Week 11 - Virtual Reality is the Next Big Thing in Video Gaming

Virtual Reality has a lot of potential in the future for gaming
Virtual Reality for people who may not know, is a way to almost be in the video game itself trying to place you into the world of a video game for a great gaming experience. The potential for virtual gaming is massive and could end up being the next best thing, but there is still a lot that should be done for it to really be the next best thing. 

To begin with there are a few issues that should be sorted out first. These issues are dealing with the safety of a person when using the virtual reality headset. They need to try and find a way to eliminate the motion sickness feeling and have some sort of sensor that tells the player if they are getting too close to objects around them whilst playing the game. These issues will help unleash the potential of VR Gaming as this will help eliminate any safety issues that may we stopping from having an immense success. The sensor will be handy otherwise people may get hurt whilst playing and being fully immersed into the world of the video game they are playing and this can lead to all sorts of different accidents to occur in the safety of people’s home. Then the motion sickness issue, may be a problem because if people cannot play the video game to long without getting dizzy or throwing up, then this may be a problem for the future of the technology as it won't grow in popularity if you are only able to play a game for 20 minutes and feel sick. 

Another issue that may prevent this from taking over the gaming industry is Competitive Gaming. This may not be able to be used in competitions since it is too much to have on your head all day long practising for tournaments. In the competitive scene of "League of Legends" the training for most competitors is to "practice for a minimum of 50 hours per week and most play the game far more". Now to be competitive in a gaming scene, you must spend most of your week playing that video game. If there was a competitive gaming scene in VR, this would be extremely painful and properly unsafe as this headset may cause severe problems for the human body. These range from heck issues to do the weight of the headset and possible balance or headache problems from the headset itself. Now the only way I can see Virtual Reality being the next massive thing, is if the headset can be used a lot so a competitive scene for VR games can grow and help flourish the headset. 

Overall, Virtual Reality has a lot of untapped potential to be the next important thing in video gaming history, but they should first help make the headset user friendly and prevent it from causing people pain whilst using it. The other way is to be able to create a competitive scene for games using Virtual Reality and if this can be accomplished, then there is no reason for this technology to not be the next massive thing. 

Reference:

Harrison Jacobs, 2015. "Here's the crazy schedule of young guys who make a huge salary playing video games, viewed 30 April 2017, <https://www.businessinsider.com.au/pro-gamers-explain-the-insane-training-regimen-they-use-to-stay-on-top-2015-5>.