Why we've never fallen in love with virtual reality

The Altair 8080 is considered the first PC and it was released in 1974. The IBM PC was released in 1981 and PCs became widespread only in the 1990's, when they started adding multimedia features. So about 20 years for mass adoption.

The first touchscreen phone was introduced in 1994, the IBM Simon. Yet the first true modern smartphone to get mass adoption was the iPhone, 2007. And truly massive adoption worldwide happened after iOS and especially Android took off, a few years later.

VR has been around as a purely techie idea for 30 years but we haven't really had the tech for something worthwhile until recently. I'd say that we're probably 5-10 years from mass adoption, once we have some lighter high-performance headsets.

Personally, I find Elite: Dangerous to be the best, most immersive VR game I've played. It's a 6DOF space sim set in a 1:1 scale version of the Milky Way that puts you in the pilot's seat, with a few dozen ships to choose from. The insides of the cockpit (or bridge on the larger ships) are fully modeled. Paired with a decent HOTAS or dual-stick setup, it's about as close as you're going to get to flying a futuristic spaceship. The game offers combat, trading, exploration, mining, rescue missions, surface exploration and you can have friends join you on your ship as either a gunner or ship-launched fighter pilot.

Development has stalled somewhat over the last 6 months -- the developer is actively releasing updates, but mostly catching up on bugfixes in anticipation of a new expansion later this year. But if you're new to the game, there are easily 100+ hours of gameplay available as long as you're ok that it's not a narrative-driven game. The community is very active, with player factions driving many of the activities in the game from public Discord servers, so the lack of content updates isn't necessarily as bad as it would be in other games. Only like 0.5% of the systems in the galaxy have been explored, so plenty left to discover!

Even if you're very affluent, VR can give you some experiences at much lower risk. E.g. flight simulators and racing simulators let you learn planes, cars, airports, tracks, etc. much more cost effectively and without the risk that missing the takeoff or missing a turn will end your life or career.

I don't know if they use VR, but all Formula 1 racing teams have simulators set up, not only for learning the cars and tracks, but also for working on car setups before the race weekends. Same with flight schools -- they're all throwing you in a simulator before the real deal. I can say from experience the crummy "simulator" I got as part of my $150 Groupon "flight experience" package paled in comparison to the realism of $300 worth of Oculus, a $100 joystick, and $100 worth of simulator software. Especially for helicopters, I'd say, you really need the sense of depth.

This is a great analogy. VR takes effort to set up and to get into and it's not as seamless as just launching a game on your computer.

I have a VR setup and I absolutely love VR gaming, and yet I'm sitting here on a Friday night on my desktop computer playing a 2D game because I can't be bothered to go and get my laptop (which is VR capable, where my desktop is not) and clear floor space and plug in my VR headset.

It's not just that it's a universal pursuit which currently has niche appeal. It's a niche pursuit. It's not just about floor space, it's about floor space in which you can relax into your VR space and know you're not going to be interrupted.

The only disagreement I have is the space argument. Once you have your "vr legs" and can stomach free locomotion, you basically never move your feet again and so "roomscale VR" shrinks down to a 1m x 3m window. That's about the space I have available in my office and these days it's generally sufficient for anything I want to play.

Sim racing, or for those unaware of it: basically racing games with realistic physics and usually a competitive online racing field, is incredible in VR.

The sense of speed and immersion with a good wheel and pedal setup in VR is unmatched by a monitor based setup. I tried it at a VR arcade and kept adding time to my session to keep playing.

I have a fairly nice and expensive sim racing setup at home right now, but my PC cant run any of the current sims in VR well enough for me to justify getting a headset. Between PC upgrades and headset im looking at $500+ in upgrades that I just haven't gotten around to doing, but you can bet its on my list