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  • eduardog3000 [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Mainstream? No.

    Affordable? Yes.

    Even now, playing VR is just as affordable as playing console games. $400 for the headset (Quest 2) plus the cost of the games. That excludes games like HL:A, but Oculus has its own line of exclusives.

    Team Fortress on source 2

    "Please give us a rehashing of an old experience instead of something totally new". Do you want another Star Wars movie to go with that?

    • Wheaties [she/her]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I was kinda being hyperbolic for the sake of the joke. The potential of VR as an avenue for art is exciting. It's cool to see it becoming more and more accessible with time. Though, I think one of VR's big hurdles isn't just the (admittedly shrinking) consumer cost, but the developer cost. This is a system that takes exponentially more inputs than a traditional button & screen setup. That's a lot more dev work. Game engines require more work before you can get to actually alpha testing mechanics; that testing now takes far more time because you need to consider things like the player's orientation, playspace, height (and doubtless dozens more little wrinkles in the process). On top of that, you need a beefy rig run it on and, ideally, several different headsets for compatibility's sake.

      These aren't insurmountable by any means, but prohibitive. However, if you pair that with the Greater Depression looming on the horizon... I'm not optimistic. I'm not pleased, either. It would be very cool to live in the timeline where we (maybe eventually) get third-rate Holodecks.

      “Please give us a rehashing of an old experience instead of something totally new”

      I just want my dumb cartoon game to run without 14 years of source jank :angry-hex:

      • eduardog3000 [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        developer cost

        This is something that has always been increasing as technology gets more advanced, even in games. But I understand what you're getting at, it's a big jump.

        I just want my dumb cartoon game

        lol, it's alright. I love a good remake too. I kinda fell out of TF2 but if they remade HL2 or something I'd be all over it.

        • Wheaties [she/her]
          ·
          4 years ago

          In many ways, yeah. I find the sheer man-hours that go into a $60 game just... staggering. But in others, it's become much "cheaper" for developers. The absolute explosion in indy games over the last decade was amazing. A lot of that wouldn't be possible without easy to access tools like Unity.