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Comment by 2OEH8eoCRo0 | Hacker News Reader

I'm afraid to ask for this but I wish I could use something like this for work. Why are we all commuting? I'd like to put on a company issued VR headset and be transported to an office. Just literally recreate the office experience.

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Why recreate the office?

I get that some people have a psychological mindset to "be in a place so as to do work" but offices are a compromise on so many things, most notably space.

Now you have tech to create entire wondrously imaginative virtual worlds and you want to recreate a bland little open plan box to cram avatars into?

I guess you could ask, why offices look like they do? they could already be imaginative spaces but companies mostly opt for "bland" spaces. Probably because if you're going to combine the preferences of 30 people in one space you have to settle for something pretty far down the common denominator tree, which is always going to be "bland".

True, but when each person is individually fed their vision and sound you don't necessarily have to compromise.

Set some specifics, like open space, chair, table/desk. And you could have Hogwarts theme while I have a viking feasting hall.

Because it's familiar and people already understand it? Virtual office? Why not recreate the office? Too hard?

I want a little virtual office and hallways and I can have hallway interactions and knock on virtual doors, etc.

There’s at least 8 of such work space apps on Meta Quest, they have whiteboards, you can do stuff together all while in a room in the middle of Alps or in space.

Except with the extra weight of a headset, eye strain, and the uncanny feeling of moving without moving.

kind of feeling like this too much skeuomorphism for my taste, why recreate the office experience when I can already do the work without the commute over slack and teams?

I do my work remotely via slack and teams, it's more for the return to office crowd.

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