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dead4sure
Up and Coming
April 27, 2013
Question

Do you guys kinda feel alone?

I mean this with regards to your passion about VR and the Rift.

I have been a gamer/geek my whole life and have many friends from many different backgrounds that are gamers or at least tech enthusiasts of some kind. The moment I became aware of the Rift I started to mention it to my friends and even new people I met thinking there would be some kind of universal response of "cool".

Weirdly not a single person has seemed remotely interested. To be honest I'm quite confused. Some of these guys even work in the gaming industry.

Well anyway this got me thinking about just how many people pledged enough for or ordered a Rift and realistically the number is a very tiny percentage of the population. Now clearly most people will be devs and it is only a prototype but I'm beginning to think VR is a lot less popular than I thought. In years to come will there be a small group of us fanboys running around in our own virtual world while the rest of the population sticks with Call of Duty 20 on their monitors? I highly doubt it but I do worry sometimes lol

Do you guys have any thoughts? Should I start looking for new friends? ;)

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    dead4sureAuthor
    Up and Coming
    June 1, 2013
    "itcamefrommars" wrote:
    Anyhow - how can we feel alone? look how many of us there are here! :D


    True but unfortunately we all exist together on the interwebs lol! :roll:

    After trying out a few demo's on my girlfriend I've decided to Always introduce people to the Rift using the Roller-coaster (because people know what to expect) and the Blue Marble (because it's just so damn beautiful) demo's.

    Does anyone else have a Demo of choice when showing off the Rift?
    cleverusername
    Up and Coming
    June 2, 2013
    http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html

    Here is Sherry Turkle, talking about Alone Together and how technology has already destroyed all the old normals of culture and civilization as we once knew it. Interesting. meshes well with this talk I just saw on Cspan http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/HumanB about human minds on the internet. VR is certain to accelerate some of these trends, tofflers future shock is here, and now we have present shock.
    mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4123 I am looking into that LEEP VR I lack practical 3d knowledge, I have found some good links, but I am not sure if they are the ones you were talking about. Would you mind direct linking me to them? :oops:
    JoeReMi
    Participant
    June 9, 2013
    "dead4sure" wrote:
    "itcamefrommars" wrote:
    Anyhow - how can we feel alone? look how many of us there are here! :D


    True but unfortunately we all exist together on the interwebs lol! :roll:

    After trying out a few demo's on my girlfriend I've decided to Always introduce people to the Rift using the Roller-coaster (because people know what to expect) and the Blue Marble (because it's just so damn beautiful) demo's.

    Does anyone else have a Demo of choice when showing off the Rift?


    Hey just noticed you're in the 'Diff! Me too - my status went to processing on Saturday, won't be long now. I assumed I'd be the first to get one here but I guess not... So we're not just together on the interwebs, I may be passing you in chippy lane!

    In response to your question, I've been lining up demos to get ready for the rifts arrival. The two you mentioned are at the top of my list, along with Titans of Space (which sounds awesome) and Alone in the Rift (to try to scare the bejesus out of my friends). Any others you find first-timers really impressed by?
    GrimDarkDarrel
    Up and Coming
    June 10, 2013
    Maybe you're not selling it well.

    When I talk to gamer friends about it, I describe it as satisfying (for me) as nothing more than a monitor strapped to your face, which blocks out all visual distractions. That alone was enough for me to order my rift. The fact that vorpx and vireio are adding head tracking to tons of games do more to rouse interest.

    The key things, I think, are positional tracking, and simply support for x game that a person really likes. Positional tracking, so that you could lean forward to peer around a corner strikes me as a relatively minor addition that does a lot to improve immersion, like it passes a final "aha" threshold. I've never once described the experience as virtual reality though, maybe because that's not what I'm personally looking for. Just getting into shooters and first person role playing games with a display free of distractions is more than enough for me, and has garnered the interest of everyone I've talked about it with. I know I've caused at least one oculus preorder in addition to my own.
    blazespinnaker
    Up and Coming
    June 10, 2013
    Until the

    Consumer OR + OMNI (or whatever) + Killer apps arrive, it'll be fringe.

    But that's good! Gives us a chance to be on the ground floor of a movement. :)
    Synthanel
    Up and Coming
    June 10, 2013
    I do not feel alone per say, I am surrounded by the curious and the indifferent.

    The curious are those that have been curious about it, let down and otherwise dismissed it, and some have spend a fair bit of money on the idea, and are not ready to jump in just yet.

    The other group are the indifferent, but this group is interesting this is the non gamer/fixed gamer group. This is the people you have to sit down and shove the oculus over their hand and let them experience it, maybe they feel sick, maybe they think it is amazing, it all depends. Oculus does have the ability to market to pretty much anyone, although right now you do have to be rather tech minded to really enjoy it. You could sit grandma on a couch and plop her in Hawaii, and she would be the happiest soul.

    I tend to lump people into three groups, the fans, the curious and the indifferent.
    geekmaster
    Up and Coming
    June 10, 2013
    "fogwalker" wrote:
    ... I tend to lump people into three groups, the fans, the curious and the indifferent.

    What about the haters who have only unjustified negativity to spew forth upon us? Which group do they fall into?
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    Synthanel
    Up and Coming
    June 10, 2013
    "geekmaster" wrote:
    "fogwalker" wrote:
    ... I tend to lump people into three groups, the fans, the curious and the indifferent.

    What about the haters who have only unjustified negativity to spew forth upon us? Which group do they fall into?


    I have not come across outright haters, although I am sure I will sooner or later, I will do my best not to knock out their teeth. =) But I think they will fall into the troll category.
    Dimitris
    Up and Coming
    June 12, 2013
    hehe this is like when i was young and i was on the internet with a 9.6k modem and everyone told me this internet thingy isnt going to be anything anybody would want to use, and it would be gone tomorrow :P :lol:
    Madaras
    Up and Coming
    June 19, 2013
    "geekmaster" wrote:
    "fogwalker" wrote:
    ... I tend to lump people into three groups, the fans, the curious and the indifferent.

    What about the haters who have only unjustified negativity to spew forth upon us? Which group do they fall into?


    They're usually the ones, in my experience, who claim to be unbiased and just stating facts. So the indifferent group. I have yet to meet someone who simply says. "TO HELL WITH YOU VR NUTS!"
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