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Why Your Gaming Kid Won’t Be Able to Stop Talking About VR

Published on: November 03, 2016

'Wayward Sky'

The world’s gone neon. You look up: a mint green sky. You look left: piles of orange boxes. Dead ahead: a giant red robot. This is Wayward Sky, one of the many newly released games that are taking full advantage of a little something called virtual reality (VR). Expect your kids to fall in love.

Virtual reality isn’t exactly new, but it’s become a lot more mainstream since 2014, when Facebook bought VR gaming startup Oculus for a cool $2 billion. In the years since, Facebook has been doing cool things with Oculus (and committing ever increasing sums of money to the venture).

Most recently, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg strapped on a headset at the annual Oculus Connect conference to give a live demo of Facebook, the VR version. (Imagine instant messaging with talking, full-body avatars of your Facebook friends, complete with facial expressions.)

Should you be concerned about just how immersive VR is? Yes, perhaps, but let’s, for a moment, put our (very valid) concerns about screen time on hold and consider the possibilities. Thanks to VR, you can “see” and “feel” in a totally new way while plugged in. It is an immersive experience that is equal parts terrifying and breathtaking, with the potential to change everything. We might as well face reality. 

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