Why Should We Look Forward to Virtual Reality?

 

Source Image Courtesy to Freepik ( https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/descomposition-person-wearing-vr-glasses_18008034.htm#page=2&query=virtual%20reality&position=6&from_view=search&track=ais )

New technology is exciting and as I mentioned in my previous blog, the potential of Virtual Reality in the future is remarkable and unlike any other. However, like any brilliant innovation, it takes time to develop and overcome challenges to achieve its full potential. According to some studies, there are several reasons why virtual reality has not become mainstream yet.1 However, there are a few successful VR executions, such as the concert by Travis Scott done at Fortnite Metaverse, that was watched by millions of fans around the globe.2

“The biggest barrier to wide adoption of immersive technologies is lack of good user experience design.”

-Christy Pettey, Gartner.3

For the past few years, I would agree with this statement since I didn’t see a lot of good content in VR. At least that was the case until 2023, when the amount of available content I can play and explore was enough to get me excited for the further content. One of my favorite TV series has a VR game (The Walking Dead: Saint and Sinners Figure: 1) that I started to play recently, and I enjoyed the game and the story. I can feel the characters emotions and the environment like I am living in that place.

It is not a matter of when the VR audience and content creators will drastically increase, but why we should participate in it. With VR we can train employees, educate, learn, heal phobias, and above all explore and experience another world both visually and emotionally.


Figure: 1


Source Image Courtesy to Oculus 2020 [The Walking Dead Saint and Sinners]  https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/2897337400373711/


What are the challenges that Virtual Reality is facing today?

Playing with a VR headset didn’t go smoothly for me. I started to have headaches and nausea after using the VR headset. And I didn’t know why I felt it until I found out it is called “Cyber Sickness.”4 After a while, like everyone else, I overcame the sickness, and I can use VR headset now without any problems.

Another reason why VR is still niche is because of its price point. This is important to address, as it is not readily available for most, and it can be a main obstacle for it to become mainstream. If we compare it to other devices like smartphones and game consoles, the VR headset itself is pricier and less versatile. On the other side, the number of studios developing high-quality interactive design is also still relatively small.3 I can see a few big companies are starting to build games in virtual reality after the pandemic, such as Steam VR and PlayStation VR which are developing high quality products. It is also important to note that game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine are becoming more sophisticated and adapted to VR development.

Also, the launch of Metaverse had unfortunately disappointed many people, as their expectations weren’t met. According to Cecelia Pearce, associate professor of game design at Northeastern, the quality of the virtual world is outdated, and it looks like it was created in the mid-90’s. Another commentary comes from Yakov Bart, associate professor of marketing at Northeastern, who says that Meta failed to sell the idea of Metaverse to people.5 I agree with their statements, because not everyone could understand the idea of Metaverse since it is a tangible product. The Metaverse is an idea that is complex and abstract, which appears to be made without a clear goal. This has ultimately affected the VR headset sales with global decrease by 12% in 2022,6 which is another step back for the VR development.


If Virtual Reality is not yet Market adopted, What Can We Do?

There are a lot of opportunities in this new media. The only question is how are we going to use VR, for whom and why? To mitigate current challenges, we should first focus on making the content shareable. This is to enable people who don’t have VR headset to see and watch our experiences. It will be different from a VR experience, but it will potentially entice the audience to buy their own VR headset. There are many new experiences like games, NFTs art galleries and interior design that will be interesting to see as well as to interact with in virtual reality.

From the standpoint of this project’s direction, one of my concerns is about how we can implement Virtual Reality for entertainment if there is a small percentage of people using it. I am hoping to provide useful information in the testing phase, that can help to improve the Virtual Reality experience. By doing so, I hope to be a step closer in understanding how to shape the creative expression of the virtual world, that will be enjoyable, inspiring, and exciting experience.









References:

  1. Garrett, B., Taverner, T., Gromala, D., Tao, G., Cordingley, E., Sun, C. (2018) Virtual Reality Clinical Research: Promises and Challenges. Originally published in JMIR Serious Games. 17 November. (online) Available at: https://games.jmir.org/2018/4/e10839/ (Accessed: 17th May 2023)
  2. Tidy, J. (2020) Fortnite’s Travis Scott virtual concert watched by millions. BBC Tech News.  24 April (online) Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52410647 (Accessed: 17th May 2023).
  3. Pettey, C. (2018) 3 Reasons Why VR and AR are slow to take off. Gartner Insights, Tech and Service Provider. 6 September, (online) Available at: https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/3-reasons-why-vr-and-ar-are-slow-to-take-off (Accessed: 17th May 2023)
  4. Cramer, R. (2022) How People Adapt to Cybersickness from Virtual Reality. Neuroscience News, Iowa State University. 15 August. (online) Available at: https://neurosciencenews.com/cybersickness-vr-21243/ (Accessed: 17th May 2023).
  5. Mello-Klein, C. (2022) Why is Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Failing? Northeastern Global News, Northeastern University. 3 November(online) Available at: https://news.northeastern.edu/2022/11/03/metaverse-failure/ (Accessed: 21st May 2023)
  6. Q.ai (2023) VR Headset Sales Underperform Expectations, what does it mean for the Metaverse in 2023? Forbes, Forbes Money. 6 January. (online) Available at:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2023/01/06/vr-headset-sales-underperform-expectations-what-does-it-mean-for-the-metaverse-in-2023/?sh=792939c334f5 (Accessed: 21st May 2023)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Building The World: Pandora’s Forest (Part 5)

Image
  This will be the last blog about the making of Pandora’s Forest, where I will show some comments from the pre-testing I did on my own and with my wife, before testing the prototype to other users. I will also mention my plan for the project after this prototype. In the next blog, I will dive into the user testing and what I gathered based on their reactions and testimonials. Figure 1 Source Unity, Inventory UI bottom right in VR Scene, Screen Shot from my PC 2023 In the previous blog I mentioned grabbing and holding the mushroom but not what the user will do after grabbing the mushroom. So, I added the functionality of having an inventory system where the participant can collect the mushrooms and see how many mushrooms they have collected. I learned this technique from the game development tutorials with Ketra Games. (Video) 1 I placed the user interface on the bottom right corner, so it doesn’t distract the participants when they are walking, and this user interface disappea...
Read more