A post on some other platform saying, "VR will be the next big thing, but it might be too early" made me check - when did the VR hype start (Oculus)?
Nerds got excited in 2011, many, even non-game devs, got prototypes in 2013, Facebook threw billions at it in 2014, and the "gold rush" started; it shipped as a final real product in 2016.
So a decade (!) of big tech VR "gold rush".
And those early 2011 ideas (games!) are fun, but still no single other "killer app/use"!
"What do I NEED it for?"
@BartWronski Not sure about the next big thing, and the lack of a definitive killer app is perhaps a testament to the power of good old-fashioned screens to immerse our minds. That said, HL:Alyx was for the most part as immersive as it gets, and I've probably spend 100+ hrs randomly exploring in Google Earth VR, hours at a time - I couldn't imagine doing anything close to that with Google maps (or earth). Those 2 experiences made it worth the expense for me, and things like Eleven Table Tennis VR take it further yet (yes, one could go find a club for that IRL etc etc, but that's a lot of overhead in comparison).
@christiankothe tgere are many super fun games and for those it's a fun and totally unique, novel experience and a new, worthy platform (though like console vs mobile, only complimentary, ports don't work in a different medium).
But it was supposed to be "the new mobile!" (it was pitched to me like this both by Facebook and Google people) and they spent this decade looking for *any* worthwhile "killer app" and transformative experiences that will make everyone need one, and there are none.
@BartWronski Yeah it's an interesting observation. There's a utility factor with mobile that's just out of reach for the mainly experience-oriented nature of VR. I was one of those 2011 VR nerds, and I was one of the 2007 AI nerds, the 2011 ray tracing nerds, etc. There's probably going to be a time (my nerd-self will say likely in our lifetimes) when you can get some neural implants and join some matrix-like social network, and that'll probably check the box of "I NEED that" for a lot of folks seeking those connections. It's clearly not the pair of googles and the motion controller though, and of course a scenario that seemed appealing 20 years ago feels increasingly dystopian these days.
