Category: VR vs.

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VR vs. Fiction – Vol III: Current Creativity

It has been a good couple of months since the last time I dipped into how immersive technology keeps popping up in fiction, but then again there’s been quite a lot going on. What with Facebook’s F8 event, Google I/O being a bit crap, Mother Nature trying to take immersion in films a little too far, and this year’s E3 expo… well, also being a bit crap to be honest. Since things are a little bit on the quiet side at the moment in terms of topics to discuss let’s turn our attention back to something we last looked at during the beginning of May.

Virtual Reality - Play LabsSo, in this series I’m looking at how immersive technologies are represented in film and television, in books, comics, videogames, even manga and Japanese anime. In this we’re counting virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and we’re throwing in uses of very obvious head-mounted displays (HMDs) in there as well. Simulated reality, which is technically different to VR we’re throwing in too because hey, why not. It’s still immersive technology – and I don’t want to spend an eternity explaining to people why The Matrix somehow doesn’t count in this series.

So far we’ve looked at a lot of items that featured the idea of VR but from its first commercial period in the nineties. Things like the films Arcade and Hackers. There’s still plenty from that era to touch on, and even more so in between. For today though we’re looking at a couple of works of fiction from more recent times, including one that isn’t actually out yet.

Kiss Me First

If Ready Player One tickled your fancy when it came to the idea of virtual worlds where you can do anything or be anyone you like – but not, perhaps without consequence – a drama that debuted this year could very well be right up your street. Kiss Me First is a cross-reality drama with very dark overtones created by Bryan Elsley who had previously worked on the drama series Skins and Dates.  As with those two Kiss Me First was created for the UK’s Channel 4 but also Netflix so you can check it out there too.

Kiss Me First - ScreenshotThe series, based on the debut novel of Lottie Moggach, takes place both in reality and a VR and follows the viewpoint of Leila Evans played by Tallulah Haddon.  Like many she just wants to escape from a reality she doesn’t quite feel she fits in and find some happiness away from it.  The answer lies in the online gaming world operated by Azana.  Go to via a VR HMD, haptics and the “AzanaBand” – a sensory collar the company has produced that in the words of its own promotional website “was created to turn in-game experiences into real-word experiences with 3 distinctly unique sensory connections”. That those three connections are happiness, fear and pain is probably not the best of design decisions.

The fine print on the site also states that “73% of users reported no long-term side effects”. Uh-oh.

For Leila, Azana is the escape she needs as she takes on the virtual identity of ‘Shadowfax’. Things take a dramatic turn when she finds a digital paradise called Red Pill, hidden away past the edge of her favourite experience.  It’s here she discovers a group of individuals that also includes Tess, a.k.a ‘Mania’ who is very much the opposite of Leila’s shy and lonely personality, but troubled in a different way. Then Tess turns up, without invite, in Leila’s real life too and the line between the worlds of reality and Azana begin to blur.  Especially when part of the group mysteriously vanishes.

Johnny English Strikes Again

It is strange to think that this will be the third film in the Johnny English franchise. Yes, somehow this is now a franchise.

The spy spoof action comedy starring Rowan Atkinson is set to have its next instalment in October. A whole seven years after its last cinematic appearance and a good two decades removed from the bumbling character’s origins in a series of adverts created to promote Barclays Bank’s credit card, the Barclaycard. Back then the character wasn’t expressly named, although Atkinson’s ‘helpful’ subordinate Boff was a part of the adverts. Only referring to him as ‘Sir’ throughout the series.

Johnny English Strikes Again - ScreenshotJohnny English 3 sees the accident-prone spy enjoying (sort of) his retirement from being an agent of the UK’s ‘MI7’ intelligence agency.

The most important thing about being a secret agent is the secret part, and unfortunately for MI7 their entire database of spies has just been hacked and everyone’s identity exposed. So, if the agency is going to find out who is behind it all they need someone who a) is a spy, b) wasn’t on that list and c) is ultimately no big loss if they get killed.  So, English is spirited away from his teaching job back into a world of mystery, intrigue and convoluted gadgets.

As seen in the initial trailer, part of getting English back up to speed is training with VR and what looks suspiciously like a modified Oculus Rift CV1.  Of course, things don’t go well and English being English he manages to leave the building while still being ‘in VR’ (or at least he appears to still think this) and proceeds to cause rather a lot of disruption in London. Let’s be honest if you’re going to do a joke about VR this isn’t the most original one. But then again, Johnny English never claimed to not be re-treading old ground.

Much like a certain other spy, VR vs. will return…

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VR vs. What’s In A Name?

What does it take to become memorable? Considering this comes from me, who is quite possibly the most forgettable person in the whole of virtual reality (VR) this might be somewhat of a pointed question. But it’s an important one for today’s column; because today I want to discuss a theory that myself and Peter have discussed on several occasions over the last six months or so.

Namely that Oculus as a brand, is (to a degree) a failure – and one destined at some point to die. Now-ah, ah, ah! Pitchforks and burning torches down. Let me explain where I’m coming from here.

We’d best start with what a brand is. Dictionary.com refers to a ‘brand name’ as: “a word, name, symbol, etc., especially one legally registered as a trademark, used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify its products distinctively from others of the same type and usually prominently displayed on its goods, in advertising, etc.” It is that by which a product or service is known to the wider world. It might be a slogan, something that catches the imagination – but in the majority of cases, and indeed here, we’re specifically referring to the brand name as opposed to that, or any other iconography (Nike’s tick/swoosh, McDonald’s M, the Olympic Rings, etc).

The strength of your brand name affects the sales and marketability of your product. Yet the most successful brand names are not necessarily tied to market share but are those have made the most impact culturally. In these senses a product has the ability to take on the role not just as the brand for said product or service but become synonymous with the product. A by-word for whatever it is the brand relates to, replacing the general classification. It becomes a generic trademark – or if you want to get really fancy, it becomes a proprietary eponym.

You could even say it becomes iconic. Though not in a modern videogame marketing sense, thank goodness.

So, what are good examples of this? Well, there are some obvious ones. First, I’d like to ask you all what this is:

BIC Ballpoint Pen / Biro / Writing

Yes, it’s a ballpoint pen. But you’re also likely to have called it a biro. Biro is a brand. It’s a make of pens named after creator László Bíró, who subsequently sold his patent to BIC in 1945. BIC, incidentally, is also an example of this generic trademark. You may well have found yourself responding that the pen was ‘a BIC’.

Vacuum cleaners are often known as ‘hoovers’ after the Hoover brand. For a brief period in the 2000’s they also began to be known as ‘Dysons’ too, after the Dyson brand changed things around with its dual cyclone technology.

More personal gadgets often achieved this branding nirvana. Personal cassette players are often referred to as a ‘Walkman’ after the Sony brand, and the MP3 music player is more likely to be called an iPod regardless of whether or not it actually is one.

For VR there has been only one contender for this type of brand name usage. One brand that could become synonymous with the technology as a whole. It was the one that led the charge. Garnered the most press. Even the name of the brand leant itself by definition to VR.  That brand was Oculus.

And it hasn’t done it.

Oculus VR logo

Were VR more of an immediately huge success than it has been, it’s a possibility that we could be referring to VR headsets as Oculuses or Oculi or possibly Rifts. Neither the PSVR nor the Vive really had that positioning. But it hasn’t been – and it isn’t – but it should have been.

For whatever reason, the Oculus name doesn’t seem to have made that leap. So, by that marker at least it has failed. It is identifiable and recognisable yes. People do know what it is. Yet the indications are time could be running out for it in general – and who are responsible for this? Facebook.

When Facebook took over the Oculus company the Oculus brand stood alone. Proud. It didn’t need the Facebook name and needed no explanation of what it presented. Prior to Oculus Connect 3 we’d seen signs of the Facebook name coming in more and more. It was appearing at the end of Oculus trailers. Was more visible in marketing and press releases. Roll forward to Oculus Connect 3 and we saw that the Oculus name now wasn’t alone. It was Oculus from Facebook.

Oculus from Facebook art

Oculus from Facebook looked… odd. At the time I referred to it as making it sounding more like a perfume or an aftershave. Yet the similar name “Oculus by Facebook” had been used during the initial purchase in 2014. We and other tech websites though never called it that, because Oculus was never presented as that. The company was Oculus, Oculus is what it was called. But there are stories about from 2014 and 2015 that use that specific name. As of Oculus Connect 3 though, “Oculus from Facebook” became very visible – mainly due to the fact it was plastered everywhere. Oculus was still the main part of the logo however.

Roll on once more to this year’s E3.

Ah.

Here Oculus and Facebook have equal billing. Oculus no longer stands on its own, feeling more like a division than ever. With its inclusion more and more into the ‘Facebook family’ its identity as an individual company appears to be going by the wayside. Could we see a day when we, as Kevin J mentioned above, see the ‘Facebook Rift’? If the trend continues how long before Oculus by Facebook becomes Facebook presents Oculus? And if you sitting there shaking your head just remember that just last month it was announced that Oculus’ research and development division was no longer to be called ‘Oculus Research’. Michael Abrash revealing it was now to be called ‘Facebook Reality Labs’.

Renamed. Or rather rebranded. How long will it be before the rest, I wonder.

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VR vs. E3 2018 In Absentia Alternative Awards

Welcome once again to VR vs. The weekly opinion piece written by ‘the one who isn’t a writer’ on VRFocus, because… well, I can’t even remember why any more. But I’ve been doing this for long enough to be able to welcome you, for the third year running, to my In Absentia Alternative Awards.

E3 2018That’s ‘In Absentia’, i.e. ‘was not there’. Yes, as usual there was no plane ticket out to Los Angeles for me to enjoy things. Instead I got to watch everything from home, keeping things going for the UK team. Ah, the joys of handling an event while not actually being there. It’s an absolute barrel of laughs, I can assure you. But despite virtual reality’s (VR’s) rather all over the place presence at this year’s event there was still plenty that caught my eye.

As usual things are somewhat satirical, so if you’re going to get overtly upset just because I didn’t like X – well the door’s over there. For the rest of us however let’s get on with a biggie.

THE KRUSTY THE CLOWN ‘WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?’ AWARD
Winner: Sony

Sony did very well, (not exactly a good thing) last year in the awards, in part because of their continued ability to mess up everyone’s fun with their stance on cross-play. Still thankfully they didn’t mess up this year on anything too big to do with that, eh? Certainly not one involving one of the biggest and most popular games currently in the world. Haha… ha…

Sigh.

Luckily Sony get away with that this year, owing to the fact that award isn’t up for grabs. However, what they don’t get away with was that mess of a presentation we had. I mean, what was that? Pretty much every website out there has written their thoughts on the matter I know. But for the life of me I can’t understand what they were thinking. Shoving journos into a ‘church’ which looked more like a barn, in a way most would have difficulty actually working before moving on to another venue.

I get they were going for atmosphere and concentrating on the ‘big hitters’ but it really didn’t work. It felt like it was over before it had even begun and for some reason why Microsoft were firing off game after game Sony decided that the best thing to do was to hold some sort of music recital. “Kids, remember to pick up your parent from the stage when they’ve finished performing.”

It felt a mess, it confused everyone, and despite some very good-looking titles indeed on display it made Sony look really out of touch.

THE KAWAII DESU NE AWARD
Winner: Ghost Giant

For the first time on one of these I’m actually bringing an award back. Last year it was one hands and paws down by Quill from Moss. A title which is quite possibly VRFocus‘ favourite VR videogame. We crush on it pretty hard, and not without good reason. As I put it last year “Could Moss be the first VR-only game that standard gamers are jealous of? Time will tell.”

Luckily PlayStation VR is set to bring us even more adorable visuals in the form of Ghost Giant, a title which stood out immediately – not just for its aesthetics – and, I’m pleased to say appears to be something of a winner. At least based upon the hands-on that the site had at E3 and our early impressions. Personally, I’m very interested to hear more about how your roles as the ghost affects the story of your young foxy friend.

And if it’s also revealed that Zoink Games’ big rival are Jinkies Entertainment, like, my day will be complete, Scoob’.

Ghost Giant - BannerTHE ‘CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR’ AWARD
Winner: Concrete Genie

Oh, Sony Interactive Entertainment you little scamps. You do like to get my hopes up don’t you? While there’s obviously been some titles that were announced at the event as well as in the run up to it, for five glorious minutes Sony made me think that one of the titles from last year’s Paris Games Show was going to make the jump to VR – and boy was I all for it.

Concrete Genie was announced last year, as I say, and it is absolutely gorgeous. The PlayStation 4 exclusive follows Ash, a bullied teen who escapes from his troubles by painting creatures and landscapes all of which come to life. It’s kind of like ‘Penny Crayon: The Game’. With his magical paint he brings life to his dead home town. The initial trailer looked amazing and you can kind of see the possibilities for PlayStation VR to be integrated.

So, when I went on the PlayStation press vault to begin working through all the media that gets uploaded there whenever we have any of these sorts of events my heart leapt when Concrete Genie’s format was listed as PlayStation VR. But… alas. It was just an error on the site.

Damn it.

THE ‘THANK GOD FOR BE’ AWARD
Winner: Bethesda Softworks

While I know that a lot of people aren’t particularly happy at what they consider to be half measures with what we got in the Prey DLC and Wolfenstein Cyberpilot (The Elder Scrolls Blades doesn’t seem to be counted in the same way by people) let’s all be thankful that of all developers Bethesda Softworks came to E3 to be enthused about VR. Because goodness knows it needed someone on the PC developing side to do so.

Their continued push for supporting VR with their franchises is most definitely welcomed. I’ve nothing more really to say than that.Wolfenstein Cyberpilot - E3 2018 Announcement)

THE KNOWN UNKNOWNS AWARD
Winner: Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown

Before E3 we were informed via a contact at Bandai Namco that no, we could not Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown at the Expo because it wasn’t going to be there. The Editor was a bit surprised at this. I was a bit surprised at this. The rest of us were a bit surprised at this. Weren’t we closing on what was expected to be a release? Anyway, we reported on the fact it wasn’t going to be there and oh boy were people upset.

We were asked to show the email to prove that this was what we were told. We declined, since obviously its full of private and personal information besides that. Which meant that as we won’t show our contact (who does, that’s not how these things work) we’d in fact, obviously, made the whole thing up. FYI: We’re far too busy to make stuff like that up. Besides the next pointing of fingers on that conversation would’ve been that we’d’ve just faked the email. What’d be the point?

Following on from that one of the members of the Ace Combat community on Twitter contacted Bandai Namco and were told it would be there. They posted the email, it suggested only the VR version would not be there which wasn’t exactly what we were told. Again, this meant we made it all up. We stuck to our guns that this was what we were told. We went to E3 hoping that our contact was indeed mistaken because, hello, this looks awesome and it’s something we really, really want to play!

And… No Ace Combat 7.
Bugger.

On the plus side vindication for us, on the negative side no Ace Combat 7 FFS! This award is not about going “we told you so”. Far from it. It’s because I’m pretty steamed it wasn’t there. Oh, it was there “highlighted on the show floor at E3 with an exclusive trailer” as Bandai Namco put it on Twitter recently – said trailer will by, the time you read this, have been out several days* but it isn’t out at the time of writing – but that is most definitely not the same thing. Why wasn’t it there? I haven’t a clue. It just wasn’t. And gamers, VR fans and the PlayStation VR itself lost out. For a title in a long-standing series to skip E3 after a long period of radio silence does not help matters. Screens in Famitsu and a trailer are one thing, and we’ll hear more at Gamescom apparently – but if we don’t get to play it how do we know how things have improved? Ace Combat 7 should have been there and Ace Combat 7 had no business not being there.

*Also, a trailer coming out on the Friday of E3? That’s pretty eyebrow-raising in itself. Skilful avoidance of the media rush, or “oh shit we’d better put something together”? Your call on that one.

THE CONFUSED TRAVOLTA AWARD FOR THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT REFUSES TO COME
Winner: Resident Evil VII biohazard

It’s been a while. A long while, Capcom. Fans have been patient. Most, most patient. Loud, granted – but patient. Resident Evil VII biohazard has been a success for the company on the PlayStation VR and has reworked how people think about the Resident Evil series. (We’ve talked about this on a number of occasions.) Yet the title stays on PlayStation VR alone, and does not come to PC.

I honestly thought this’d be really good timing for Capcom, a one-two Resident Evil punch to round off what was, in all honesty a pretty commanding E3 for them. But no, still silence. Will PC VR owners ever get the chance to be scared out of their wits by the Baker Family?

ResidentEvil7 screenshot mia_3

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VR vs. A Spare Second

I’m writing this as the countdown to Ubisoft’s conference is ticking merrily away, I’m hoping there’ll be something pretty cool to write about. It’s not like Ubisoft haven’t been interested in virtual reality (VR). They’ve just shown someone at their office playing on an HTC Vive… I think… It’s there and gone in a flash, but it is promising at least.

stopwatch timeThere are weeks when I write VR vs. when I really don’t have any clue whatsoever as to what to write until I start. Mainly because there’s just so little to actually discuss. The other option is that there’s lots to talk about, and it’s a case of getting through it as we can. This week I’m in something of a third option, because next week I will (as is usual) go through my alternate E3 awards which I’ve done for a couple of years now. I naturally don’t really want to go into E3 just yet. Otherwise I’m just re-treading the same ground next week. There’s a number of other topics I’ve got planned, certainly. I want to talk a bit about brands and marketing, something which will probably upset some people a bit. We’ve still got lots to go through with regards to immersive technology in fiction, six titles for me to over at some point in my rundown of Nintendo titles but I don’t have the time to go through that. So, where do I even begin?

Which got me thinking about time a little bit. How valuable it is. How little of it we seem to possess. There is truly never enough.

There’s a lot to be said about having longer VR experiences. There needs to be more development in general, yes, but a common thread we hear is that VR games aren’t big enough in terms of their size and length. That short experiences, with or without repetition are a fundamentally bad thing. Which is strange because while it’s lovely to have a MASSIVE OVERARCHING WORLD, 11x THE SIZE OF THE PREVIOUS TITLE, seventy billion unique combinations of weapons and 52 intricately woven dynamic storylines with procedurally generated dialogue and… everything… It’s also nice to just go in for a short period. Enjoy a full story over the course of a handful of hours or just pop in for a quick buzz of something or the other. After all, the world is so busy nowadays. So, so busy. I know I don’t have nearly the same amount of time I used to have to simply enjoy a videogame anymore. We need that option, and so does VR.

Virtual RealitySo, I don’t think short experiences are a particularly bad thing. Yes, there’s too many wave shooters. Good God are there too many wave shooters – trust me in that the entirety of VRFocus‘ regular staff is very much in agreement with you on that one. But even there there’s room for them. There’s room for everything in VR.

It’d just be so much more satisfying if there was room for anything outside of it. World-sized reality is sometimes ever so small.

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VR vs. AR vs. Creative Play

It was, I have decided, not the best week I’ve ever had. It started off on the Monday where I woke up drenched in sweat and not entirely sure where I was and who I was. Which, I can assure you, is pretty frightening. Going in and out of consciousness to the point you no longer can trust whether ‘here’ is reality or not – and that sounds like a topic for another occasion.

RummyTuesday I cannot recount that well, only that I spent most of it wracked with pain. Wednesdays traditionally I work the later shift as both Peter and Rebecca have social things they do in the evening which I was able to drag myself through but I had to wave the white flag midway through Thursday, consumed by a splitting headache, nausea, a stomach apparently practicing a gymnastics floor routine and some bastard had in the middle of the night tilted the entire flat by twenty degrees or so making standing up an issue. So, I signed off, keeled over and slept… somewhere, I’m not even sure where. for about 7 hours in total. Waking up long enough to find I needed to go to bed again.  All-in-all not the best of preludes to Friday where I was hosting friends before Saturday’s trip to the 2018 UK Games Expo.

I really was still not in the best of shape to go and deal with a vast people-filled space. My friends would have entirely understood if I chose not to go, but I wanted to for a couple of reasons. First: I’d spent money on the damn thing. Second however was a desire to see how augmented reality (AR) was being used within the realm of tabletop/board games. It was pretty amazing to see just how many different games there were out there. Long gone are the days where playing a board game basically just consisted of your Dad going to the cupboard and giving you the choice of Cluedo, Scrabble and Risk because the latter would be a great way to beat you.

We’ve seen board games turn to immersive technology, both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) over the last few months to bring a new level of imagination to their play. There’s been the launch of Catan VR, something we’d been following on VRFocus for some time. There’s been Kickstarter projects such as Crime Shoots which have been in the news, whilst as recently as last week Ahoy Games revealed that Rummy, of all things, was getting the AR treatment. So at this big gathering of board game companies and aficionados it only made sense to have a look around and see just what was going on – and you know what I found?

Nothing.

TumbleweedNope, not one solitary instance in all of that of immersive technology being implemented in some way. No virtual equivalents, no cards with fancy AR effects. Zip. Nada. Was it because it was a traditional audience? Was it because the imagination is still a far more powerful tool that immersive technology ever will be and board/card games are inherently a little bit about immersion in that sense?  It was disappointing but I kind of understood why I didn’t find anything.

Contrast this with yesterday’s Day One at Apple’s WWDC event where after Google’s stony silence on immersive technology at Google I/O, Apple seemed ready to grab you by the lapels and shake you while screaming in your face about how awesome it was. Actually, Apple were pretty frisky all over, there was shots at Facebook, some serious shade flung at Google and Android. “It’s hard to say they really have a software update model.” scoffed Craig Federighi, a man who looks like a human version of Sam The Eagle from The Muppets – something I now entirely can’t unsee when looking at him.

But while, again Google and Apple’s take on how important immersive technology is to them is a topic for another day I was struck by the LEGO presentation which used ARKit 2 in order to bring a physical model to life.

Throughout the presentation LEGO were really keen to emphasise (i.e. repeat it to death) one phrase, that the use of AR was great because “It really opens up those creative play possibilities.”

No, it really doesn’t. Giving scripted stories and scenarios that happen with your toys is not opening up options it narrows them down. The imagination isn’t running free it you’re guiding it in a certain direction. In that instance I almost think the board game people are right by not taking it up immediately. Think of it this way, whilst I am not a player I am aware one of the great joys for players of Dungeons and Dragons is that you are in command and can (essentially) try anything in a game.  Yet that game still has a script of sorts. It felt very different in the LEGO example.  Its not like LEGO hasn’t had linear scripted experiences but here was different as it was kind of imposing it on the physical toy through AR. AR wasn’t used to ‘open up’ those “creative play possibilities”, rather give some approved ones. It felt like, yes, it gave a new viewpoint – and the way it used AR in this instance was impressive. But it also felt limiting – you can imagine whatever you like, before you do however, might we suggest imagining this?

ARKit 2 / LegoLEGO’s ARKit 2 items are coming later this year and they look fun. I just hope the company remembers just why LEGO is fun in the first place. When you’re suggesting to kids how to imagine, repeatedly saying “it really opens up those creative play possibilities” doesn’t come across so good. In fact, it sounds pretty disconcerting. I seem to remember a movie about a children’s toy that had its bad guy tell everyone that “Let’s take extra care to follow the instructions” and make sure to have fun on Tuesdays at the designated time. Last thing LEGO wants is coming across a bit like that(!)

That movie was pretty cool though. Had a moral about freedom of play and freedom of imagination that seems pretty important under the circumstances. Seems like something that should be kept in mind.

Man, I wish I could remember the name of the toy the movie was about…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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VR vs. A Matter Of Natural Immersion

Regular travellers to this part of the internet will know I’ve taken to looking at how virtual reality (VR) has been represented in fiction down the years. Not just VR of course, but also augmented reality (AR) and pretty much any interpretation that could be made on the theme of immersive technology. So, we’ve had various head-mounted displays (HMDs) in places, VR videogame that have come to life thanks to slightly murderous children (twice). All manner of things like that. We’ve had them over videogames, television programmes, films and there’ll be other mediums such as books, comics and manga that we’ll get into more in the months ahead once I’ve done a bit of research.

“Sorry boss, can’t write that story about a market forecast by somebody or the other just this second. I need to read this comic!”

Clearly, this series was a spectacularly good idea.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I had a discussion with an old acquaintance who’d been keeping an eye on VRFocus‘ Twitter account and was confused by some of the content. Normally I wouldn’t say I could blame them, as we cover everything relating to immersive technology and so have a huge range in topics and discussions. At the time we were going through our most recent period of covering the various film festivals and so there was a lot of news specifically relating to VR, 360 degree video and their places within the film industry.

VR Film

They had questions, then they expressed their opinions on the matter which rapidly became “facts” – you’ll please note the quotation marks there. I explained to them that which I could. (I don’t claim to be an expert on the subject after all and pointed them in the direction of various stories on VRFocus and elsewhere where they might be able to gleam better insight into all that is going on. Strangely, at least to me, they had a real issue about immersion within film. A film was something you watched not something you found yourself in.

I was, I admit, somewhat lost for words. How could someone think you couldn’t get lost in a film? You can get lost in a book, become lost in pretty much anything. There is, even when you are aware of the fiction you are watching, something called ‘suspension of disbelief’. To become ‘immersed’ is in fact pretty easy. The definition of it is to involve oneself deeply in a particular activity; if we are to quote the version on Google. What VR does in this instance is open a new way for that immersion to occur, for it to up the sensory level.

“But.” They said. “It’s just a film.” How can technology make anything become more immersive beyond surround sound? “Tell me an example of immersion that’s happened to you.”

I listed off a few examples of getting involved in the film. Apparently though they weren’t good enough examples. Technology will “never give you the feeling of being there”. Well, to that person I can give them a brand-new example to consider. Because you don’t need technology in order to get a sense of immersion.

So, it’s the weekend, and I’ve been re-watching The Matrix films with my girlfriend, she’s never seen them before so we’ve gone through the whole thing and a couple of bits of The Animatrix too just to flesh out some of the supporting characters like Kid. (Ironically, a character who managed to take himself OUT of an immersive environment through strength of will.)  We’ve got through to the end, the final combat in Revolutions between Neo and Agent Smith in the ruins of the corrupted Matrix. It is, dark, menacing, rain is pouring down and, at the same time as the battle the sky darkened outside. Thunder and lightning rattling the building as the rain started pouring down.

You’ve gotta be freakin’ kidding me.

And when I say pouring down, I do mean pouring down. As in ‘I’ve only ever seen rain that heavy twice I think in my lifetime’ kind of rain. Within a couple of minutes, the road outside was partly a river, and all around the city flash floods struck. So now we have an additional soundtrack and visual effects coming from outside. It seems however, that Mother Nature really wanted this battle to be as immersive as possible as, beautifully in sync with Neo being thrown through a wall into a building… things got even more immersive for us as the rain started coming THROUGH THE CEILING. Straight through the light fitting above our heads, as a matter of fact. I dived at the light switch to turn it off, as we rapidly moved things out of the way. All the time the rain continuing to thunder down, the lightning and the TV the only illumination in the room and the noise of the rain and the fight ringing in our ears. So if anything it all became a bit too real.

Now, if nature can do that without even trying, then VR that is trying can certainly heighten the atmosphere and make it feel like you’re in a movie. If anything, there’s even such a thing as too much immersion. I’ll take VR over what we had the other day though thank you though.

I’m less likely to get electrocuted for one thing.

 

 

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VR vs. Data

It has suddenly dawned on me as I begin to write this that the title makes it sound like I’m going to be laying down the law – or should that be Lore? – on Brent Spiner this week on VR vs. I can assure you, however, that’s definitely not the case. But at the very end of last week there was a piece of news dropped by Oculus that raised eyebrows and since it was pretty significant and that I was the one who ended up writing about it I feel slightly duty bound to address it for this week’s column.

Oculus Rift

Now, if you missed the words lovingly typed out by yours truly at far-too-late o’clock on Friday night, the gist of it all is that Oculus launched an update to both their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.  Primarily it was to address some forthcoming legislation from the European Union; however, as a secondary action it also served to be something of an unofficial acknowledgement of going on in the wider world with regard to privacy and both the ownership and sharing of user data. Something instigated by the woes of Oculus’ own parent company Facebook. Yes, for once it is Facebook causing Oculus VR unintended discomfort and not the other way around. You’d forgive the residents of Menlo Park for chuckling ruefully at that the tiniest bit.

The changes, which included new sections in your account to show just what information is being accessed were for increased “transparency” as the Oculus blog wrote. The section is easy to find; a darn slight easier than its equivalent on Facebook I’d add. You can download the information Oculus have on you and the company even provided details on its policies, detailed how and why it does what it does and even gave some examples users would be familiar with. Again, this wasn’t primarily about the issues with Cambridge Analytica necessarily. But it is. Think of it as Noah, informing all the animals he’ll need two of every kind to step forward for a special project, before adding that – “in other completely and totally unrelated news a new free to enter swimming lessons programme will also be starting this week.”

Whether or not what’s been done is enough is a personal opinion I leave you to form. But that said, surely no one can deny (no comments section, that’s not a challenge) that Oculus has at least tried to be proactive in addressing things before they really kicked off regarding data privacy in VR.

When you think about it there’s a lot about VR data which could prove worrying. It’s bad enough companies knowing my birthday and email address without knowing where exactly I’ve been looking. Don’t forget, YouTube Analytics have been showing heat maps as to where people have been looking on 360 degree videos for almost a year. I wonder how much of that data is directly identifiable to individuals?

As I mentioned in the comments section of that article, I do recommend if you have any concerns to thoroughly read through all the changes and especially the Oculus blog itself, in full. It’s a topic that’s not going to go away and we could all stand to be a little more informed on just what is going on. So, in that sense at least, the changes made by Oculus are very welcome indeed.

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VR vs. Videogames Nintendo Should Adapt To Virtual Reality – Part 1

A year ago, I sat down and over the course of a few weeks laid out ten SEGA franchises that I thought would be excellent for ports or adaptations into the world of virtual reality (VR). It was a sort of combo of VR vs. and Make It A (Virtual) Reality – and it made sense. After all, precious few stakeholders out there have as rich and diverse a library of videogame titles as SEGA, and the said library of titles is certainly ripe for VR adaption. Not that SEGA have particularly leapt at the new technology; which is, historically at any rate, a very un-SEGA like thing for them to do.

Nintendo - Header

There is, however, another company that both has a library that rivals SEGA’s and has been even more hesitant to get involved in VR despite having historical ties to the technology. (If you are unaware of SEGA’s VR efforts look them up, it’s a fascinating tale and a typical ‘what could’ve been’ story from the company.) It is, of course, fellow videogame giant and SEGA’s long time console wars nemesis, and respected rival – Nintendo. So, it makes sense that I next turn my attention to them for the next multiparter.

A few ‘rules’ as such before we begin. Mainly because this is an opinion piece and as such a red rag to the bull that is the Internet.

Firstly, the titles listed here are only a selection of possibilities I’m bringing up and me not listing down your favourite title doesn’t mean I don’t think it’d be great in VR. (I mean I might not, but, y’know…) As with any article of this type these are my opinions – not yours.  You may disagree with what I think, but that doesn’t make me ‘wrong’; if I like to eat sushi (I do, very much) and you don’t like sushi that’s a matter of taste, I’m not wrong for liking it.  I’ve also been careful in the wording of the title – these are not necessarily videogames that have been made by Nintendo. They have however all appeared on Nintendo systems or have a connection to Nintendo in some way. Lastly, we’re adopting something of a sense of disbelief here to a degree.  In some instances getting the title made would be problematic from, for example, a logistical point of view.  We’re also ignoring Nintendo’s continued ambivalence towards VR as a whole, something we’ve discussed here before. Even now Reggie Fils-Amie is probably leaning out of his car somewhere and shaking his fist at a billboard for Ready Player One and yelling “THIS ISN’T FUN!”. So I’m casually ignoring that as well.

Essentially, it’s a case of fantasy over reality. (Thank you Gravity Falls…)

1 – Mario Kart

We start with something of a cheat, owing to the fact that Mario Kart VR already exists. However, what we currently have in the form of HTC Vive experience Mario Kart Arcade GP is merely the appetiser, and a pretty exclusive appetiser at that. As beloved as the Mario Kart franchise is there’s a limit to how far you’ll go to play it and I think ‘you’ve got to go all the way to Japan is a bit of an ask.

Mario Kart Arcade GP is part of the line-up at VR Zone in Shinjuku and sadly has not budged from there despite the growth of the VR Zone brand. There’s also the fact it isn’t by Nintendo but their long-time partner in all things Mario Kart arcade, Bandai Namco.  As a result, in some senses it isn’t truly what Nintendo would create with the brand if their hands were firmly on the reigns.  Friendships have both been formed and been tested by Mario Kart, and to have the Nintendo team let their imaginations fully run free to realise a Mario Kart VR where you could battle friends and strangers online as you can with the current iteration and have the immersion in the colourful worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond could well be a defining racing experience.

Not only that Mario Kart VR would be both the sort of title that has the potential to draw in new interest to VR and also act as a stepping stone for long-time gamers. Even if Rainbow Road would probably melt your eyes, in terms of racers on a theoretical Nintendo VR system this surely has to be Number One with a Bullet (Bill).

2 – Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

There have been a number of videogames that like to mess with your minds down the years. To be clear I’m not talking about a twist here but the videogame actually deliberately messing with you to freak you out. We’re talking something like Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid reading your save files or to give a more modern example Batman: Arkham Asylum had you thinking your save was gone, giving you impossible quick time events and a fake game over screen.

Eternal Darkness

Well if those videogames messed with your mind, then Eternal Darkness took great pleasure in taking your understanding of what’s going on and then whipping it in the ass with a wet towel full of utter blind panic. Eternal Darkness implemented the sanity mechanic, something Nintendo thought so good they actually patented the entire concept. Which in retrospect seems a bit cheeky.

To quote the patent: “A video game and game system incorporating a game character’s sanity level that is affected by occurrences in the game such as encountering a game creature or gruesome situation. A character’s sanity level is modified by an amount determined based on a character reaction to the occurrence such as taking a rest or slowing game progress and/or an amount of character preparation. That is, if a character is prepared for the particular occurrence, the occurrence may have little or no effect on the character’s sanity level. As the character’s sanity level decreases, game play is affected such as by controlling game effects, audio effects, creating hallucinations and the like. In this context. the same game can be played differently each time it is played.”

Eternal DarknessEternal Darkness proceeded to do the following.

  • Convince you it had crashed with a ‘blue screen of death’ – until you realised that the Gamecube obviously didn’t have that.
  • Pretends your television had turned off.
  • Pretends your television has lost signal with the Gamecube.
  • Interrupts you with other content entirely.
  • Mute’s the sound, deliberately desync’s the sound, or else lowers the volume to nothing like you’re accidentally sitting on the remote.
  • Brings up a ‘To Be Continued’ screen mid-game.
  • Has blood start randomly falling from the ceiling.
  • Changes the camera angle of corridors and has the camera react to non-existent threats.
  • Alters the art on the wall and gives life to physical objects.
  • Has bugs start crawling over the inside of your screen.
  • Has your character fire a gun at you, shattering the screen.
  • Has your character commit suicide.
  • Convinces you your file has corrupted or that the controller is broken.
  • Tricks you into thinking you’ve lost all your items from your inventory,
  • Tricks you into thinking all your game saves have been deleted.

Eternal Darkness

You get the idea. The fourth wall was essentially playdough. However despite critical acclaim, any initial plans for a sequel fell apart with all the troubles between Silicon Knights and Epic Games. That’s not stopped Nintendo from keeping the trademark alive, however.

We’ve already had one VR videogame in particular where the title deliberately sets out to mess with your brain. It’s probably a title you don’t even remember. In Flying Mollosk’s psychological thriller Nevermind, what you see is in-part generated by your own fear. The more panicked you become, as tracked by compatible heart rate monitors, the more twisted the world becomes. If you combined this premise with the sanity system, throw in some VR horror lessons learned from Resident Evil VII biohazard‘s atmosphere and you’re in business. Probably a pile of your own business, after you’ve shit yourself in terror.

That’s all for part one, I’ll come back to this very soon on VR vs. What Nintendo titles would you like to see in VR?

 

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VR vs. Fiction – Vol I: Their Only Crime Was Curiosity

It has finally happened. Wipeout has come to virtual reality (VR). You may remember we used to have that ‘Make It A (Virtual) Reality’ column on VRFocus way back when? I dig it out occasionally on VR vs. to discuss a videogame, film, television programme, etc that would be a good match with the tech. Well, when it came to making an existing videogame franchise in VR, Wipeout was one of those at the top of everyone’s lists. It didn’t just ask for a VR adaption, it screamed it, begged for it. It was one of those titles that when you suggested it the answer was ‘well, yeah obviously’. It was a natural fit.

In fact, that’s pretty much the holy grail for Wipeout achieved now. Leading me to muse on Twitter the other day that the only thing we’ve pretty much got left to hope for in terms of the title is that they somehow add all the extra stuff from the demo used in the film Hackers. Destructible leaderboard and all.

This in turn got me thinking about the film Hackers as a whole. Mostly that I should probably watch it again very soon as it was one of my favourite films growing up in the 90s. But it then dawned on me that for a movie which was very much of its time, it also at one point incorporated the VR of its time.

When you think about it, quite a few examples of examples of entertainment have at some stage featured VR, or something akin to it.  So, in this little sub-series on VR vs. I’m going to pick three or four examples of where VR crossed over into, or got a reference inm other forms of entertainment.

Before we start though- yes, Star Trek: The Next Generation onwards. Yes, Lawnmower Man. Yes, VR Troopers. I know. Beyond that, though…

Hackers

Dade Murphy, alias ‘Zero Cool’, a.k.a ‘Crash Override’ is in a whole load of trouble. He and his hacker friends are being set up to take the fall for a virus which is threatening to capsize five Ellingson Mineral oil tankers unless a ransom fee is paid. The good news is they’re innocent. The bad news is they can’t prove it and the FBI is onto them. The worst news is that the person behind it all is actually another hacker – one hired by the very same Ellingson Mineral to protect their Gibson computer network as the company’s Computer Security Officer. A role played to wonderous effect by Fisher Stevens who is utterly believable as this overgrown kid/corporate sleazeball Eugene Bellford, known by his hacker handle ‘The Plague’.

Hackers - Dade's HMDThe technology showcased is, as I say, very much of its time. In terms of ‘wearable tech’ you could for instance include Dade’s use of a – surely utterly useless – head mounted display (HMD), which has more of a Tiger Electronics R-Zone about it (“HERE COMES WOLF!”) than Google Glass.

However, moving away from that, there’s also the moment where Dade’s nemesis takes on VR itself. Indulging in a little R&R, before he is interrupted by FBI Agent Richard Gill, who is, unwittingly working with Bellford to catch Dade and his friends.  It being the 90’s what else would Bellford be using than a Virtuality system?

Someone, actually clipped the scene on YouTube, although judging from the title they didn’t realise just what the system was.

The X-Files

Wait, The X-Files did VR? There’s nothing spooky about that surely. What, are aliens using the black oil combined with DOOM VR, or something?  Well, actually yes. No, not the aliens bit but for one episode The X-Files did indeed tackle the subject of VR.

It wasn’t very good.

In the episode First Person Shooter, which takes place in Season 7 of the show’s original run, Agents Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate a futuristic room-scale VR videogame with bio-feedback, that The Lone Gunman have been working on as consultants. Why? Well one of the players was just murdered. Not only are they killed within First Person Shooter, they appear to have been killed for real by a character within the title. Except that the female character who shot the player, ‘Maitreya’, isn’t from the shooter and seems to have a degree of self-awareness.

The X-Files - First Person ShooterA famous computer hacker/master gamer is soon called upon to deal with the rogue program, but doesn’t fare much better, his efforts to kill Maitreya sees her lop off his hands with a samurai sword for real before she decapitates him for good measure. Oh dear. Soon the Gunmen are trapped in the game after nipping in the to patch it, Mulder dons sunglasses, body armour and an assault rifle and goes into the First Person Shooter to save his friends. Only for FPS to straight up disappear, leaving the Gunmen safely behind, but somehow Mulder has been taken into the videogameTRON-style and is now a part of it.

It turns out that the character is a pet project of studio’s developer Phoebe, who poured her efforts into making her as a private project to channel her anger and frustrations at having to work day-after-day with a jerk of a boss in a hyper-male environment.  “I mean, she was all I had to keep me sane. My only way to strike back as a woman. She was my goddess. Everything I can never be.”

Maitreya has taken her programmer’s desire to “strike back” at men a little too literally, managed to break out of the private computer into First Person Shooter and now offing men because she can. Luckily, Dana Scully is here to do her best “I am no man!” moment, and despite previously scoffing at the videogame, goes into it herself to save Mulder’s ass.

PAYDAY 2

The videogame PAYDAY 2, as you should probably know by this point, does have its own VR mode. As well DOE version that you can enjoy – if you, you know, fly to Dubai.  However, what you might not be aware of is that VR appears within the videogame itself too; appearing twice in the guise of the Starbreeze StarVR HMD. This in itself should not really surprise you considering the history of developers OVERKILL and Starbreeze AB.  The first instance comes in the form of a heist mask. Yes, you too can go and rob banks, loot yachts and rig election machines whilst wearing a StarVR. The height of crime fashion!

However, the StarVR does also appear in an actual heist. The title’s 2016 Christmas heist ‘Stealing Xmas’ sees the Payday Gang doing another contract for Ukrainian cocaine dealer Vlad.  Unfortunately, Vlad has a tendency to give endless chances to his drunken brother-in-law; who at this point in the story you’ve already had to deal with at least once. Said relative has, helpfully, stashed some drugs inside boxes at the mall. When the gang find him initially he is dressed as Santa Claus and tied to a chair in front of a Christmas tree. Some creative wake-up techniques on Boozy Saint Nick later, the gang discover that the boxes have actually been distributed to the stores now and so off they rush to locate the lost product. Vlad threatening repercussions if he does not have a happy holiday.

One of the places that cocaine is stashed is in a technology store… and within the locked away box of a StarVR headset. Vlad is less than impressed about the hiding place.

PAYDAY 2 - Steal The VR Headset

“VR – Vlad’s Rejoicing. That’s what this means to me.” He says, dismissively. “The VR set is virtually not here. Or should that be actually? I don’t know – which is it.”

The whole thing ends with you blowing a hole in the mall roof and disappearing up into the sky by helicopter, riding a Christmas tree with all the cocaine under it that you’ve… reacquired.

That’s all for now, I think a videogame, a film and a television show is a good spread for the first episode. VR vs. will be back next week. Maybe with more of this, maybe something else. We’ll have to see.

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VR vs. On Speaking Terms

We are officially done with the Game Developers Conference, aka GDC for another year. Well, the one in San Francisco at any rate. I’d like to say the team are on their way back from it, no doubt laden with more interviews than you can shake a stick (with a camera on the end of it) at.  But we’re heading hastily into another event this week courtesy of the fine ladies and gentlemen at NVIDIA. Here we go again, I guess.

Oculus Go GDC Promo 02GDC 2018 didn’t bring much in the way of truly big news. But then if the industry was, let’s say. a waveform of news we’re sort of in the trough at the moment. Waiting for things to begin building up again as we move towards the release of the standalone generation. That’s not to say GDC didn’t give us a lot to talk about. We got hands on with the Oculus Go, there was news from the three main engines, Peter and Kevin J got to try out a number of videogames that are on their way and we found out a little bit more about Magic Leap too. The announcement about support from Unreal Engine, made before the event, raised eyebrows. One user on Twitter put it that if it has UE4 support, then maybe it isn’t vapourware after all. The secrets and announcements are beginning to spill out of the company now, so it seems the Magic Leap One is definitely something we’re going to cover earnestly in the weeks and months ahead.

Today’s edition of VR vs. isn’t to do with that however, but more something that’s been in my mind for a while.

Terms, abbreviations and acronyms. We know there is virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR) and augmented reality (AR).  There’s also a half-dozen immersive classifications sprinkled about the place. Other terms come and go in popularity.  One that feels like it’s back on the rise is XR, I’ve certainly seen it used a lot more in the last couple of months than in the period before that. XR is most often expressed as meaning ‘eXtended reality’, out of place capital X (a conscious decision) included. That seems to have had a few definitions/variations here and there- the most common being either as a combination of elements from AR, MR and VR or as an umbrella term meaning all things related to the three – a reference to the spectrum of things. It’s one of the reasons, if you see any stories I write on VRFocus, you’ll often see me refer to things in the industry as relating to “immersive technology”. It just seems the easiest way to do so without getting potentially confused.

For a great article about XR Inputs incidentally, check out this article by James C Kane on the site from about a month ago.

HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset Professional EditionHowever, some companies like to muddy the waters of what existing terms and definitions are. Microsoft’s idea of what MR is – thanks to its naming of the Windows Mixed Reality headset range – doesn’t exactly help anyone. It’s effectively them going ‘yeah, we know that’s the definition but we define it as this other thing’.  Then you have companies who, for branding, claim their product inhabits various other terms – Something-or-the-other Reality – purely for branding and trademarking purposes. These tend to come along in groups, and it feels like something of a grab on any poor letter of the alphabet that hasn’t been dragged off screaming. There is certainly enough kicking about the place to probably have a glossary of pointless terms.

To be clear to anybody currently considering concocting such a term for a product they are looking to market, you’re both a) not helping immersive technology in anyway by doing so and b) not fooling anyone either. Any idiot can make up something like that…

Fortunately, we have such an idiot on staff.

To prove how utterly pointless such an exercise is, I’ve come up with my own glossary of clearly highly serious and super official acronyms for the entire alphabet. Thus, all letters are now claimed. Sorry folks.

(For those of you interested in a proper glossary of the standard terms you can find such here.)

AR – Actual Reality: Development for this has been proven to be very slow and expensive, as opposed to developing it in/on a computer. However, the realism is second to none and it’s a proven market having existed for several million years. (Though some dispute this, citing other documentation.)

BR – Break Reality: Not to be confused with a reality that does not work. BR is, just ever so slightly lower than the reality that proceeded it.  Usually by a few millimetres. Can be stacked.

CR – Counter Reality: Immersion that takes the present reality and reverses it in some form. With three forms of this officially defined as existing in a 2D plane with CR-X (a flipping of the horizontal), CR-Y (a reversal of the vertical) and CR-Z also known as CR-XY, which involves flipping along the diagonal). Attempts to define other sub-sections stopped at CR-ZY.

DR – Docēre Reality: A reality expressly concerned with the medical profession and that which operates ‘under the skin’ of the real world.

ER – Emergency Reality: Same as above but for being developed in the Americas. Although in ER any app, program or managerial software undergoes regular drama and critical issues. Any programme you grow fond of will invariably have something catastrophic happen to it that may cause it to permanently leave the system save for flashback cameos.

FR – Réalité Français: Currently being promoted throughout Europe in the light of the ongoing Brexit negotiations, FR takes reality and just converts everything into French. C’est tout.

GR – Gigantes Reality: Applications using GR present virtual objects as real but at exactly 328% their usual size. Early reviews cite wonderous viewpoints not previously explored, although simple tasks such as opening doors in GR have proven difficult.

HR: Often a derisory term, in theory HR is an immersive technology based around organisational activity. In practice it appears to be a reality full of people and programmes that claim to know what they’re doing but very rarely seem to get things right.  Often interfering with the work of functions that would invariably be fine without its presence.

IR – Iridescent Reality: IR experiences produce a reality where everything you see varies in colour according to the exact angle you are viewing it. Still experimental, it is not recommended in conjunction with fast movement.

JR: A now defunct reality that was, regretfully, terminated in the eighties. Though who pulled the trigger on it remains unclear.

KR – Kaleidoscopical Reality: No, this is nothing to do with a children’s toy. In KR, immersive experiences fundamentally alter their shape with every movement. Unfortunately, this means that in theory that one KR experience could become be any other KR experience. The technology is currently on hold, until legal guidance on how this affects copyrights is sought.

LR: Truncated abbreviation of Long Range Ruling Reality or ‘LRRR’, a future-based reality tech, set to conquer the world but with an expected development time of just under 1000 years according to predictions from the Omicron Persei 8 Foundation. Will probably destroy you.

MR – Mirror Reality: Owing to the present level of technology (at the time of writing) an imperfect reflection of what is expected in reality – not to be confused with CR .MR applications and experiences tend to be ultimately disappointing and often involve shiny tops and sashes as well as the addition of a black goatee beard to everything.

NR – Non-Reality: Sometimes called ‘Counter-Immersive Reality’ – again, not to be confused with CR. NR is a response to safety concerns and implications of VR and AR, and whether or not experiences can become so immersive as to appear as actual reality. All virtual objects within NR simulations are officially branded as ‘not being real’ with audible warnings declaring the objects to be not real and visible warning stickers. The stickers naturally all have warning stickers and full disclaimers themselves. As do those stickers – and so on.

OR – aka ‘Substitutive Reality’: A proposed reality presented as an alternate choice to that originally represented.

PR – Public Reality: A reality comprised of what is recommended as being best for you, as determined by marketing committee.

QR – Quick Reality: Another now rarely used iteration of immersive technology, which presents reality a series of squares filed, in turn, with other squares of black and white. Representations can be translated through a camera with correct software on it, however locating one is difficult owing to all such virtual cameras also being patterned squares within the QR space.

RR – Radiolucent Reality: Immersive experiences which are not affected by radiation in any way, meaning your enjoyment is not spoiled in the event of any kind of radioactive spill or nuclear fallout. As proved by the colossal amount of radiation you are subjected to by the experimental plutonium powered RR headset.

SR – Subjective Reality: A personally tailored reality that automatically is shaped to the will of the headset wearer, responding to their emotional state and biological responses.

TR – Taciturn Reality: An in-depth immersive experience that ultimately tells you nothing at all.

UR: A reality with no defined set of rules. Whatever you choose this reality to be it won’t judge you.

VR – Versatile Reality: Immersive technology that creates a representation over the real world which is malleable. Of course, the reality underneath that is still solid, so finding a use for this has so far been troublesome, despite its name.

WR – aka ‘Guinness Reality’: A somewhat quirky implementation of immersive reality, WR operates as in true reality except values within it are dictated solely by the ‘best’ defined value from the real world. So whilst free-movement is supported people can only be stationary or move as fast as the fastest person alive with no middle ground. In the same way as a car can either be at 0 miles per hour (mph) or around 270 mph, the approximate speed of the fastest car in the world. Constantly being updated experiences become better/worse, depending upon your point of view, as values change in reality.

XR – XTREME Reality: Immersive technology that turns everything into a representation of the 1990’s. Signs seem to entirely consist of incorrectly spelt words, often remaining in motion on a background made up of a series of random neon coloured shapes stuck on a rectangle of another colour. Most characters in current XR videogames seem to sport bucket hats, denim dungarees and trainers with flashing lights in them. Hard Rock Cafe XR is particularly popular, which is to say that it is “radical”.

YR: Endlessly argued over, YR is a reality constantly in a developmental state as people debate whether it should even exist in the first place. Forums have threads entirely devoted to trying to get the platform out of the loop it finds itself in. Hence the slogan “YR? Indeed.”

ZR – Zero Reality: ZR experiences express all objects as other objects, never what it in fact is. So, a banana could be anything, at least in theory, except for a banana. There is a standard rulebook for ZR, indicating what item is supplanted by what.  However, it is believed that Microsoft are making up their own non-standard version. Also known as ‘Illusion Reality’ owing to the fact that ‘nothing is as it seems’.

There we go – utterly ridiculous. Fun to write, certainly, but ultimately they mean nothing; and that’s exactly what these new terms created for branding all generally mean. Nothing. Let’s stick with what we’ve got and if the time comes where things evolve enough to warrent a redefinition we can do that.

Until that time though…