Virtual reality is the next frontier, the next big market if Oculus VR, Facebook, and Sony can convince consumers to give this technology a chance.
However, former Valve VR contractor Fabian Giesen wants nothing to do with VR and would probably be happy to see the technology meet an untimely demise where gaming is concerned.
Giesen quit his job at Valve back in 2012, and he did so by sending an email to his superiors. The email contained one of the reasons he chose to quit, and it had everything to do with VR. In Giesen's mind, VR is not a terrible technology, but he fears it might empower less social interaction.
He's a man who believes in social interaction, and VR doesn't appear to make that a possibility since VR headsets are designed to block users from the outside world, and completely immerse them in a fake one.
"The endpoint of VR, on the other hand -- all engineering practicalities of first aiming for a seemingly easier goal aside -- seems to be fundamentally anti-social, completing the sad trajectory of entertainment moving further and further away from shared social experiences," says Giesen.
While Giesen is no big fan of VR when it comes down to social experiences and interaction, he appears to have more faith in AR (augmented reality). He finds this technology more interesting and believes it could be very empowering.
"With AR, there's a variety of information display/visualization applications, all of which are at the very least interesting and could turn out to be tremendously empowering in various ways," Geisen added.
Is VR really anti-social?
We can't help but think that gaming in this point in time has become an anti-social experience. No longer are we sitting in a living room and playing split screen multiplayer with family and friends -- we now do it online. Furthermore, many games no longer support the split screen feature, further forcing gamers to play online.
VR could be an extension of this anti-social gaming lifestyle, as the technology closes off the real world in favor of one that is rendered in 3D. There's no real social interaction here, and how long before many people begin to choose the 3D world over the real thing.
It's very concerning how anti-social our world is becoming, and how companies are willing to push it further for more profit. Giesen mentioned in his long rant that companies could use VR to further collect more data on users, and show more advertisements. This could be done by simply creating a free massive multiplayer role playing game that is built from the ground up for VR.
Such a plan could work since many gamers have always wanted to be immersed in a fantasy world where trolls and knights roam the lands.
