There’s one simple way to do it: stop milking it with ludicrous prices that make it inaccessible for the average consumer and stop trying to corner each implementation with your own proprietary closed market that becomes worthless when it goes down because all of your digital purchases were “digital subscription options”. The problem with VR is that it now has a place in the market but one that is basically limited to a luxury market, and as such it will only include self enclosed ecosystems of novelty implementations that appeal largely to whales. It is basically an example of the hellhole the PC landscape would have been if governments back then had been as lax with bad consumer practices as they are now.
I also get the feeling the VR market started out a lot like the mobile gaming market in that mba business majors who have zero ability or to desire to make genuinely artistic and compelling experiences choked out any other kind of person being in leadership positions in the industry.
Similar to mobile gaming the rush of business majors who “think” they know how to transform vr gaming when they don’t know the first thing about game development and have never bothered to pursue a creative venture in their life that wasn’t just a thinly veiled scheme to scam other people out of their money has severly stunted the growth of the vr industry indefinitely as it did the mobile gaming market.
The very structure of the largest companies in VR (besides perhaps valve) precludes the possibility of any actual artists and developers with a vision getting into positions of power in these companies and even if they do, they are never actually listened to or you wouldn’t get embarassingly empty visions of VR like “the metaverse”.
VR, like mobile gaming cannot be understood as an outgrowth of the traditional gaming world, rather VR in particular must be understood as a market constructed by non-experts who didn’t give a shit about learning gaming development or how to create compelling fantasy worlds because the objective was always to be a digital landlord speculating and monetizing on an ownership of large swathes of digital communities that artists showed up and made into actual spaces people desired to be (artists are an unpaid detail though, that kind of fluff is easy, an AI could do it and besides it is fun for them!).
Unfortunately for VR fans I don’t think the industry will take any significant strides until those kinds of people are kicked out of the boadrooms of these companies and I don’t see that happening anytime soon given how long mobile gaming has been a squandered wasteland of casinos that nothing with any vitality or soul can grow in.
I mean did anyone think of the vision pro as more than a very expensive tech demo? It was always too big, too heavy to be viewed as something people were expected to wear all day long.
Why do people think you’re supposed to wear that all day long? I don’t think it was ever marketed as a permanent piece of headwear.
I’ve always assumed that every VR or AR system was intended to be used for a session and taken off, seems obvious.
I don’t think Apple themselves marketed it this way, but viral photos of people being spotted on subways and walking down the street wearing one probably didn’t help sell the product.
They marketed the headset as being able to replace the functions of basically everything an average person uses a laptop/pc, cellphone, and tv for.
People routinely use computers and tvs for many hours at a time.
People routinely spend hours on their phone and basically always have them in their pocket or nearby.
They showed people wearing the things in planes, to watch 2-3 hour movies.
Sitting down in their (strangely TV-less) living rooms to watch 2-3 hour movies.
Doing … some kind of work you’d do on a laptop, but easily being able to keep the things on, kick a ball around with your kid, and then seamlessly go back to working.
Wearing the headset as you are unpacking at a hotel, and then taking a video phone call with them.
Not the thing ringing, you putting the headset on, and then taking a call.
No, you’re just already wearing the headset, having just arrived in a hotel, implying you just had them on as you took your luggage up to your motel, like a hat.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=IY4x85zqoJM
Taken as a montage, you certainly get the impression that you’re encouraged to just wear the thing all the time, anywhere, that its an ‘all-device’ that replaces a whole bunch of other devices, and is easily used/worn in many settings for long periods of time.
Yeah, that’s weird. Like, I get the idea, but the tech just hasn’t caught up to it yet. It needs to be as convenient as just putting on a light pair of glasses - on top of not being especially light or comfortable, VR is still a “process” which requires a degree of effort and adjustment every time you use it, which really kills the whole concept of it being a convenient tool.
I think Apple is probably more likely than most to make something like this take off eventually (Google Glass’ biggest failing was also that it made you look like a total dork, whereas Apple somehow managed to make AirPods cool), but this seems more like a software proof of concept for hardware that doesn’t exist yet.
Namely what the features are and the functionality of it. I mean if you are expecting to use it in a closed controlled area, then for the most part the pass through side isn’t necessary, the screen showing your eyes to outsiders is completely meaningless. So I guess the point is, there isn’t really a defined ideal place to use it. It isn’t super useful in one place, it’s made to be slightly helpful, everywhere.
Which of course begs the question, where is it intended to be used. when is the ideal time to put it on, and then how long should a session be before you take it off.
