Author: Lenny Martinez

My first virtual reality experience was trying out Karim Ben Khelifa’s “The Enemy” (http://theenemyishere.org/) in September 2016.  “The Enemy”  brings humanity to the idea of “the other” by placing soldiers from select conflicts and hearing their answers to the same set of conflict-specific questions. For the experience, I put on a headset and carried a backpack that had the laptop that made sure I was connected to the experience. It was heavy, but it was the way the team was able to get multiple people to experience the space at the same time. Because the layout of the experience was repeated through each conflict, we could interact with the soldiers at our own pace and not worry about going too fast or too slow. The experience lasted about half an hour then (there were some bugs), and I was speechless. It was powerful to learn that the soldiers in each conflict worried about the same things.

Jumping forward to this summer and this past week of testing things, I had a lot of different expectations and realizations. I initially got to try the HTC Vive this summer using Google Earth VR, Space Pirate Trainer, and Realities (all on the STEAM VR). What made these experiences successful was the fact that you could interact with the world in them. In Google Earth VR you could explore the world and even get to walk down the streets at human scale of whatever city. The downside of this experience was that I felt nauseous after being on the street for more than a couple of minutes. I think a large part of it is due to the discrepancy between being at human scale and expecting the cars and trees to be modeled properly and seeing monstrous blobs. The interactivity of Realities is similar in that you can walk around select spots and interact with objects (tapes or pamphlets) that give you more information about the place that you’re in. Compared to Google Earth though, Realities only has select spots on the map, and while this could be a detriment, each spot that is covered is well done and also leaves room for really interesting experiences at each location.

The third really interesting VR experience I tried was “Space Pirate Trainer.” “Space Pirate Trainer” is a game where you’re defending your ship from small robots that are attacking you in waves. You have a set of 6 weapon settings, that range from a charged sniper shot-type, to a shotgun-type, to a grenade launching-type, as well as a shield that also can be used as a lasso to hook, and swing enemies around. And the best part is that you have two of these weapons, resulting in 64 different combinations, all of which are fun, and some more successful than others. The Verge has an article that goes more into why it was a cool experience (https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/10/11186824/space-pirates-htc-vive-virtual-reality-preview), but my take is that having the option to choose how you interact with the enemies makes it fun. When you’re wearing headphones (something I don’t always do in VR games because I’d rather play games while listening to my own music) you can also hear the robots as they move and as your weapon fires, giving you a real sense of physical presence.

On the side of gaming and storytelling there is also “Vanishing Realms.” While playing “Vanishing Realms”, you travel through several environments, fighting monsters, solving puzzles and discovering treasure along the way. The graphics aren’t the most realistic — in fact there’s a slight cartoonish feel to the world, a pleasant mix between Runescape and Maplestory.  3D sound plays a big part in the game, alerting you to unseen monsters and projectiles. The wired part of the Vive does make it uncomfortable at points when you’re about to trip over the cords because you’re moving around excitedly in the game and tangling your feet in the process. I did not feel nausea trying this out for several hours and I was happy with that. Since it’s an RPG, the interactivity comes in how you choose to play — whether you try to reach every nook and cranny in the world and collect as much gold as possible, or try to simply do the bare minimum to pass on to the next stage. While playing a game, there was also this weird sensation when you dodge or move because you expect to see your own body move, but all you see is a sword

From these experiences, I’ve come to understand the power of VR lies not in the ability to create immersive worlds, but in how you can interact with them. A good example of an interesting, but failing VR experience for me was “Buzz Aldrin: Cycling Pathways to Mars.” In the experience, Buzz explains his plan for getting people to Mars by holographically explaining it to you (his face will follow you as you move in the VR space) and showing it in 3D with a holographic build and unbuild effect. I think this fails because you can’t stop and interact with any of his explanations. It feels like a fancy lecture that only shows the demos working in their best case scenario. If one were to take Buzz’s explanations and add room in between each one to play with whatever demo is being displayed it would make his proposal easier to understand as well as more relatable. In terms of storytelling with VR, interactivity with the environment is the key to effective storytelling.