Last week I went to a virtual reality gaming studio in Eugene. I had no idea of what to expect because aside from becoming insanely good at Super Smash Bros (seriously I’ll beat you), I have very limited experience with video games.
The studio, MultiVRse, is tucked away on Willamette St. and offers hourly game play. After about 15 minutes of trying to decide what game to chose we decided on a simple capture the flag type of close combat war game. Once strapped in with the goggles, headphones and controllers, we were given a tutorial of the controls in the game. It took a while to figure everything out but once we had the basics down we were ready to enter the game.
While playing this game, I was connected with someone who was in Germany and others who were spread across the US. Despite being thousands of miles away from other players, we were seeing the same storyline play out and we were able to have a conversations about objects that both of us were seeing.
Virtual reality offers many aspects that we have come to expect with social media, such as connecting with someone in another country, but it’s a platform that also allows us to experience a hyper realistic reality at the same time others are experiencing it.
Photo courtesy of Flikr user Marco Verch.
Virtual Reality has gotten increasingly popular over the past decade, especially after Facebook purchased Oculus in 2014. Although the concept and basic technology has existed since the ’70s, the accessibility and applications are wider than ever today and will continue to grow. If you’re interested in the detailed history of virtual reality check this article out on The Verge. It takes an in depth look at the pioneers of virtual reality as well as the current uses of the platform and is visually stunning.
In the article, The Verge researched a film called The Lawnmower Man which was made in 1992 at the very beginning of virtual reality usage. Based off of a short story by Stephen King and starring Pierce Brosnan, who plays a scientist that experiments on chimpanzees with virtual reality, the film introduced audiences to the real-world applications of this new endeavor. Although watching the movie didn’t require virtual reality equipment, it created a way for films to experience with this new technology.
Today, there are applications that allow visitors to experience movies in virtual reality. At Madame Tussaud’s in New York there is an exhibit that experiements with the pairing of virtual reality gaming and film. Ghostbusters: Dimension allows you to enter the storyline of the newest Ghostbusters film and to become part of the team. This type of immersion into a storyline can allow for film and television studios to create a new type of experience for their audiences.
Even social media is transforming to use social media as a new way of connecting. Check out this demo video of what Facebook could look like in VR. Virtual reality not only offers connections to those in our networks, but it can allow to us to be in the same room with someone who is on the other side of the planet.
PR Spotlight 