Virtual Reality is Actually Boring

Virtual reality headsets are here. Oculus Rift and HTC are already in a race for consumer dollars, but various issues have many predicting VR headsets could soon stall in popularity.

Oculus Rift has already had to deal with shipping problems and mixed reviews. There’s also the issue of motion sickness and the long-term brain effects of virtual reality, both yet to be addressed in any solid way.

VR has always been a concept and a potential piece of future technology, but it wasn’t until Palmer Luckey raised more than $2 million through crowdfunding for his potential virtual reality headset that it began to become a reality. Immediately, many other Silicon Valley regulars and companies began developing their own headsets. Even Hollywood studios such as Legendary, responsible for films such as “The Dark Knight,” began making big investments.

And then, in 2014, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg bought Luckey’s company, Oculus Rift, for $2 billion. He became a leading cheerleader for the technology, foretelling an exciting future of working and talking to friends through virtual reality.

Now it’s here, and the Oculus Rift headset is already facing some of the practical issues that can stall a product. Major shipping delays have forced market-watchers to massively lower expectations for Rift. SuperData, a research company dealing with the video game industry, lowered its forecasts for total sales for Rift by 22 percent once it hit the market. This was the second time they had lowered the predicted sales for the system.

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Reviews have also been somewhat underwhelming. A reader review from Metro.co.uk said, “I don’t think it will ever be classed as money well spent.” At $1,500 for an entire virtual reality setup, it’s certainly an uphill battle for Rift to be considered “money well spent.”

Another review from The Wall Street Journal described Rift as premature and downright awkward to use in its infancy. “The most awkward part isn’t nausea—it’s a 13-foot cable snaking from the back of your head to the PC, a tether eerily similar to one in ‘The Matrix.’ To avoid tripping, you must keep track of this cable’s location like a never-ending game of ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’,” said Geoffrey A. Fowler.

The exciting future Zuckerberg described is clearly a long way off, if it even ever happens. Still, the teams behind virtual reality are attempting to sell the potential future hard — as any company investing billions would.

Luckey, the original creator of the headset and Rift, seems a little more reserved than Zuckerberg and others. “In some ways, the future is going to be more boring than we think. I don’t think that VR is going to lead to humanity being enslaved in the ‘Matrix’ or letting the world crumble around us,” he said in an NPR interview. “It’s probably not going to be nearly as interesting as depicted in science fiction, as far as the bad things go.” 

The comments sound similar to another virtual reality cynic. Filmmaker James Cameron, who was one of the first to truly champion digital 3D film with 2009’s “Avatar,” made VR headsets sound just as flat a year ago when he was asked about their potential.

[lz_infobox]James Cameron is at work on four “Avatar” sequels. They are slated to arrive in theaters in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023.[/lz_infobox]

“There seems to be a lot of excitement around something that, to me, is a yawn, frankly,” said Cameron, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “The question that always occurred to me is: When is it going to be mature? When is it going to be accepted by the public at large? When are people going to start authoring in VR and what will that be? What will the level of interactivity with the user be other than just ‘I can stand and look around?’ If you want to move through a virtual reality it’s called a video game; it’s been around forever.”

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Luckey still says the future will be vastly different if virtual reality is able to enter people’s personal and professional lives.

“Today, the best way to communicate with someone is still face-to-face. Virtual reality has the potential to change that, to make it where VR communication is as good or better than face-to-face communications, because not only do you get all the same human cues as real-world communication, you basically suspend the laws of physics; you can do whatever you want, you can be wherever you want.”

Whatever future Luckey and Zuckerberg have in their heads, it’s a pitch the public has been sold before. 3D televisions and were supposed to change the way we experience entertainment; Google Glass was supposed to create a society constantly checking their emails on their glasses while interacting in public spaces. It’s hard to predict what a future with mainstream virtual reality will look like — because it is clearly a long way off.