Is Virtual Reality’s return changing gaming?
I will be researching peoples opinions on virtual reality and how many companies are compatible with VR systems, I want to find out why Virtual Reality is making a strong impact on the gaming world. Virtual reality is where instead of using a mouse and keyboard or a controller to control your movement, you use a headset to control where you look in the game. This means when you turn your head in real life it turns in the game which gives the feeling of you being in the game. The other ways to input information are the handheld joysticks which control grabbing things in game, the final piece of input is the cameras you can place around your room, once you place these cameras it will create a square where you are able to walk around in which syncs to the game to give you the feeling of walking around the in-game room. Virtual Reality’s last big gaming appearance was in the late ’90s then went dormant for a decade and started to make a comeback in 2012. One of the first VR systems used was to train pilots in the 1920s, VR systems were first used for gaming in 1991 for arcade machines, but the first time you could own a VR system for gaming would be 1993 with the SEGA VR glasses. Now that Virtual Reality is back technology is being improved to become compatible with Virtual Reality systems and the consoles and PC alike are becoming more adaptable for Virtual reality capabilities.
To find the needed information I will be creating my own questionnaire, this questionnaire will let me have the questions orientated towards what I need to be answered which secondary research might not have the answers to, then I will be looking for statistics from other people/organisations. Then after gathering the information I will be using said gathered information to structure my argument for how Virtual Reality is changing modern gaming. Then I will make a summary of the main points that go for and against my argument.
I will be exploring primary and secondary research to get the statistics I need to have a strong argument. The primary research will allow me to ask personalized questions to get the specific information I need to bring my point across to do this I need to create a survey. Secondary research will give me larger statistics, like a small census. however, using secondary research may be outdated which leads to inaccuracies which will make it hard to explain my point, o get this research I will need to look online.
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My thoughts on how virtual reality is changing gaming; I think from the sudden increase in popularity for virtual reality after the release of the Oculus Rift in 2012 the world of virtual reality has been revived and companies noticed the opportunity they had to make money off of this new fad. An example of this would be Sony’s own virtual reality system. If companies have already developed their own virtual reality systems then they will make their products to be more compatible with virtual reality games, soon we may have virtual reality systems coming with consoles not too unlike to how Xbox consoles used to come with their Kinect system. Also, with the advancements of virtual reality technology, like the Tesla suit, games and consoles will have to adapt to keep up with the technology and their competitors.
The popularity of virtual reality is different because it is quite expensive to buy one of these systems, therefore, limiting the experience for some people with lower budgets. The cheapest virtual reality system is £5.99 for the Google Cardboard, which is a box with lenses where you place your phone inside as the screen, the most expensive system is the HTC Vive Pro full kit for £1,299. However, most of the headsets that are suitable for gaming are usually £100 – £500. The differences between these headsets The questionnaire that I made was able to show this, 7 out of the 9 responded with that they thought that virtual reality systems were too expensive.
Then after this question, I asked the respondents why they thought this,
Respondents said that the technology is too expensive because it is new and so that it stays as a niche. Other people say that it is too expensive for what it’s worth because of the lack of content that comes with it, this means that not many high budget games are on virtual reality systems which make the idea of buying a £300 system to be an add on to another £300 – £1500 system to then not have the ability to play games which look current generation. the only way to combat this would be to adapt the consoles and PCs to be able to run virtual reality to higher standards, maybe even next-generation standards.
Answers that said that virtual reality is not too expensive bring up the points that because this version of virtual reality is quite new it will take a lot of testing to make the virtual reality games run smoothly which will cost the companies quite a bit to conduct so the prices are a way of making a profit to further enhance the experience for their future models. Others say that the other models of the virtual reality systems are better and “are more accessible due to price”. Other answers say that they think that it is too expensive at the moment but they also think that the price will decrease over the years like how the Oculus has already decreased. The general consensus of these answers is that as of now virtual reality systems are too expensive.
The graphs above show that the minority of people have a virtual reality system then in the second graph, after looking at individuals responses, only half of the people who answered no for owning VR equipment want to own a system. The other half have no interest in owning a virtual reality system, this is partly due to the expenses of the systems. 2 of the people who have owned VR equipment answered no to like to own one, where this may be because they had a bad experience with virtual reality or because it was too straining to run for their machine.
The 3 responses above are from 3 people who haven’t owned a VR system but would like to own one, these are the reasons they give for wanting to own a virtual reality system. 2 of the respondents want to immerse themselves within a virtual world, 1 has said the reason virtual reality interests them is a game called Beat Saber. So the reason some people want to try virtual reality is because they want to experience being in a virtual world, I feel like a lot of people would like to try virtual reality for this reason however, wherever they would want to keep the system after this is unknown, since some people experience motion sickness and neck pains due to the weight of the headset which could put them off of using virtual reality systems again in the future.
3 people who answered this question are quite sceptical about virtual reality will fair in the future, this is because how expensive virtual reality systems are right now and in the future they may become more expensive due to needing more powerful machines to run the system, another reason someone had was “It would depend really: what games would be going on there? Horror games may have actual unintended side effects of psychologically damaging players, and this could even occur in light games if you weren’t expecting something to happen.” A way around this would be for the start of the game to have a warning, or even the box/instructions of the system would have a warning explaining there may be side effects from using the system.
The answers above are evidence of people worrying about the pricing of virtual reality systems. One of the answers above states “everyone always talks about either owning or wishing they owned a VR set.” When everyone is talking about a virtual reality that works as free advertisements for virtual reality systems which end up increasing the number of people buying these systems which lead to the companies making the systems making more money which they will spend further advancing their virtual reality technology. This means that the machines need to stay being compatible with the VR systems which lead to other tech companies furthering their advancement of VR systems to keep up with the other which creates a big cycle of everyone trying to catch up with the other making VR more accessible for more people.
Here I asked the respondents their opinions of virtual reality gaming. Many of the respondents said that virtual reality “needs more work” and is “unrefined”, so they think that as of now virtual reality is too undeveloped to be popular.
“V.R. doesn’t just show you things, it brings you in to the scene, and radically embodies you in the simulation, and that has capacity to not just, let us see things from perspectives we would never have imagined, and put us literally into the shoes of other people, let us see their experiences, or let us see experiences we wouldn’t have thought of.” Virtual reality systems can immerse you into a whole new world making you feel like you are a different person. The quote above shows that when you are using a VR headset it feels like you are in a completely different world, This is a major sell for VR makers because it is a completely unique experience which draws people in.
“Arguably, one of the biggest growth areas of VR tech has been in gaming, where consoles and handhelds alike have been adapting their games for headsets and VR graphics for a while. For many people, it has been forecast that this was the industry that would benefit from virtual reality the most. Gaming is one of the few industries that actually embraces technology and innovation. For example, we’ve just seen the release of 4K-capable consoles such as the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro; meaning games have been brought to life in terms of how they look and feel more than ever before. What virtual reality can do, though, is take the already raised bar and raise it even further.” Having VR capable console would be good for the companies which create consoles, the gaming industry has already tried VR in the past but didn’t have the technology to be able to have a great experience, now we have the technology to be able to bring VR back to the mainstream consoles. VR will likely be coming with the next generation of consoles in a bundle which makes it convenient for the buyers. This means that more people will have VR so more games companies will have to make games for VR, so in the next generation of consoles, we could be seeing some of the first massive triple-A games for VR.
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How is Virtual Reality changing gaming? Some of the main points that were explored are the pricing of VR systems, this was a frequent topic with peoples answers to my questionnaire, It seems that people think that the price of VR systems is too high to be able to become widely popular. Another main point was the peoples’ experience with VR, from the survey, those who had owned VR said that it was uncomfortable, from the weight of the headset, and can make them nauseous or even motion sick, if the VR companies can correct this, that will mean many more people can use VR without worrying about health risks, in turn making the systems popular. In conclusion, I think that the gaming world is changing for VR, I think this especially because VR isn’t at its full potential yet. For VR to get to its full potential home consoles will have to adapt to easily include VR to their systems, the experience will only get more realistic with the upcoming technologies like the Tesla suit so you can feel what happens to you in game and the Augmented Reality footwear Google is working on which allows the user to walk in the spot. Some of the implications I had with my findings are the number of respondents to the survey I had, I would have liked to get a broader spectrum of opinions on VR, this would have helped me determine what is holding Virtual reality back from becoming a widely used system in the modern home.
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Techspective. January 25th 2018. VR Technology set to change the world of gaming. [ONLINE] https://techspective.net/2018/01/25/vr-technology-set-change-world-gaming/ [ACCESSED 14th March 2019]
MindGamers. 2017. 4 ways virtual reality will change the future (of gaming). [ONLINE] https://mindgamers.redbull.com/article/12 [ACCESSED 14th March 2019]
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