“The virtual reality concept has been around for a long time and things come around again and again. Commercially it started in the 80s with early experiments in the 60s. By 1992-1993 it was gone, because mainly the technology wasn’t there yet. Anything that contributed to a good experience wasn’t affected yet.” – Scott Rogers
Scott Roger is a designer and educator of over 50 published games including the tabletop games Pantone the Game, Rayguns and Rocketships, and the upcoming Diamonds & Dinosaurs. You can also catch him in the movie Gamemaster.
Virtual reality is in its pioneer stage and unfortunately, the pandemic, halted its progress and momentum with public exposure. Experiences will need to go into a two-three year recovery to get back to where it was before everything went terrible. Virtual reality arcades and location-based experiences were getting huge support from investors and consumers and were a growing sector based on the interest of players. This, in turn, helped with pushing the technology forward so it was less incumbent on the users, with less wires and better graphic fidelity.
VR was always an accessibility issue and not a persuasive problem. When people try a VR game, it becomes an instant grabber much like how the Nintendo Wii swept the nation. But it’s the setup and isolating factor of virtual reality that keeps it out of the hands of potential customers. That’s why the momentum before the pandemic was important and currently a shame that it’s on pause right now.
Topics discussed in this episode:
0:00 About Scott Rogers
3:54 Online Education and its effect
7:28 Social Networking isn’t enough and why it helps VR
11:47 Nintendo Virtual Boy
16:33 What’s blocking VR from going mainstream
23:02 Facebooks Occulus importance
30:49 Escape Rooms and Location Based Experiences
35:13 Tangible Sets vs Virtual Sets
41:13 Pandemic ushered us into the Matrix already
43:08 The hybrid office situation with VR
53:52 Facebook or Apple with AR
1:00:51 Shout out
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
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