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It may be Improbable but is there a 'Ready Player One' style VR universe on the way?

Luciferous
Consultant
I must admit I always thought this was the real intention of the Facebook takeover of Oculus. Hence why I was pretty surprised at the fairly basic Facebook spaces that is currently their only offering. If Facebook are not developing something similar in the background as below I think they are making one big mistake.

http://news.sky.com/story/british-vr-company-improbable-raises-163388m-10873690

10 REPLIES 10

DarkTenka
Trustee
There was an article a while back where Steven Spielberg was discussing the implications of VR Movies. I would be extremely surprised if we didnt at least get some kind of Movie Promo "VR Teaser" around the time the movie comes out.

I've still yet to read the book (which I'm sure is actually blasphemy) so I don't really know too much about the universe but now that there is going to be a movie that should change eventually.

If it is anything like a dystopian Cyberpunk future about the implications of Virtual Reality and Existentialism then you might want to check out Technolust.

Luciferous
Consultant
@killcard Ready Player One is a great book, quite a light read really, perfect for a movie spin off (unlike the depth of William Gibson's gritty dark cyber punk creations) Please tell me you have read Neuromancer 🙂 otherwise that is blasphemy.

What I found particularly interesting was, it laid out a blue print for what I believe is going to be the future of gaming and life in the next 100 years. I do not necessary believe the dystopian part will come true though.

It envisions one large connected virtual universe where people are embroiled in everything from adventures, commerce and education.

If you have played Elite Dangerous imagine that universe but full with players and every planet you can visit, live on, trade in and if you are rich enough own.

Whoever creates this virtual universe will be in a very powerful position in the coming years and not just commercially by selling virtual items from Houses, to clothing. They will be the new Facebook, connecting people in ways unimaginable before and so that is why Facebook's lethargic crawl into the VR space really surprises me.

I can already see proof of this happening even now. My son is 12 and is a very keen gamer, over the last few years he has slowly been spending less and less on real objects and more of his money on virtual items, DLC, in game upgrades etc because gaming and its technologies are evolving faster than real world technologies.

That is the one thing about VR which will accelerate this because in VR it really feels like you are holding, using flying, interacting with objects. Look at things like the hologram displays on your arm in some games as an example or the hologram panels in the Elite dangerous ship.


Technolust the game? or is there a book of similar name?





 

DarkTenka
Trustee
Yea I was talking about Technolust the game. It's quite good, if you havent already played it.

As for the books well, I'm just not that much of a reader. I prefer to remain visually or mechanically stimulated in some way, though I do make exceptions from time to time when the mood strikes. Basically whenever anyone has said the word "book" lately, Ready Player One immediately springs to my mind as something I "should be doing". The movie itself is a ways off, so theres a good chance I will have read it by the time it comes out.

As for Neuromancer, I've not really heard of it, though the name sounds familiar .. but if it's as good as you say I'm sure I will be reading it too after Ready Player One.

Did you know that there is a completely new Second Life coming out for VR this year?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tdkW64u3YA

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603422/second-life-is-back-for-a-third-life-this-time-in-virtual-...
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3

DarkTenka
Trustee




Well.. that seems relevent! 😄


KillCard said:





Well.. that seems relevent! 😄


Large scale virtual worlds!

Ah, well up yours then!    :s
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3

Luciferous
Consultant
@Hiro_Protag0nist No you were on topic 🙂 I did not know that there was a new second life. Good spot. Looks interesting. It would have to have some kind of game / combat element in it not just social interaction for it to be of interest to me.

@killcard I am subscribed to Audible.com. Travel a lot so listen to the books on my journey. Never played Technolust but played the original demo. I was going to buy it originally but they changed the movement mechanics and after that never got round to buying it.

DarkTenka
Trustee



KillCard said:





Well.. that seems relevent! 😄


Large scale virtual worlds!

Ah, well up yours then!    :s


I was serious! Not everything I say has to be sarcastic, lol.



@Hiro_Protag0nist No you were on topic 🙂 I did not know that there was a new second life. Good spot. Looks interesting. It would have to have some kind of game / combat element in it not just social interaction for it to be of interest to me.

@killcard I am subscribed to Audible.com. Travel a lot so listen to the books on my journey. Never played Technolust but played the original demo. I was going to buy it originally but they changed the movement mechanics and after that never got round to buying it.


Yeah, i'm not sure how much of a game if at all, Second Life was - i had a try a couple of times purely to check out the graphics - the idea of a huge world is amazing to me but it wasn't that impressive.

@KillCard  ok mate - i thought i'd got your conversation with Luciferous totally wrong lol
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3