Hacker News Reader

Comment by dinfinity | Hacker News Reader

> 1. Why would anyone want to give themselves motion sickness for a VR game?

VR can be amazing. There is nothing on this planet that can provide the same experiences it can. That includes real life.

Something like experiencing floating through space, gazing at an alien sunset and feeling like your body is actually there* without having to deal with pesky things like inventing FTL, radiation shielding, and artificial gravity and whatnot is pretty cool.

* It's amazing how easily our senses are fooled, even with imperfect hardware.

View on HN

There is nothing on this planet that can provide the same experiences it can. That includes real life.

There are plenty of places on this planet where you can rent a real sports car and race around a real track against real people for real.

Until your VR headset emits the smell of burning fuel, rumbles your body so hard that you feel it for hours afterward, deafens you with engine and tire noise, throws so much mud on the screen that your pit crew uses tear-off sheets of plastic to clear it because wipers are useless, and provides a non-zero chance of actually being hurt or dying, your video game is just game.

IRL > VR

VR doesn't have smell. Yet it can render visually things you cannot possibly see in real life. Watching a dinosaur approach and stomp overhead is quite a sight to experience in VR, even more intense than 3D glasses.

The way the view tilts and moves with one's head, combined with the audio alignment, creates a surreal experience.

Whether IRL is better or worse than VR is entirely subjective.

I never said that VR can provide everything real life can and more. I said that it can provide experiences that real life can't and nothing in your example refutes that.

Now, I do agree that real life can provide things that VR can't. Many, many things even. That was not the subject however; it was: "Why would anyone want to give themselves motion sickness for a VR game?"

Are you familiar with the DICE framework in terms of VR? Essentially, VR enables one to do things that are [D]angerous, [I]mpossible, [C]ostly, or [E]xpensive.

Your racecar example is a perfect example. It would be dangerous and costly. Would it be better than VR racing? I think so. Would I be able to actually do it? Hell no. I suspect most people would answer the same.

Yes, I know expensive and costly are basically the same thing.

I'm still waiting for HMDs where I can't see the pixels. I have something like 20/12.5 vision (and can also count pixels on a 27" 1080p monitor from normal sitting position)

Give it a bit, it won't last long

Reply on news.ycombinator.com