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Comment by 2pEXgD0fZ5cF | Hacker News Reader

> You don't get it but others find AR/VR compelling

One thing I rarely see mentioned or discussed is the "longevity" of VR interest amongst users. As a (former? I'm not sure yet) VR enthusiast and adopter on the high end of things I noticed that the novelty wore off really quickly, after ~1 year of owning my Index my usage went from somewhat regularly to barely anymore and for most titles with VR support I prefer playing them the regular way and the VR-first titles can't get me to set it up, or were "onetime" experiences (like HL Alyx, which is one of maybe ~3 VR games that really felt enriched and improved by the VR experience, in hindsight).

From friends and colleagues of mine I hear similar things, VR headsets collecting dust already.

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Carmack said basically the same thing in his Connect 2021 keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnSUk0je6oo

"There are no lapsed mobile users, essentially... but there are, right now, a whole lot of people that are lapsed VR users...."

This is actually one of the main points of the article. He doesn't believe gaming is going to be the killer app for the reasons you cite - it actually isn't that compelling, not nearly so much as people would think. But what has changed his mind is that other applications are compelling, in particular the potential for workspaces.

So we have a weird situation atm where huge numbers of people have generically written off VR because it didn't cut it for high end gaming with them, without ever even considering the alternatives. In my mind, these are fitness and professional use.

The fact is that I can go into VR to work today and its intolerable after a short period, but only because of factors I think will be solved within the space of a few years - the resolution is too low, the battery doesn't last long enough, it's too heavy and gets uncomfortable. These will all get solved. Once that happens, VR will be unambigously a better place to work for quite a wide cross section of activities. This is the "skating to where the puck will be" that tech companies need to focus on.

That's been the story of VR since the 90's.

If you view VR as a spectrum between ViewMaster 3-D and a holodeck, we're very much still on the ViewMaster 3-D end of things.

We're really just a couple steps past the Virtual Boy, and that was 25 years ago.

While the Quest 2 headset is subsidized by Facebook it is still a mind blowing device for $299. For that price it is the most revolutionary gaming/vr experience in the last 50 years let alone 25.

I would name Gameboy for that

Not sure if you haven't tried a Quest or haven't tried a virtual boy in 25 years but it's nowhere close.

You're not in a sensory goo tank or anything but for starters you can't even lift up a virtual boy.

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