At the beginning of the month I set myself a simple goal. Play PSVR for at least a little bit every day and blog about it. I got off to a good start and I not only found myself able to carve out the time to play the games but I was enjoying PSVR a lot more than I thought I would. I loved Moss, had a blast with a hotel smashing game, and even enjoyed a simple puzzle game partially because it was in VR.

Then, about a week in, I stopped playing VR games and I haven't touched the headset since.

So what happened? Did my PSVR break under the strain of actually being played for the first time in years? Did I just get lazy and quit? Did I develop some kind of allergy to the rubber used in the device?

No. What happened was that my step father had surgery. This had been planned for a long time, and I was actually looking forward to it because he'd been in pain for months and the doctor was hopeful that the procedure would help him. What I was not expecting were the complications. He seems to be fine now and is recovering and mostly pain free, but for about a week after the surgery he was in and out of the emergency room while they figured out what had happened and developed a treatment plan. Because of this I had to be available at all times of day and night, in case I needed to rush to the hospital or even just provide logistical or emotional support. I could not use a VR headset because it could cause me to miss an important phone call or text message. Given the choice between a dumb blogging experiment and helping my family there was, of course, no choice.

Then, after the complications had been dealt with and he was feeling better, I developed some headaches, probably from the stress of everything that had been going on. Periods of stress have often been migraine triggers for me after the stress has passed, so this wasn't surprising, but the last thing I wanted to do during one of these headaches was strap some goggles and headphones on and blast myself with light and sound. I can usually play low key games even during a migraine (JRPGs work pretty well, as do games like Loop Hero or deck builders) but only if I take frequent breaks and close my eyes when I need to. Modern consoles have been a godsend for this because of how easy it is to suspend games, even during the middle of a cut scene or whatever. While you can do this with a VR game, the intensity of the experience and the fact that you need to actually put something on your face and take it off to take a break means that I can't really use it when I'm not feeling well.

All this doesn't mean that VR is bad or doesn't have its place, but it does mean that place is limited. I'm a single guy and I can usually carve out time to play games in the morning or evening if I want to, but VR is so demanding that it wasn't possible even for me. If I had kids or other things that were likely to demand my time without warning (like my stepfather when he was experiencing surgery complications) it would make VR even more impractical. In addition, the fact that it's hard to do when you're not feeling 100% means that it can't easily fit into your life as a way to wind down before bed or just deal with an illness.

Part of the popularity of the Switch is that it fits easily into people's lives. You can play it on a commute (when those are a thing again) or while someone else is using the TV, or in bed before going to sleep. VR goes the other direction. Even as headsets get better and more convenient the fact that it demands your full attention and it bombards you with light and sound, and build in alerts and interruptions for when you get phone calls (as some headsets already have) it will always be more demanding than conventional gaming. It's fine and even good as a supplement. I'm not done with VR, and I will definitely get back to it and blogging about it soon, but it's always going to be a supplemental thing for more hardcore enthusiasts. There's a reason that many of the games being given away by Sony during the current promotion are VR games, and that's not because VR games are super popular.

VR is not a fad and it is here to stay, but I think it will be more like motion controls than we expect. They're a part of a lot of games (and I think many games will offer VR support and flat screen options) and there are some games that really use them well, but they're kind of a niche thing at this point. VR will be a bigger niche than that because it has more to offer (and incorporates motion controls very well) but it will never be the dominant way to play games.

As someone who’s had VR since 2016, but only got really into it after getting a Rift S, ease of use makes a difference more than it ever has before for me. In the ranking of VR headsets that stay out of your way, PSVR is right around the bottom, ahead of only the first Rift. Even I have trouble imagining it’ll ever be the primary way to play games, but in 2021, judging the medium by the PSVR is like judging modern motion controls by using the Wii. It’s not a very relevant appraisal.

@clintlandon: It's not about the physical headset. That's not the real issue here. All of the things that stopped me from using PSVR would still apply to Rift. The big issues are shutting yourself off from the world (and yes you can send phone alerts to the headset, but if you have kids or pets under feet or people in the same house that want to get your attention that doesn't fix that issue) and, for me personally, the intense bombardment of stimulus from having a camera right in your face and more or less having to wear headphones.

You can make a lighter headset that's easier to put on and off, but you're not going to deal with those issues because immersion and intense stimuli are fundamental to the experience.

And while the Wii motion controls have obviously been surpassed, the issues with the Wii motion controls are still present and are why motion controls never became dominant, and are in fact less prevalent than they were during the Wii era.

People don't want to stand up and physically move when they're playing games after work or whatever. You still need space that's not available in a lot of living rooms, and there continue to be calibration issues even with modern versions.

They've been incorporated into lots of games with things like shaking the controller in Last of Us Part II or gyro aiming, but there are very few games that make extensive use of them outside of VR, which compounds all these issues.

In both cases it doesn't matter what version of the tech you use because the fundamental issues don't get addressed and are in some ways not addressable.

I’ve only been anti VR because I don’t like the fact they shoehorned move controller tech into VR like a cheap science fair project. I won’t afford the pc and headset hardware for vive or occulus gaming. I’m pretty sure I don’t have the space for it and might break something in my house. I’m still very physically active in competitive sports and I’m not trying to rewire my brain in a virtual environment that is no longer responsive in the real world in a familiar way. Resident Evil 7 and Rigz is kind of all I want from VR with an ability to inspect more closely an area.

Does anybody trust that the games Sony is giving away today will be compatible with VR2? I don’t and I’m sure it will be a post in a couple months where the assumptions that they would work is lost despite the fact the controller announcement and the free games are within a week of each other.

I'm a huge VR nerd, and I agree: It's NOT the future of gaming and I wish articles and ads would stop touting it as such because it turns people off from trying it. It's a *branch* of gaming, not any sort of replacement. I own a PSVR, a Quest 2, and fully intend to get a PSVR 2 depending on how its reveal goes, but the majority of my gaming is still "flat".

VR is evolving like graphics did in the 90s, with seemingly constant big improvements and upgrades, but like you said: People usually want to come home and chill, not run around working up a sweat. Even low-impact sit-down VR games require some level of physicality.

Again, I love VR, it's endlessly cool, but it's a niche product being sold as The Next Big Thing, and at least as it exists now, it's never going to overtake traditional gaming (nor should it).

@shagge: I fully agree that VR can be awesome and has a place going forward. AS I said in the beginning of this blog, I was really enjoying PSVR when I was playing it, and I know the hardware and games have gotten way better since then. If it weren't for my hatred of Facebook and the current economic/chip situation I might consider buying a PC VR rig myself.

I think that a lot of VR users act as evangelists and really feel compelled to push the concept, and it backfires. Insisting that VR is the way forward just doesn't do any good for anyone. I think that there's a bit of a bottleneck in that VR is expensive to develop both hardware and software for, but there's a limited market for it, and nobody wants to admit that, but denying it doesn't do anyone any good.

As it is I think VR seems like it was a fad, since there's just not much coverage of it anymore, but I don't think it actually was. It's awesome! But it's something you have to carve out time and space for, and that's naturally going to limit it.

@bigsocrates: All of that is very fair.

@bigsocrates: Totally agreed. I get the urge for hyperbole that a lot of the VR community indulges in, it's hard to explain what's so amazing about it to people who've never tried it (and god knows video footage makes it look horrible), but it really doesn't do any good for VR as a whole. Add onto it the increasingly absurd and expensive immersion peripherals, and I can totally see why so many are put off by the whole thing.

(side thought: Can we as a people agree that all VR headsets should offer halo straps similar to PSVR's? I can play PSVR all day long without issue, but I have to have very short sessions on Quest 2 due to the strap. If the weight of the set is at all resting on my face, the discomfort becomes immense very quickly)

Hey buddy.. good write up, and first and foremost im glad to hear that your step dad is doing better. I wish him a quick recovery if he hasnt recovered yet.

As for VR, i think the hurdle you list is something it can never overcome for a mainstream inclusion. Most people cant shut out the world for large chunks of time. The pieces will eventually get cheaper, easier to use, and more comfortable, but your time investment will always be the issue.

I still think that one day i want to get one just to experience everything that it entails, but realistically i know im years and years away from a place in my life where i can be dead to the world often enough to justify the purchase.

Hell in writing this response on my phone i had to put it down twice to do other things. I look forward to when you can strap back in and i'll live vicariously through your blogs.

@imunbeatable80: Thanks, man. My step father appears to be doing well, so things are much better now. It was never life threatening or anything, but it was a pretty bad week.

I'm sure you'll pick one up at some point, and it's a pretty cool experience. I definitely recommend it. Not life changing, but interesting.

My personal life hack for carving out VR time? Insomnia! I tend to wake up really early and have a lot of trouble going back to sleep no matter what I do. If you wake up at 4:30, try to sleep for half an hour and fail miserably, and plan to have breakfast and a quick workout at 6, that leaves a free hour from 5-6 to spend on VR, baby! Many fewer phone calls and texts at that time in the morning!