Perhaps this is related to Post-coital tristesse? [1]
Post Virtual Reality Sadness
11–20 of 163 posts
Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness
#12Day 1 Vive owner here. This sounds pretty uncharacteristic of the experience and I guess this person has some psychological issues or is overplaying the VR experience for ad impressions. I read /r/vive religiously and no one seems to have this issue. Yes there's sometimes a "I wish I was playing now" but I've had that all my life and frankly it was 100x worse when I was playing MMOs or competitive shooters. This feeling isn't any different than the classic "I wish I was fishing" sentiment. We simply crave relaxing and rewarding experiences.
The only legitimate symptom I've heard of is some people, myself included, get VR dreams in the beginning, but they quickly go away. This has led me to the idea of making a VR lucid dreamer trainer considering dreams and VR environments have so much in common, but thus far not a lot of traction on my part especially in regards what game mechanics would help you achieve lucid dreams.
That said, I find most of the experiences fairly milquetoast with rare "Wow" moments which cannot be relived again. Unlike a typical skinner-box game, you really can't get wow'd over and over, but man, those initial wow's are incredible. I just flew in Freedom 7 in Alan Shepard's shoes last night in the beta for 'Go For Launch.' This had the real controls and the real audio in the mission. I didn't exactly weep, but it did affect me strongly on am emotional level, especially when I thought someone should ask Shepard to try this and tell us how realistic it is only to remember he passed away a while ago. I've been at work all day and haven't wished to be back in the capsule and I know if I do it again, it'll lose 90% of the magic. I may not ever play that mission again to be honest.
Savor the moments, guys. Don't pine to be constantly re-living the same stuff over and over in VR. It'll disappoint you in the end. VR is special in a way, but its not magical. It follows the same rules all other entertainment does. If you're finding yourself addicted then you've got a personal addiction issue. Its not the medium, its you. You probably need help at this point. Ask any ex-WoW addict how bad it can be and how it ruins lives. Seek out that help.
Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness
#13Sometimes I wonder if VR is building Plato's Cave or revealing more of the way out of it.
The more we learn about humans the more its clear our narratives and "real world" are at least partial figments of our imagination. We remember narratives that we choose to and ignore evidence to the contrary.
VR could help reveal this for people (somewhat the same as is claimed for hallucinogens). It could also allow us to increasingly choose to build fully artificial realities. Who wouldn't choose to be a god?
Interestingly, I find this somewhat similar to looking at landscape photography that people enjoy - especially from vacation destinations. Almost every picture now has more dynamic range, edge contrast, contrast, and saturation than the human eye experiences. This means people get to amazing places but are disappointed when reality doesn't match the photo. Then they use various apps on their smartphone to try to take a picture that matches the fantasy (often by erasing any of the local context or culture).
Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness
#14Perhaps this is related to Post-coital tristesse? [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-coital_tristesse
lol yeah dude, playing with an HTC Vive is exactly the same as fucking. exactly. there's no difference.
Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness
#15Here's a fun thought that is really more of a science-fiction writing prompt: The author talks about his instinct to interact with the real world in the same way he interacted with the VR world. What if, as humans develop more and more realistic and immersive VR systems, it gives their bodies a real evolutionary incentive to develop telekinetic abilities?
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Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness
#16I don't know that this is VR-specific. I remember feeling like this after: - Playing with MS Paint on Windows 3.1 for hours on end until my eyes burned when i was 8. - Inhaling Lord of the Rings in about a week when i was 10. - Playing Ocarina of Time for 12 hours a day as a young teen. - Playing WoW in 100-hour weeks as an undergrad on summer break.
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Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness
#17I don't know that this is VR-specific. I remember feeling like this after: - Playing with MS Paint on Windows 3.1 for hours on end until my eyes burned when i was 8. - Inhaling Lord of the Rings in about a week when i was 10. - Playing Ocarina of Time for 12 hours a day as a young teen. - Playing WoW in 100-hour weeks as an undergrad on summer break.
I used to get that feeling to an extreme when exiting a movie theater. It had much more to do with being deeply unhappy than it had to do with movie theaters.
Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness
#18People talk a lot about futuristic sex robots but what about VR experiences that are not only physical but deeply emotional - wherein you experience seduction and actually fall in love? Think about riding in a weeks long 18 hour a day RPG crusade with a Milla Jovovich lookalike Joan of Arc who, in between battles, is irreparably infatuated with you. The tech needed to achieve this level of total immersion may yet be decades away but once it arrives it's scary to imagine - love, not sex, being the real emotional Achilles tendon of the human experience.
Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness
#19I don't know that this is VR-specific. I remember feeling like this after: - Playing with MS Paint on Windows 3.1 for hours on end until my eyes burned when i was 8. - Inhaling Lord of the Rings in about a week when i was 10. - Playing Ocarina of Time for 12 hours a day as a young teen. - Playing WoW in 100-hour weeks as an undergrad on summer break.
Agreed. This whole phenomenon was reported on widely after "Avatar" came out. News anchors gleefully reporting that people left the theater feeling depressed their world wasn't as fantastic as Avatar. More of "the kids aren't alright!" reporting they love to do to scare parents and elderly folks.
My solution: Move out of the big cities. I live in a small town in the countryside and my world is that fantastic.
Re: Post Virtual Reality Sadness
#20I don't know that this is VR-specific. I remember feeling like this after: - Playing with MS Paint on Windows 3.1 for hours on end until my eyes burned when i was 8. - Inhaling Lord of the Rings in about a week when i was 10. - Playing Ocarina of Time for 12 hours a day as a young teen. - Playing WoW in 100-hour weeks as an undergrad on summer break.
Exactly. These are the symptoms of a withdrawal from escapism. You could replace "VR" in the article by many other kinds of absorbing experiences.
Not to discredit the author's own personal findings, it's probably a healthy thing to be self-aware of these feelings. And there might be something to VR that makes the contrast of detachment more intense.