I don’t really play video games.
I don’t mean that in a condescending way. I just don’t. But because I don’t live under a rock, I’ve become aware of a massive leap forward in gaming technology: virtual reality (or VR). It’s a hard thing to miss.
Now, I’m a bandwagon fan. But, not being much of a gamer, I needed desperately to find a way to get on the hype train for this crazy new doodad. If virtual reality is going to be the biggest thing since sliced bread, I want to be able to tell my kids that I was there in the thick of it.
So, I’ve brainstormed a few alternate uses for the new VR technology.
First of all, the Oculus Rift looks like a plastic box that you strap around your head. I suppose this is to block your vision of the real world. But my aha moment came when I realized that this also means that no one can see your eyes. Gone will be the awkward eye contact made on the train. Gone will be the need for small talk. It’ll be a small, albeit expensive, comfort to us all.
Then there’s the fact that if you tilt your head a bit to the side, you can see how this headgear could look like done-up sunglasses. So this sort of thing is definitely going to become the newest fashion trend. Wearing it before the runway gets ahold of it will actually conceal the fact that I’m just leaping onto the bandwagon; instead, it’ll seem like I’m the one that started the fashion trend in the first place. I could totally see my name up there with Louis Vuitton and Dior.
Then there’s always the advantage that wearing it will make you look like some cool, futuristic being straight out of sci-fi. I don’t know about you, but if I have any excuse to run around, fake-shooting things while making Star Wars laser noises, then I’ll take it. And hey, if the VR headgear helps me look the part, then I’m all for it.
If anything’s clear, VR is the sort of innovation that anyone can get excited about — everyone from aspiring fashion designers, to hardcore gamers, to raging introverts. Maybe this is a case where the hype train did something right; clearly, VR is the multipurpose, multifunctional tool we’re told it is. I don’t think it would be too far of a stretch to say it’s one of the greatest inventions of the modern era; after all, what other piece of technology can protect you from the judgmental, dreaded stares on the subway?