Legend has it, they could also cause gas pumps to explode, but much experimentation was unable to verify this.

I guess that depends on whether people will use them for Facebook and Twitter.

Or perhaps the glorious return of Second Life?

As far as I know the only mobile/cell phone incident that caused a petrol pump fire happened due the phone being dropped (guessing they where trying to turn it off). You're much more likely to cause a fire from static discharge.

...so is the apocalypse coming, or what? Come on, I need to know when to start the popcorn!

I know. We keep getting promised the end of days, but it keeps getting rescheduled.

It would be a poor apocalypse if it didn't get hot enough for the popcorn to make itself. Unless it happens by the norse rules, but Fimbulwinbter on the other hand is going to be so cold even you microwave will freeze. Anyway, it's out of your hands. Just sit back and enjoy.

Thanks for the clip! The cyborg-gone-wild theme reminds me of <span class="bold">964 vPINOCCHIO (1991) </span> and The Man with the Screaming Brain (great flick)

Okay, I admit that 'reality' is too strong a word. Of course, VR doesn't truly deliver that. If I tried VR with that expectation, I would get disappointed. But our vocabulary lacks any better word for it, since we never needed to define various degrees of the sense of 'real'.

As you said, people do get motion sickness from screen-based experiences. But to me, this doesn't detract much from its significance. It just means that screen-based experience also are able to make the viewers body image buy into the illusion. Normally, the only way to get motion sickness is when our body is in motion. Isn't it the least bit interesting that visuals can have the same effect?

That said, the games in Oculus Home has a 'comfort rating', telling how likely the game is to make you sick. You can sort your game collection after this. When it comes to making the end users puke, VR is the winner!! :-D

The reason I cling to that motion sickness example is that there are very few concrete examples of what VR actually feels like. I could claim that it really really REALLY feels like some sort of reality, but that doesn't really work in a discussion. I have to try and point at something less touchy-feely. You are in the world instead of watching it throught a screen, and the hardest evidence of that is that it very often makes you wanna hurl!

Just saw that Everspace has (upcomming?) VR support (Using SteamVR?).

Sorta wished I didn't have to google the games name and be redirected to steam to guess if it has VR support or not. It would be nice of GOG would take VR a bit more seriously, instead of willingly leave the entire scene to Steam. I just want them to mention when a game support VR, and if it does, also tell what kinda headset it supports.

I just discovered this horror story:

http://www.oculuscv1.co

This guy, like me, had bought a Oculus Rift CV1. Only, its sensors were broken. After a lot of back and forth and throughout testing from his part, Oculus finally agreed to send him a replacement.

Alas, he was stupid enough to mention that he had toyed with the already broken sensor to see if he could spot the errors ... so Oculus quickly jumped at this and said that it void the varrancy - "damage caused by misuse, accident" dontcha know - so they couldn't give OR sell him any new sensors.

Of course, as a competent geek, they guy should be aware that you never should admit to anything that give the tech support the chance to use the dredded "void of varrancy". But other that the tech support having a slight fascist leaning, there is another angle here.

HMD gaming is very physical, and you move about while you are practically blindfolded and with a cable tying your head to your PC. It is very easy to damage the equipment. For instance, when I played Sightline - The Chair, I became fascinated by the beautiful grass swaying ever so gracefully in the wind. So I leaned down towards the ground to get a closer look - and smacked my Oculus right into the desk!

Now, nothing happened - but if the sensors or any other part had been damaged - then I wouldn't be able to get it replaced, since 'accidents' voids the warrancy. So any damage to the Oculus will be fatal to it.

I don't give a fuck about VR, as always. It's the same old, useless shit of the last decades. It's NOT new and it's not revolutionary in any way, gaming and computing wise.

But have you tried it? In my experience, the people who don't believe in VR is often the ones who hasn't experienced it. Not all of them, of course - some people just don't "connect" with the VR world.

Saying VR isn't revolutionary is lazy criticism, which doesn't really sting because it has nothing to it. Why not focus on VR's actual faults? There is a lot to criticize about VR - it's expensive, console-like, DRM friendly and the games are often pretty primitive from a gameplay mechanic perspective. Why not focus on that instead?

Before that: It is the same with Internet - ITS FOR PORN AND EVIL! We have the technology, and there is a market, so of course it get produced. But we have no idea where it will take us.

Before that: It is the same with Computer Games - SO MUCH VIOLENCE! We have the technology, and there is a market, so of course it get produced. But we have no idea where it will take us.

Before that: It is the same with Videotapes - IT WILL KILL CINEMA! We have the technology, and there is a market, so of course it get produced. But we have no idea where it will take us.

Before that: It is the same with TV - IT WILL DUMB PEOPLE DOWN AND IT WILL KILL THEATER! We have the technology, and there is a market, so of course it get produced. But we have no idea where it will take us.

Before that: It is the same with Radio - PEOPLE CAN LISTEN ENEMY PROPAGANDA AND IT WILL KILL MUSICIANS! We have the technology, and there is a market, so of course it get produced. But we have no idea where it will take us.

Before that: It is the same with Telephone - PEOPLE WILL STOP METTEING EACH OTHER IN REAL LIFE, EVERYONE WILL BE SITTING AT HOME AND TALKING BY TELEPHONE! We have the technology, and there is a market, so of course it get produced. But we have no idea where it will take us.

Before that: It is the same with Books - THEY WILL STOP PEOPLE FROM DISCUSSING WITH EACH OTHER! We have the technology, and there is a market, so of course it get produced. But we have no idea where it will take us.

Before that: It is the same with Theater - DEVIL'S WORK TO MOCK GOD'S CREATION! We have the technology, and there is a market, so of course it get produced. But we have no idea where it will take us.

:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzHTJ6GIS2Y

To be fair, the latter is somewhat what happened. Not as many people go to the theater as in the pre-TV era, and going there isn't considered anywhere near as formal of an occasion as it used to be.
The question is whether this is actually a bad thing. It's just like how radio "died out" so to speak. It didn't really go anywhere, it's just that TV started doing the same thing as radio did - brought people together through listening to the same programs, giving news, etc. - just with pictures now.
Basically, nothing's really changed, we've just found different ways of doing the same thing.