Original Deus Ex Director Calls VR “a Fad”

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While virtual reality is easily the hot new trend in gaming, many people, including developers, are still unconvinced. Warren Spector, the director on the original Deus Ex, is one of those developers.

When speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, he pulled no punches in his thoughts behind the current VR offerings from various companies:

“I’ve been pretty consistent in my belief that VR is a fad,” said Warren Spector. “I think it’ll generate some interest among the hardcore gamers. And I see amazing possibilities in VR for social media and virtual meetings and training and crazy stuff like dealing with phobias. But for entertainment? I’m just not seeing it. I don’t think most humans want to look stupid (everyone looks stupid in a VR headset) and they don’t want to isolate themselves from the world. I mean, if someone’s sneaking up behind me with a baseball bat, I want to know about it, you know what I mean? And let’s not talk about nausea.”

He reminisced of games he worked on that supported VR (at the time) more than a decade ago, and said that he seems to have moved on:

“It’s weird, I worked on a couple of games that supported available VR headsets back in the ’90s and I was really jazzed about it. Now, I’m kind of over it.”

Finally, he did express some excitement for augmented reality, a newer tech field that is being adopted, albeit much more slowly. “AR, on the other hand – that seems pretty exciting,” said Spector. “There’s some potential there. Even the low-hanging fruit of AR gaming seems compelling. Bring on the AR.”

How do you guys feel about the current state of VR and AR? Sound off in the comments below!

Image source: RocketNews24

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