Reflection: The Second Post

This is my second reflection post and this blog’s final post. Now this project is coming to an end I would like to recap the concepts and share my hope of the future of the virtual reality technology. This blog has seen posts on virtual world and virtual reality – mostly virtual reality. I have shared my concern about the virtual reality technology, good things about gaming, some image posts, potential medical uses for virtual reality technology, and influence companies have on the future of technology and our lives.

My hopes for this technology is that along with being an awesome gaming/entertainment platform I hope the potential of this technology is realized. I think that when the price tag of the technology comes down that academic institutions and medical facilities will purchase this technology to bring the next revolution in learning and medicine. The academic uses of the technology, from what I can foresee, are socializing children to new and potentially dangerous situations as well as sensitizing people to others cultures through exploratory experiences. This could also bring new potential to the rise in massive open online courses( MOOCs) such as Coursera and edX. The medical uses now include curing phobias but could be expanded upon when the technology mature more.

Facebook: The Future of Virtual Reality?

Now, I’m not a user of Facebook but it doesn’t take a fan of this widely popular platform to say that it is persistent in todays society. This persistence in our society gives Facebook a lot of weight- and capitol – to throw around to support the next big thing and with the announcement of Oculus being bought out by Facebook I think we can all start to believe that this virtual reality thing is here to stay. Facebook believes so much in this technology that they decided to buy Oculus for a lot of money (more then I’ll make in my lifetime!). What Facebook and Oculus have in mind for the future is still unknown but whatever they plan I’m sure it will be the next big thing for social networking and how we connect with the rest of the world. The Oculus blog post doesn’t give much insight into their plans, only saying their partnership will change the way we “learn, share, play, and communicate”.

Reflection: The First Post

Now that this project is over I would like to make a post – make that two! – which reflects all the topics covered in this blog. I started this blog with not much knowledge of the topic of virtual reality and society. How will this technology affect our society? Will it help or hurt our society? Will this technology continue to consume our lives? These questions have been explored within this blog.

From virtual worlds like World of Warcraft to the virtual reality created by headsets like the Oculus Rift I don’t think this technology is going anywhere. Also, all the major players such as Facebook and Valve to Google and Apple are invest big money to make sure that this technology comes to the consumer. I personally am looking for to see the future of this technology and can’t wait to see how far it is pushed.

Curing Phobias with Oculus Rift

In this article about the alternative medical use of the Oculus Rift, the author brings the reader current to the situation of the Oculus Rift’s uses in the medical field. As stated, the Rift is primarily marketed as a entertainment device but with the help of medical practitioners and content developers this device can become the next big tool to hit the medical field as well. The author introduces Dr. Albert Rizzo, who developed software back in 2005 to help treat soldiers with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Rizzo was a pioneer when he created his software to treat PTSD and with the Rift it will be time for more pioneers to treat other phobias. Rizzo realizes, however, that this technology can be used to treat other disorders and phobias. Among the phobias that can be treated with this technology are acrophobia, arachnophobia, glossophobia, pteromerhanophobia , and some addiction disorders. As you can probably see the list of phobias that could potentially be treated is long.

I propose this technology could also be used to sensitize people to cultures that are not their own and even to socialize them to a broader range of situations. If schools and other academic institutions could own one of these devices it could mean a generation who is more empathetic to other races, genders, and classes. Whatever comes out of virtual reality technology, I believe it will change the world as we know it.

Virtual Worlds

This image by Wikipedia user DexEuromat shows the virtual world in Second Life with many players on the screen. Games that allow the player to interact with other players through a massive online world are know as massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs). I believe these types of games are one of the few that are left that allow the player to interact with other players on a social level. They allow the players to voice chat or instant message to complete missions, exchange virtual products, or talk about other things.

This image is by Deviantart user YuhsukeChiohara

The possibilities for these types of games when it comes to virtual reality is that they will allow players a near face-to-face experience within a virtual world. Think of Facebook but in a MMORPG-type world! Do you think this would make true face-to-face communications obsolete? I personally think this type of interaction will become very common.

Video Games as a Social Experience

This image by Wikipedia user Raysonho shows many PC gamers who have gathered to link their computers together through a network and play games together – this is known as a LAN party. Many video games, even today, have maintained a social aspect to them by having an online gameplay option. Earlier game consoles, such as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), had a multiplayer options which allowed two or more players to play a game in the same room as each other – without a network connection and multiple systems. Many modern video games, however, do not have a multiplayer option to play with a friend in the same room. Instead, they have an online option which requires players to have multiple systems and a network connection to play another player that – most of the time – is not in the same room. In my previous post I hint my concern for the future video game generation, virtual reality, when the social aspect of video games will further be depleted.

The Oculus Rift Development Kit

This image by Sebastian Stabinger depicts the first Oculus Rift development kit. You can see from this image that this model requires what is called a control box (the box with the HDMI, DVI, and power ports). This box is what powers the headset and allows the headset to connect to a computer – needed to display media onto the screens. The newer second development kit gets rid of the control box and instead has one cable – which is detachable – that connects directly to the the headset to make a HDMI and USB connector at the end.

 

This image by Sergey Galyonkin shows a user interacting with the first development kit. It is obvious from this image that virtual reality technology will not allow users to be very social will using these devices. I would venture to say that having a lot of people in the same room while using one of these devices would be dangerous for reasons that should be obvious (the user cannot see anyone that is in the room).

Virtual Social Gaming

The rise of online gaming over the past decade has brought us games like World of Warcraft which are know as MMORPGs (massive multiplayer online role playing game). These types of video games can enable players to engage in social interactions that would otherwise be impossible, they allow players from all over the world to communicate and unite with a common goal. An article by Techcrates pointed out some of these good traits that online gaming have. We’ve all heard the negative effects of online gaming but it’s not that often you hear the positive effects or positive aspects of online gaming. The author hints to the fact that games such as World of Warcraft are designed in a way which forces players to interact with other players to complete missions. This unity that online gaming can create can help to teach or reinforce group interactions on the players. The author also writes about the leadership opportunity that online games present to the gamers. Online games in which a leader can emerge to move the group forward in their goal can help develop these leadership qualities in players that decide to seize the opportunity.

The Potential Danger of Virtual Reality

In a recent Variety story by David S. Cohen about the unseen potential of virtual reality, the author gets us excited about some things we can look forward to doing with this technology that are right around the corner. If you haven’t heard about this technology yet, like Cohen said it isn’t a new technology. In fact, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy back in 1995 that was suppose to bring virtual reality to the masses but failed. Now the newest consumer virtual headset on the market is the Oculus Rift which has shown great potential. So much potential that Facebook recently bought the company for $2 billion.

I am a gamer and I love the idea of virtual reality and I am excited about its potential and the Oculus Rift. I must say, though, I have some concerns about this technology and its impact on our social would. As many parents know, for years the mainstream media and psychological studies have focused on violent video games and aggression in adolescents. My concern, then, is that the popularization of virtual reality in the consumer market would enhance the aggressive behaviours of adolescents when playing violent video games. As this technology matures and gives the user a more real experience would it become more difficult for a child to differentiate between the video game and reality?

Test Post

Hi,

My name is Andrew Bryant and this is my blog for SOC111 I’m taking Summer 2014 with Dr. Yeager. This blog will be about the sociological aspects of gaming. I’ll be back real soon with my first blog post! Stay tuned!