i feel like the physical aspect is something that's actually cumbersome in practice, you need a lot of space, and even then you need to make sure you don't gradually bump into things. It's a bit of a gimmick and I believe it will wear off. I have a hard time imagining the N-state of VR being anything else than people sitting still, or even lying down with just a remote or two in your hands where you don't even use gestures.
The N-state of every leasure activity is as low physical effort as possible.
However I'm not sure what the main activity will be on a really good VR platform. It might just be watching movies or it might be playing games. The thought of some kind of second life type of game/world is also something that feels like a cliche but is also pretty likely to happen. In which case, how do you move? how do you interact? probably voice + some sort of game controller, right?
There might be some practical applications of VR, such as surgery or whatever, but that will never be the mainstream, unless VR fails for consumers (again), and this discussion doesn't become very interesting.
Don't get me wrong, I'm actually pretty optimistic about this generation of VR. I simply don't believe in the whole premise of it becoming a physical activity.
The N-state of every leisure activity is as low physical effort as possible.
As someone whose leisure activities have in the past included Muay Thai and Spanish knife duelling (with blunted knives and fencing armour; I'm not crazy) I would disagree with this assessment. None of those activities naturally tend toward low physical effort in their participants. :)
And personally, I seek out high-physical-intensity not low-physical-intensity VR games, and have done so consistently for a couple of years now. The comments on this post alone show I'm far from alone on that.
Personally, my money's still on VR being a gateway drug to exercise rather than devolving into seated activities. There are two main reasons for that: 1) It only takes one really good Doom-level breakout exercise game to get a lot of people moving, and 2) humans are wired to find exercise fun. Endorphins are wonderful things.
The N-state of every leasure activity is as low physical effort as possible.
However I'm not sure what the main activity will be on a really good VR platform. It might just be watching movies or it might be playing games. The thought of some kind of second life type of game/world is also something that feels like a cliche but is also pretty likely to happen. In which case, how do you move? how do you interact? probably voice + some sort of game controller, right?
There might be some practical applications of VR, such as surgery or whatever, but that will never be the mainstream, unless VR fails for consumers (again), and this discussion doesn't become very interesting.
Don't get me wrong, I'm actually pretty optimistic about this generation of VR. I simply don't believe in the whole premise of it becoming a physical activity.