on his face :D :D

So i will show off this technology to every single person that i know because i cant handle non excited people anylonger :D :D

PS: Maybe it has something to do with German People (i live in germany) because they are not very excited about anything. :roll:

Holy smiley emoticons, batman! :shock:

but in all seriousness, I think the 90's did more harm than good to the VR reputation because everyone expected it to mount to a home commercial product then, and the technology wasn't in place, so everyone kind of frowned on the fact it didn't happen, and stereotyped it as fantasy. The stuff that was released in any attempt to bring it mainstream at the time was gimmicky, expensive, and didn't function as promised. I have one friend who swore the Oculus was "Virtual Boy 2" until he tried it, and left, and then now wants to preorder.

You'll probably find a lot of people rolling their eyes at VR nowadays. LUCKILY, however,... the people who still understand and realize it's potential for everyday use are bringing it mainstream and never gave up hope outside of military, medical and engineering application. And now the hardware is in its prime and all good for VR at home.

And while folks like Palmer and the Oculus team can make it and show it off all day, its largely the community (me, you, everyone elsewhere and other places with all the enthusiasm and excitement) can really turn the tides for it, and bring it into mainstream as the next gen big thing that it is. Power in numbers. We are those numbers. But that can't happen unless we (a) show it off, and (b) develop the crap out of it. It's a long road ahead to prove to a society that once shunned it as a gimmicky fantasy that today it can be done, and it can be done cheap. But the point it is, its true... it has been done.

I have a lot of friends who were skeptics of VR tech. They spent (maybe) 10 or 20 minutes with the Oculus... and they realize it's the real deal. No gimmick. And not one has left unimpressed. Honestly, not one has left without being completely blown away.

VR is simply one of those things you can't "talk" about and convince someone of its progress or its effect. With VR... seeing is believing. And the more that see, the more that believe.