I wanted to post this link, but thought twice about it. People tend to be real critical of "Opinion" pieces, which is what section it occupies on Polygon. Which, I don't see that it at all invalidates the points being made and it was articulated after testing both the Rift and the HTC Vive. My feeling was that I would get negative feedback for sharing it here in the Oculus forums. (You post anything slightly suspect around here, and you get crucified for doing so.)
I replied to that opinion piece a while earlier. A lot of those things he talks about are really not that important. Cloud Saves? yeah can be handy but honestly, it is not a requirement. He acts if before Cloud Saving came along, people never managed to store and backup there saves.
Social Options? It is a HMD, not a console. Chat can be done through third party programs liek Ventrilo and teamspeak, as has always been the case on PC. Friendslist is supported. The only thing I would like to see is the ability to invite people into a game.
It's not that i don't think there are things to be crtitical of at all, but everything mentioned here are pretty much things i barely care for at all. Collecting calls from Virtual reality? First off, personally i will never turn on the blueooth as i don't feel comfortable with wireless tech strapped to my head, so until all HMDs are wireless i'll avoid that. Secondly, It's not essential at all, but i can see it being useful for some.
Being cut off from the outside world? Pass through cam doesn't help with that, you only turn it on when looking for something and you would still have to yell or touch their shoulder. They make it sound like it's almost impossible to get in contact with someone wearing one of these things, it's not.
No social features? Social features are coming, why complain about one area of Oculus Home that isn't ready yet but is on it's way.
well one thing is for sure, he doesnt seem to be getting paid by Oculus to write anything in particular.
It is an opinion piece, he is giving just his personal opinion. I respect that, even though I do not agree with his opinion in most of what the talks about.
Someone in the comments section replied to my opinion, stating that all these missing items are quality of life essentials. I find that even weirder.. that there are gamers out there, who believe social options and a frontal camera improve there quality of life.
I feel it weird that there are people who believe HMDs are gonna replace monitors...
I write for a living, often over 10 hours a day. Can't even imagine strapping a Rift or whatever on my face for even half that long...
Eventually you'll just pretend to be a writer in VR and sell books to people pretending to be readers. If i thought this through correctly, you won't even have to write anything at all anymore.
