"We're very close to having the first death in VR"
Cloudhead Games' Denny Unger warns devs of the responsibility that comes with VR's immersive power
The emergence of virtual reality is one of the most exciting trends in contemporary game development. The unparalleled sense of immersion it affords points toward a whole new era of interactive entertainment, but that potential carries significant responsibilities.
In a Q&A session following a VR panel at Unite 2014 in Seattle, a member of the audience followed up the discussion around the incredible power of persuasion that VR developers can now harness with a provocative question: What are the "VR evils" that pioneering developers should avoid?
At first, the panel's responses were measured, but Denny Unger, creative director at Cloudhead Games, met the query head on. Unger reminded the audience that VR demands a greater consideration for the well-being of the player.
"I have some pretty strong views on this," he said. "The low hanging fruit of VR, to me, is horror games that purposely do jump scares. We're very close to having the first death in VR - I firmly believe that.
"When the commercial version comes out, somebody is going to scare somebody to death - somebody with a heart condition or something like that. It is going to happen. Absolutely."
While this may seem sensationalist at first glance, Unger was entirely sincere in his intent. If the supreme evocative power of VR is now beyond doubt, it follows that it poses certain risks to users with fragile mental or physical conditions.
"I hope that all developers are taking that seriously," Unger continued. "If you haven't had the dev kit in your hands, you need to get it in your hands to understand the weight of that consequence. You really could kill somebody. You really could. We all have to be mindful of that."
That said, I'm not sure if it's the devs' responsibility to intentionally degrade the experience for everyone else just because one guy with a weak heart might decide to play the game. You might be better off making the point that cheap scares are an immature approach (VR games with this fidelity and tracking are effectively a new field, so this is to be expected) and they're going to get old real fast. Very few people remember Doom 3's approach fondly.
Oh, and Ron.... you KNOW cheap scares will be the first trick out of the box to get overused. Why create immersion this deep if you're NOT going to go for the easy immersion a good jump scare provides? I bet a warning message will need to go on ANY VR experience anyway NOT to wear the damn goggles for longer than a set period of time, as that particular user-created problem can lead to death or serious injury when a too-long play session has someone stumble over something in their own home and crack their head open.
That, or someone will choke to death because they're trying to do a "watch me Rift 'til I puke" video and they're a wee bit too tipsy. I blame stupid people more than the tech for all of these future gene pool clearing incidents, by the way...
Maybe this will be what finally offs PewDiePie.
...y'know, if someone hasn't already assassinated him by then.
At the very least, it may cause him so scream so shrilly that he bursts his own eardrums.
(Apologies for a thoroughly unprofessional comment, but man, that guy annoys me to my core, especially when almost every games-related youtube search brings up a reference to him)
I'm not sure if there are any real solutions besides for cutting the allowed playing time by atleast half but I know that releasing VR over there might actually magnify the problem exponentially. But that will all come down to how compelling the software/experiences are too.
Part of me thinks it's great - I'm a big fan of horror games, and you can get a little desensitized at times (I yawned while playing the end of P.T.). But the Rift makes this genre come to life. Even games that would barely manage a jump scare on a standard monitor are horrifying, 200 BPM heart bursters on the Rift. That jump scare takes on a whole new meaning when it's two inches away from your face vice your screen.
Fun fact - at E3 I saw people demoing Alien Isolation on the Rift. Largely, people would spend a few minutes in the game, see the first sign of the alien, then quickly say "NOPE!" and take the Rift off. When you consider how long people wait in those lines, that's a pretty powerful indicator of just how scary horror on the Rift can be.
maybe it's best if people get used to the medium with other genres first. before they try a horror experience...
If anyone's interested, I gave a talk on this very subject at GDC Europe a couple of weeks ago - link http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-08-12-sony-five-guidelines-for-effective-vr-design
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Jed Ashforth on 26th August 2014 1:12pm