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Gaming was my number 1 reason for vr. Not anymore.

inovator2
Expert Protege

Most of my family has moved. My brother has moved as well. I may eventually move to Colorado where my son is. Gaming in vr is a passion of mine but I never thought it could profoundly effect me in social ways. My brother and I are close. One activity we always have done is getting together to watch tv shows and movies. Now we do it in vr. Even though we use avatars the feeling of presence we have together is amazing. Talking about what we are watching as we are watching is like we are really together. In the mornings we do coffee together by video call. It's nice but you don't feel that presence. His avatar is now to me like a 2nd skin. It's so weird. Eventually the avatars will be photo real. We also play ping pong  together. It will be interesting to see how Facebook's ar glasses develop. I bet that tech will be mind blowing for social interaction.

8 REPLIES 8

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

Very nice post, inovator. I have gone through a very similar journey myself mostly due to the pandemic. Friends and family that I was not able to see are now available to me in VR. Specifically thanks to Quest 2's affordability and overall ability to maintain great graphics for both Mobile and PCVR platforms. I have spent more time in Rec Room chatting with friends and relatives than I spend actually gaming in VR.

 

And this is just the beginning! One can only imagine how impactful Social VR will be once we have more dedicated software and platforms. 

 

Now as we are seemingly coming towards the "end of the pandemic" (or at least, as best as we can define an end), many businesses have decided to keep the work-from-home policies in place as a more permanent way of operating. The pandemic has shown organizations that quality employees not only remain productive while at home, but can actually increase their productivity. The social aspect of the workplace is still only being lightly tapped.

 

We are in for some amazing evolutionary shifts in society thanks to VR. The next 5 years should yield some rather outstanding shifts. Very exciting times! Pandemics and other disasters aside.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Still all gaming on my end, don't see that changing for me. Not much for social stuff.

inovator
Consultant

I guess it depends on your situation if it's important or not at this time. 

I’m waiting for friends and family to get into VR, would love to interact with them as we’re spread out all over the place. 

 

Playing something like table tennis with me bro or his kids would be a hoot. He’s just now been making noises about getting a headset but has always been a PS bloke so thinking about PSVR which wouldn’t help!

 

I have a good friend in London I used to go movie watching with, I’m sure she’d enjoy doing the same in VR as an alternative.

 

It’s just getting non-geeky people to see VR as something for them. It’s slowly happening.

It's tough to get others to do it.  I would buy my out of town kids a headset but it's tough enough to get them to video call

Yeah that is still a challenge that is slowly (but surely) being overcome. To me, the answer seems fairly straight forward. Once VR at Schools and the Workplace becomes more commonplace, then even the strict "non-techy" consumers will end up with a VR Headset at home. Similar to how computers at the workplace has lead to laptops and smart phones in the homes of billions of people across the globe.

Pixie40
Expert Trustee

I have to agree with you. When talking with someone, they unconsciously tend to gesture and emote with their body. That's something that doesn't really get conveyed with text messages, voice chat, or phone calls. Even a video call isn't quite the same. But it constantly amazes me that when in VR you can see those unconscious emotes. It really does make you feel like you're actually there with them... even if the avatar is just a head, upper torso, and hands.

Lo, a quest! I seek the threads of my future in the seeds of the past.

Nekto2
Superstar

> Eventually the avatars will be photo real.

They are already in some team working app for business. There was a post on oculus blog recently.

This app will be accessible to consumer device also.