What I and Every Gamer Wishes VR Was Like

When VR first came out, I and almost every single gamer out there got ideas that would change the gaming landscape completely. Nowadays though, it seems like that fun attraction in the movie theater while you’re waiting for the movie to start.

The games that were first available in VR seemed to target things such as the creativity of the individuals playing them, or some kind of adjustment to learning some skills. This is apparent in the proposals of hundreds of individuals in using VR in things like teaching surgery, chemistry or even physics. Almost everything that can be visualized in a virtual world would be a perfect match for VR technology.

But I’m selfish, what can I say. I just want really nice games on the Vevo or any other headset I’ve purchased and played for a while now. No, things like Minecraft and Blade of Sorcery is not enough to satiate my hunger for an interactive experience in virtual reality.

What I want is an MMO-like experience as I walk and see through the eyes of my character. It used to be pretty fun to play on Live Chat, but there was pretty much nothing to do there besides repeat memes over and over without really doing anything super interactive.

At least somebody is trying

One thing I found out while scouring the internet was that developers themselves are not too keen on putting in a lot of effort in a VR game, simply because there are not enough players to care about it.

It all comes down to the costs of creating these games and the potential revenue generated from it. Spending millions of dollars on an amazing game is definitely going to put a smile on quite a lot of VR players, but there are not that many VR players, to begin with. Therefore the company would expect only about half of what they spent back from the game.

No matter how we may claim that video games and finances should be a separate thing, keeping the company going for the long-term is extremely important.

One thing I did find out is that VR is very popular offline. What this means is that a specific place or location you go to in order to play VR games exclusively. One such example I can think of are escape rooms with no room to escape. Quite weird right?

If you don’t know what escape rooms are you can follow this link and fill up on the info. But in short, it’s basically a game where the escape room owner puts players inside a room which has some kind of theme. It could be horror, or it could be just plain old puzzles. The player’s job is to free themselves from the room as fast as possible. It’s fun, it’s interactive, and most importantly it’s challenging.

However, these types of games have their own issues as well. It’s very hard and expensive to diversify them. That’s why you’ll mostly see a horror theme as it’s the easiest and cheapest. The good news is that several companies are thinking of going to VR for help.

According to the information on the Nowescape website, the founder is thinking to integrate VR technology to make the experience a lot more diverse. I had a small talk with him and this is what he had to say:

“VR technology is going to allow us to make a lot more themes. In the past, we were just focusing on horror and everything that we can then spin this horror off-of. Things like old dungeons and etc.

With VR, we’ll be able to make things like underwater escape rooms, pirate-themed games, and my favorite, fantasy-themed ones. I think we’ll try to make it with a first-person view and some skills for the players that they can use to get themselves out of the room.

It’s going to be a lot more fun than just digging through some stuff to find a key in real life. I’m not sure whether we will allow this to be played at home, or have the players come to our specific locations across the world. But we will definitely see.”

Although this seems like a breath of fresh air for VR technology to have a completely new sector to adjust to, it’s not quite what I and many other gamers are looking for. If there are any VR game developers reading this, here’s a message from the gamer community.

Give us multiplayer, role-playing and fantasy

Almost everybody is interested in a skill-based online multiplayer fantasy game where we can roleplay and pretty much use every single bit of our characters’ bodies.

I’m talking skills, sword-fighting and etc. This not only helps me be more immersed in the game but also helps me get off the couch and actually move around a little bit. Fun and healthy! Who would’ve thought?

Anyway, that’s my manifesto for the future of VR games. Any VR game developer that makes a game like this, just take my money!