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[Column] General: Does VR Have A Place In MMOs?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
I spent my weekend with the wonderful community team from Kingsisle Entertainment (they work on Wizard101 and Pirate101) as they slowly walked up and down the aisles of the SXSW Gaming Expo. It is a free event (a good offset to the astronomical ticket prices that SXSW can often ask) and allows indie or smaller games to hook up with potential players. It also shows off new technologies, trends and even hosted video game museums with hands-on consoles. It was a blast, to say the least.
Read more of Beau Hindman's A Casual, Cornered: Does VR Have A Place In MMOs?
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Been having a blast playing Elderscrolls online in the Oculus Rift DK2, and an xbox 360 controller.
So is Beau Hindman the Second Life fanboy? Much like that other writer (can't recall his name) was the F2P fanboy?
Regarding the other intended purpose of this article, I truly believe VR headsets will create a niche similar to console gamers and the input will be much the same as consoles. Sure they can be used for PC gaming but I believe that will be an even smaller sub-set.
I will agree that VR is not ready for mainstream .... yet.
5 years from now? We'll have to wait and see, in 5 years VR might be as popular as smartphones are today.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
On the up side, the issue of control schemes in VR may already have a solution in the works.
Mind Maze's MindLeap system is already allowing basic control of VR games through thought.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
I can play for hours unit is not too heavy.
No they won't do anything MEANINGFUL to our game's.Geesh this is an added cost and we haven't been able to get devs to put in a decent effort without the added cost.
I have seen this market absolutely flooded with cheap budget game designs so not like we are going to see these devs put in tons of work on making VR something really special.
As of right now i have 0% confidence in anything meaningful,perhaps in about 10 years i think it will become more viable.
The first step to QUALITY VR will not be visual but to allow players to perform all the actions their players make via some VR code/peripherals,removing keyboards,mice and joysticks,game pads.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Hi
I haven't experienced VR but it sounds really interesting.
I do have Nvidia 3D Vision and I use it a lot, it is better for some games then others, and I've made adjustments to make it more workable, I installed LED lights that illuminate my keyboard so I can see it in the dark through the glasses, and I sit closer to my monitor when I'm doing stereo so that I get the a wider view.
But for some games it works fantastic, (all of the Tomb Raider Games, The Secret World, The latest Bioshock.
Some other games I enjoy it when just wandering around but turn it off when I get into combat.
But if they can make a headset that works as well as 3D vision and lets me change my view by turning my head, stereo headphone etc, I'd love to try it.
But I may be one of those people whose vision is a problem, I have glasses just for my computer made to focus a the exact distance I sit from the monitor and I have 2 sets, one for close and one for farther away.
Maybe I could get glasses just to work with the head set too?
Anyway I'm sure the VR is coming and I hope it gets here while I'm still around, (I'm 76). LOL
Mike
If you shoot a mime, do you have to use a silencer?
Interesting article. Personally I think Virtual Reality will be just a fad, a lot like 3D movies are.
As an aside, one should never use an acronym in a title. Never.
VR most definitely has a place in MMOs but the game would have to be designed from the ground up to support VR.
Having it be a tacked on gimmick would be meaningless.
VR is supposed to be about immersion and interaction. You wont achieve that with a controller or a keyboard and mouse.
Using motion controllers like the Playstation Move would be a step in the right direction.
The other step would be full interaction with the game world. Being able to pick up rocks off the ground or having to reach out and grab the door handle to open it.
With Traditional MMOs I can see where an article like this has weight.
For years I have held the stance that the Gaming industry was stuck in 2005 and the PC tech was holding in orbit of 2010. There has been no real major tech upgrade for gaming rigs in the last 5-6 years. the tech we had back then has just been given a new look or overclocked in todays market. Sure we add more cores to the CPUs, but the sockets havent really changed and the boards are pretty much looking like the boards from 20 years ago..
Ok maybe im being a little critical, I do understand the motherboard went from analog to digital... wait wasnt that 5 years or so ago? ok nvm i stand by what i said.. tech has been stagnant since about 2010. Or has it?
Since the gaming industry wont get off its laureled arse and do something then maybe the tech companies will, and thats pretty much what happened. Sure VR has been tried in the past, and yes these new units are bulky and have their side effects and limitations.... for now.
With the advent of the Occulus Rift We have seen the developers pop their heads up like prairie dogs and in the case of two games.. Star Citizen and Citadel of Sorcery I have seen the devs start designing games that are above the norm, in higher level graphics and game design engines that would make the VR headsets worth it.
So will VR have a place in the MMO's? Right now? No, however if the developers put forth the effort that will change as its already being shown.
Played: UO, LotR, WoW, SWG, DDO, AoC, EVE, Warhammer, TF2, EQ2, SWTOR, TSW, CSS, KF, L4D, AoW, WoT
Playing: The Secret World until Citadel of Sorcery goes into Alpha testing.
Tired of: Linear quest games, dailies, and dumbed down games
Anticipating:Citadel of Sorcery
Is VR relevant to MMO? Of course! Is it perfect for everyone who plays MMOs? Naturally no. Nothing is a fit for everyone, no current MMO and no future VR MMO. It would be ridiculous to say that VR isn't relevant just because it's not a fit for a subset of people. VR is totally natural for MMO. You're just there, in another world, with other people.
The point about communication is valid, but solvable. It's easy to have a computer change a voice. Computers are also good enough at understanding voice that you can talk and have that change into text, or have the computer speak it back in a different voice. Sure, this tech isn't perfect, but it's getting better all the time, and is already being used by many people.
If you don't want to talk at all, sure, that's a problem. I'm sure many people will get over this. Those that don't, well, they might not like VR. As I said, that doesn't mean it's not relevant.
VR is great for games that are played from a first person perspective, shooters, racing games, flight sims etc.
I like to see my MMO characters doing the things I want them to do. In that 3rd person view I don't see any benefit to VR at all, so for me, it's a simple no.
The above highlights more the need for more 1st-person only MMORPG rather than any shortcomings of the devices themselves.
You are wrong.
You're also forgetting that the lack of proper tools for people who cannot type -- as in physically or for lack of training or whatever -- excludes those people who would have issues in the first place. In other words, the people who CAN type perfectly without any needs due to any number of issues are not who I am talking about, obviously. I am talking about those who can NOT.
There are millions and millions who have issues with VR, which is why (as I say in the article) it is nowhere ready for mass reception.
Beau
I disagree. FPV would make it even worse, due to the all the fast action and movements required. It will work for non-twitchy games like you mentioned, such as racing and slow flight sims, but the judder and lag is a major problem currently.
3rd person would actually benefit more, since you could control the camera view and FOV much better.
I am skeptical about VR in the current path of development of MMORPGs. If the progression of the genre had stayed rooted in UO, AC and SWG type game worlds I think VR would be amazing. It would allow total immersion in worlds that were meant to be experienced in that way.
As it is, however, VR will be nothing but a fancy monitor to play a game on. A novel experience, no doubt, but still just an expensive interface to a game. I see few MMORPGS today that intend for the players to get any more immersed in the world than Candy Crush.
Until the focus gets back to creating amazing worlds and away from cash grabs, I just don't see myself getting very excited for VR in our genre.
"If MMORPG players were around when God said, "Let their be light" they'd have called the light gay, and plunged the universe back into darkness by squatting their nutsacks over it."
-Luke McKinney, The 7 Biggest Dick Moves in the History of Online Gaming
"In the end, SWG may have been more potential and promise than fulfilled expectation. But I'd rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
-Raph Koster