“Oh yeah, I was drunk on vodka and cranberry and then somebody stole my cheese.” Said a clearly outraged Nina.
It was, frankly, too early for my mind to properly process the discussion going on. Either that or it had already thrown in the towel for the day at 5:30am. Which would be something of a record. I rubbed my eyes and stared at the four people hovering around me. Quite the collection of individuals, me included, that shuffled and shivered their way through the airport terminal.
It’s nice to get away from it all and for some reason it had been decided that the entire VRFocus team – yes, all five of us – would be heading to Malta for a couple of days of… Actually, I mused, I wasn’t exactly sure. It wasn’t exactly rest and relaxation since we were still working and would need to work remotely meaning we were all going off laptops and it wouldn’t be until day three we’d be able to really go out and see the place. Plus, two of the five were actually quite ill. Poor Rebecca, who presently needs surgery as part of her is quite literally failing, was being powered along purely by willpower and painkillers. Peter, who would later be strapped into a virtual reality (VR) headset to review Fallout 4 VR was a coughing and spluttering walking plague factory. I was surprised no one from the airport had come up and painted a big cross on the front of his t-shirt.
A warmer climate? A change of scene? Whatever it was we were going and leaving behind us the blizzard that had descended on the UK behind. All of us.
Yes, all of us. For once myself and Rebecca, or as I’d dubbed us #TeamLeftBehind, were also featuring in the travel plans. We were quickly learning that it was probably for the best we didn’t know all the nonsense that went on during a regular trip. For a start we were heading to the wrong island. Which was something of a faux pas. We’d need to make an additional trip via a ferry when we got there. Meaning that in a twenty-four hour period I would have travelled by train, underground, bus, taxi, aeroplane and ferry. I think I just got a transport bingo.
Kevin and Nina, so often travelling companions to events bickered like an old married couple. Who was looking after the Vive we were taking with us, who had the best seat, who was the best organised. Where they could actually get some cheese right now. The dealing with airports thing was pretty old news for them at this point. Kevin had the philosophy throughout the trip that the plane would, somehow, just wait for us. Me and Rebecca, mortified, wanted to get on as soon as possible.
Eventually after we got on the plane and it was at this point I remembered something very important about plane travel.
It sucks.
Think about it. You’re sealed inside a pressurised metal tube for hours at a time. There’s only so much you can do if there’s no in-flight entertainment. For me, smack bang in the middle of three seats it was an impossible situation. There was no room in the overhead compartment thanks to a guy in row 3 apparently taking every piece of clothing in his possession with him in a blue plastic tarp and filling up our bin with it. Meaning my carry-on only bag had to be jammed between my legs, pinning them to the side at an awkward angle. It was too uncomfortable to sleep. No room to use my laptop. Not to mention too awkward to read and get into the book I’d bought with me. In that situation all you have to look forward to is a battle of wits over the armrest against whichever person next to you turns out to be Elbows McGee.
With all of that is it that much of a surprise that we see hotels and airliners investing in VR so much? For the first time in a very long time indeed I was clamouring to have my Gear VR with and be ensconced on a beach somewhere. Or taking in a film via it, or going to the moon. Or literally anywhere else. After all, no one wants to be on the plane, you want to get to your destination. It’s more a necessary inconvenience. So having something that transports you to somewhere else other than, well, where you are, suddenly becomes a great idea. We’ve all seen photos or even videos from phones of people wearing a VR headset on a plane or a bus or on the underground and they’re usually accompanied by much sniggering and pointing of fingers at the ‘silly looking’ man or woman in VR.
You know what? Point and laugh all you want. They’re smart. They’re enjoying themselves and are unconcerned about what you think of them. In fact, let me ask a question in return. You’re on the bus, plane, train, whatever with them, right? How’s your journey going so far? Because unless you’ve spent a small fortune I’m willing to bet the answer is it’s awful and you’re kind of stressed. They on the other hand look pretty relaxed.
Funny that.
The contrast for all this great stuff is that, no matter where you are, you also get some comments that leave you going “wow” and positively despairing at the human race in general. You often don’t have to go far, usually a click in Disqus on a user’s other comments. Sometimes you find you learn so much more about people and their interests, sometimes you find that… yeahhhh, that guy’s a bit of scumbag. Sexism, homophobia, anti-Black, anti-Muslim, antisemitism, transphobia, ableism – you don’t have to go very far down the chain at all.
I threw myself into finding out everything I could about the new season before it began. The teams, the drivers, the circuits. My Dad and I had a ritual that every season we’d head down to the garage and paint up a selection of toy f1-style racing cars, Matchbox, Corgi, etc in the new liveries of the teams. Then every Sunday there was a race I’d follow the action and keep the line-up of who was in what position up to date on a mat which had a street scene on it. Graphics weren’t half as useful then as they were now and not only was it fun for a young me it was actually pretty helpful! But it was more about the father-son ritual to me than the racing.
As such I’m left thinking back to the passage of time and something that I’ve been mulling over for a few weeks. Since the year is coming to an end I’ve already begun to draft up some ideas for my 2018 predictions column. Long-time VR vs. readers will recall at the beginning of 2017 I set out a number of predictions 
That’s a pretty busy year in anyone’s book. Intel has its own VR Center for Excellence of course and often utilises its True VR technology.
The third thing is the topic of today’s column, and something I referred to at the end of last week’s piece. Much as people don’t entirely know what augmented reality (AR) – or virtual reality (VR) too for that matter – is by definition, those that profess an interest sometimes aren’t particularly well informed about the reality of what it can or could do either.
Just what is this man blathering about? Firstly, no you don’t cancel the Paralympics just because it isn’t maximising the monetisation. What in the blue hell kind of suggestion is that? Secondly, you do not replace it with something in eSports – how is that replacing it at all? (If you are even open to replacing it with something equivalent for those with disabilities.) Make something new for eSports if you like, but I’d imagine even eSports most diligent supporters would say it wasn’t ready for something at the level of the Olympics. Then we get to AR and oh boy where do we start?
When we, and by ‘we’ I mean the industry at large (including those who report on it) discuss VR, we invariably get drawn into the benfits of ‘the experience’. What you can feel, how immersed you are in the world, how the fictitious world can become real. Fair enough, it is the unique selling point (USP) and ultimate end-goal of immersive technologies – to take you away from the real world and make that real. Yet, again we’re left with the perception of VR being some optional extra; bonus content you put in to look flashy. VR is not the experience at the moment for many, it’s not the selling point, it’s just a selling point.
Yet currently, when we get content and we talk about the immersive experience as a whole, even after all this time, we’re not always getting said whole. Where’s my full experience? Why aren’t we, at this point, onto the truly big VR productions? VR isn’t going away from gaming, no matter how much some wish it so. So… COME ON. Enough delays and lollygagging. Believe me people in the comments section, we’re as tired of wave shooters as you are. I want to get stuck into a big immersive world – so where’s my Immersive Role Playing Game? My IRPG? (I came up with that term the other day and the Editor insisted I use it at some point because he loved it so much. So feel free to start using it judiciously.) Where’s my killer app? Heck, I’d settle for a ‘lesser charge of manslaughter app’ at this point to show some progress.
I’ve seen people be upset about the HDR aspect (specifically that the box can’t just be bought on its own and as mentioned above isn’t backwardly compatible) and that it means the original PSVR is now, whisper it with me… ‘old’. But it is what it is. It’s an upgrade. And, let’s lay this out plainly, there’s nothing particularly new about hardware, particularly connected to the videogame sector getting updates. We’re 
Updates happen. So, SIE have decided to give things a refresh after a year; that I’m neither confused nor particular surprised about. What I am surprised about, and what we’re back to is timing. Everything about the timing for the announcement was off.
It’d’ve been at least treated like it meant something. Instead it kind of felt like it was hurridly shoved out like Sony were trying to disguise the fact they’d just farted by casually opening a window and frantically wafting a spec sheet behind their backs in an effort to dispel the evidence.