Plug me in: I want lightsabers! And something more…
I don’t normally acquire. It prigs my financial and counter-consumerist conscience too much.
But I’m no monk. I make exceptions from time to time. Especially when there’s the chance to play with lightsabers in virutal reality.
So I just dropped $500 on an Oculus Quest VR headset.
My hopes are high for joyful play, and something more impactful.
The Joy of Lightsabers, Robots and Bullet Time
I’m lucky enough to have already had some gaming experiences in VR.
Every time I’ve put on the headset I’ve felt something that has been seriously lacking in a life of lockdowns, protests and climate catastrophe: joy.
Standout moments are smashing blocks with lightsabers in time to music, ripping robots apart with my bare hands and dodging slo-mo bullets, Matrix style.
There’s a certain therapeutic flow to Beatsaber, and other highly immersive VR gaming experiences.
Try being anxious about the state of the world when the only way to keep lava blocks out of your face is with a lightsaber.
That’s not to say that virtual reality is a way to close my eyes to actual reality. Quite the opposite.
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VR Experiences Can Have Powerful Real Life Effects
Virtual Reality might be a new(ish) field. But there’s already some pretty cool science on how experience in virtual reality transfers into real life situations.
I wrote recently about virtual reality startup Equal Reality, who are using the amazing empathic experiences of VR to reduce prejudice and bias in some of the world’s largest organisations.
They’re just one example of how experiences in virtual reality can offer transfer of learning into real life.
NASA knows this. They’re already training astronauts with virtual reality.
But I work from home. My biggest workplace bias is towards working in my underwear instead of clothes.
And while I’m surprised to find I’m not too old to give NASA’s astronaut training a shot (average candidate age: 34), I honestly don’t know what more I can contribute to the exploration of space than this man:
In truth, my talents lie elsewhere. I’m a writer and marketer for sustainability startups. Or to put it another way, I tell stories to make the world a greener place.
I see VR as the next great storytelling opportunity.
VR Has Huge Potential for Storycraft and Creating Positive Change
When I think back on the games I played during my youth, like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the Halo games, I remember being blown away by the fact that these games had decent stories.
The level of storytelling in games has since been elevated to that of high art. We take compelling stories in games for granted now.
I’m fascinated to see what will happen when we cross the powerful storytelling of gaming with the transfer of learning and empathy that we see with VR.
Storytelling in VR will be more than just a game changer. It has the potential to change the real world too.
I’m already imagining a thousand VR scenarios, games and experiences that could awaken environmental consciousness and positively alter behaviours in real life.
I’m encouraged by what Equal Reality is doing for diversity and inclusion. I’m sure VR will have a role in awakening empathy for the environment as much as it is awakening empathy for other people.
The scale of the potential impact was another big reason I just sunk $500 into a headset.
VR Will Massively Amplify the Impact of Storytelling
It’s early days yet in terms of influence.
Estimates put the number of VR users at 171 million. To put that in perspective:
- Facebook has 2.1 billion (with a ‘b’) monthly active users
- Google serves 29.8 billion (still with a ‘b’) ads a day
But the number of VR users is expected to double annually. In the coming years, more and more people will be able to access VR experiences.
When they live out compelling stories in virtual reality, they’ll be emotionally engaging with narratives in a way that hasn’t been possible with other storytelling artforms.
Mix in the transfer of empathy and learning from the virtual world to the real world, and suddenly there’s a whole lot more than just joyful gaming experiences on the table.
Telling absorbing stories to a virtual reality audience of millions has the potential to help bring about a much needed shift towards sustainability and environmental consciousness.
Plug Me In: I Want Lightsabers! And Something More…
I see that $500 as a paltry downpayment on joy and the next evolution of storytelling.
Yes, I’ll be getting virtual reality experiences with Darth Vader, swarms of zombies and, to avoid exhausting my adrenal glands, 3D painting.
More than that though, I’ll be buying a ticket to get in the game of telling a new form of story. Virtual reality has incredible potential impact on the way we empathise in the real world.
There’s one big if in the way though:
I’ll need to find the self-discipline to put my lightsabers aside and actually do some story craft.
