If You Die in This Game, You Die in Real-Life: The VR Headset That Could Actually Kill You
If You Die in This Game, You Die in Real-Life: The VR Headset That Could Actually Kill You
Shubhendu Vatsa – November 11, 2022
Thanks to
Palmer Luckey, there’s a new way to die – by playing video games. Luckey,
founder of Oculus VR (he has
since left the organisation) and creator of the Oculus Rift has come up with a
brand new piece of VR headset that
can actually kill you if you die in the video game. Yep, this bizarre story
that reads like a budget ’80s horror movie is completely legit.
As per the American entrepreneur,
the inspiration behind this lethal VR device came
from Sword Art Online,
a Japanese light novel series, whose story somewhat revolves around a similar
concept. To kill the user, this new VR headset comes fitted with three embedded
explosive charges, that are positioned above the forehead and can “instantly
destroy the brain of the user.” The fatal explosion is initiated via “a
narrow-band photosensor that can detect when the screen flashes red at a
specific frequency, making game-over integration on the part of the developer
very easy.”
Importantly,
the former Oculus executive confirmed that the new edition was “just a piece of
office art”, however, suggesting that its presence was a “thought-provoking
reminder of unexplored avenues in game design”.
In his blog, Palmer notes
that he was always fascinated with “the idea of tying” one’s real life to their
virtual avatar and has finally achieved his goal with OQPNVG. He says, “the idea of
tying your real life to your virtual avatar has always fascinated me – you
instantly raise the stakes to the maximum level and force people to
fundamentally rethink how they interact with the virtual world and the players
inside it.”
Luckey went on to add, “Pumped up
graphics might make a game look more real, but only the threat of serious
consequences can make a game feel real to you and every other person in the
game.” While this certainly is an interesting concept, the risks involved are
far too high and one wrong move can end up costing one’s life. Video games have
always been geared toward engagement/fun and while raising the stakes might enhance
performance to some extent, no one would want to die in real life at the hands
of some bots or even worst an in-game player whom you know nothing about.
But dying by video games isn’t
possible just yet as the OQPNVG VR headset is far
from done and there are some kinks that still need to be ironed out. Even the
creator of this lethal VR headset can’t muster up the courage to put the
headset on due to a “huge variety of failures that could occur and kill the
user at the wrong time”. Luckey also revealed that his design is the “first
non-fiction example of a VR device that can actually kill the user” as far as
he’s concerned. But as we all know, this surely won’t be the last user-killing
VR headset to be developed. Hope we are proved wrong though.
Comments
Post a Comment