Warren Spector: VR Is A Fad

Gaming slowly seems to be moving into a VR future, or that is what we have been led to believe, but personally, as someone who just went through the 3D gaming boom of a few years ago, I am not so sure that VR this time will amount to much outside of novelty either. Industry experts have expressed that opinion before, too. And now, Warren Spector, the mastermind of games such as System Shock, Deus Ex, and Thief, has chipped in too. And he, too, does not seem to be much impressed.

“I think it’ll generate some interest among the hardcore gamers. And I see amazing possibilities in VR for social media and virtual meetings and training and crazy stuff like dealing with phobias,” he said to GamesIndustry. “But for entertainment? I’m just not seeing it. I don’t think most humans want to look stupid (everyone looks stupid in a VR headset) and they don’t want to isolate themselves from the world. I mean, if someone’s sneaking up behind me with a baseball bat, I want to know about it, you know what I mean? And let’s not talk about nausea.”

That’s what the general consensus among VR cynics seems to be so far- VR may actually have some great applications outside of video games, but within video games? It probably does not stand much of a chance. That said, Spector’s stance comes as somewhat of a surprise, given how enthusiastic he was about stereoscopic 3D a few years ago.

The VR wave begins in earnest in a few months when Oculus Rift, Valve and HTC’s Vive, and Sony’s Morpheus all go on sale, so we will know for sure then.