The Gaming Outsider Podcast: Episode 031 – VR and the Quiet Riot
The whole gang gets together for an exciting new weekly update episode of The Gaming Outsider which is now available for download. This week the gang tackles a few interesting topics, including our excitement and issues surrounding VR gaming, the outcry over The Phantom Pain’s character Quiet and her over-sexualization, Hitman’s delay and unique business model and what games everyone is currently playing. Head on over to iTunes, Stitcher or use the media player below to listen to the show now. Feedback and discussion is highly encouraged so feel free to use our Twitter, Email and Facebook links above, along with the comments below, to voice your feedback for the show. We hope you enjoy it!
[audioplayer file=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegamingoutsider/Ep031_WeeklySept22.mp3″]
Great section on VR. As a guy who’s owned the Oculus Dev kit 1, dev kit 2, Google Cardboard, and Samsung Gear VR… I can say you hit the nail on the head with the experiences, and the paranoia of not being able to perceive your physical surroundings when in VR. A friend of mine tried out the Gear VR headset which works with my phone and he said it is a lot of fun, but he got paranoid that he couldn’t tell what everyone else was doing in the room. Another friend said about the same thing with robbers or people breaking in. Hey, I’m the same way when sitting down for dinner in a restaurant… I don’t like having my back to a high traffic area, or the door. Weird I know. Also… you guys are right on track with the experience part of it growing a lot faster than the game aspects of it. If you look at the Gear VR app store over half of the apps are moreless experience apps. With VR, you don’t necessarily have to have to challenge your hand eye coordination or puzzle solving skills to make it entertaining. Just putting yourself in a situation or perspective that you normally wouldn’t be able to see is enough. Just looking around in certain settings are enough for people to pay $2.99 or more for those apps. One app was they just took all of the Mars rover pictures and put them together in a photosphere and you can put on the headset and look around like you’re actually standing on mars. That was pretty awesome. Worth $2.99, yeah probably. Games are great when you’re alone, but a lot of games are driven by the social aspect. VR will be a niche in gaming for years to come and will never replace TV gameplay, but I’m 100% certain that it is going to stick around this time, and we’ll see exciting stuff in the future.
Good to hear that some of these opinions are confirmed to be real concerns. I never thought about the lack of knowing what is happening around you to be a real issue. I can’t really tell if this will be an issue for me or not until I dive in and try one for myself.