Oculus Rift at Pax AUS 2014

3 Dec. 2014 - - Total Reads 7,999

oculus rift pax aus 2014

Warlords, kings and Italian plumbers were in abundance as AndMine Art Director Ravi Vasavan and I entered the cavernous foyer of The Melbourne Convention Centre right at the 3pm peak hour on the opening day of the 2nd annual Melbourne PAX gaming convention. Having a fascination with gaming culture and being a casual gamer myself, I was interested in seeing what the actual “gaming community” was like en-masse in one concentrated space.

Interactive game marketing is big business these days, and the almost exclusive environment is online. The obvious rationale for pouring marketing spend for an upcoming release exclusively into digital channels is that the medium itself is digital. The more compelling reason is that gamers are a genuine community in every sense of the word; in fact, the gaming community is one of the world’s most engaged. Forums, editorial, social networks and blogs on the category number in the tens of thousands. They are fickle, passionate and willing to spend half a month’s wage on a new graphics card to play Assassin’s Creed Unity at full resolution and frame rate.

Interactive is one of the only comparable industries to women’s fashion. It’s an unusual analogy but the similarities are striking. Where else do you see such a high percentage of income spent on discretionary purchases?

Revenues are in the billions per year, surpassing Hollywood some time ago now, and it’s mainly due to the average spend. The cost of a new-release blockbuster title is around $80. A console is around the $600 mark, and a PC for the core gamers, well, the sky is truly the limit. Those price-points are comparable to luxury goods. Especially when you take into account that no one ‘has to game’. You don’t really need an Xbox One to eat or breathe, or a PS4 to get from A to B.

It’s because of those numbers that big studios are employing hundreds of developers for games like Destiny. This equates to millions of dev hours just to make sure the grass bends consistently and the sunlight refracts off the enemy’s helmet the right direction.

Everywhere we looked there was a line for an exhibit. It confused me because there seemed to still be hundreds of unoccupied consoles, or games with a lone spotty teenager playing on his own. The attendant at the Nintendo booth explained that they were lining up to play the new Smash Brothers Melee on Wii U. It seems that most booths had at least one pre or new release title that was causing the queues to form. Xbox had the new Halo and Playstation had several hot games.

After picking up a few controllers in just a few minutes I wandered further into the abyss, and it didn’t take long to find the stand I was really there to see. I’d spent a number of hours recently watching YouTube reaction videos of people experiencing Oculus Rift for the first time. It fascinated and terrified me at the same time.

The line was long and I asked The Enforcer (the name given to PAX attendants) how long the estimated wait would be. She quickly replied with’ “’bout an hour”. At my age, lining up for anything at all, let alone at a gaming convention was not appealing. I decided relatively quickly that it was worth it. Who knows when I would get another opportunity to immerse myself in Oculus Rift as cutting-edge as this? The hour lapsed quickly as we wound our way around the outside of the booth and ended up back where we started. I looked at my watch and to the minute an hour had passed. (Apparently Oculus Rift can see the future as well as simulate the past).

There were six setups with only half the number of games. Alien Isolation peaked my interest but time wasn’t on my side, so I took the first available offering. It was a gameplay demo described as a ‘Matrix style time-bending shooter’ called Super Hot (probably a working title).

One of the booth attendants helped me with my headset and quickly ran though the premise of the game. It sounded like a great mechanic to test out the Oculus Rift capabilities. But as soon as the game booted into the VR environment – uh oh – I felt woozy. I’d read the disclaimers out of boredom on my way around the line and they had mentioned motion sickness. I hadn’t suffered from that affliction since I was a child and went a bit overboard on one of those spinny egg things in the park.

I pushed through and managed to focus on the game’s objectives. It took me longer than usual to figure out what was required because I was still trying to come to grips with the environment as well as the nausea. Three faceless sprites point and shoot as you appear from around a corner. You move, the bullets move, you stop, the bullets slow down to a crawl – got it! On my 26th life I actually managed to pick the gun up and shoot them all. The headset came off after 10 minutes and I got up, thanked the young girl that helped me, then attempted to move on. Finally, the sickness set in and we headed to a bar just outside the Exhibition Centre hoping a beer would cure me. But it turns out only time would do the trick.

The experience was amazing, and it seems that motion sickness only affects some people and goes away after their initial attempts at motion reactive VR. I was kind of hoping for more thrilling media to experience it for the first time but I can see why they show off the clever stuff, not the terrifying examples that make noobs piss their pants and fall over.

If this thing really takes off, which it inevitably will, human interaction will prove a dying art form. Wall-E will seem like a clairvoyant prophesy in years to come, rather then an adorable kids’ flick. The future is scary, my friends, and the pioneer of this new terror genre is Oculus Rift.

Facebook will surely realise their investment in O.R. before too long and be regarded as the fathers of a pervasive new technology. However, it hasn’t gotten off to a flying start from a software point of view. Developers have been cautious to invest time and resources into a guinea pig phase that will likely not see an immediate return in investment. Hopefully some of the bigger studios are starting to take the platform seriously and move forward on some big name titles in anticipation for a late 2015 or early 2016 launch.

Michael Simonetti
Posted by:

Post Reads: 8K

Share this

Go on, see if you can challenge us on "Oculus Rift at Pax AUS 2014" - Part of our 183 services at AndMine. We are quick to respond but if you want to go direct, test us during office hours.

Add Your Comment

Trusted by

DepSkin.com
Catholic Insurance
Atlantic Group of Companies
Boston Consulting Group
Mamma Lucia
Forbes
SwinBurne University of Technology
Sunday Creek
Australian Physiotherapy Association
ABC
Cleanfit
Royal Freemasons
Bondi Sands
Ubertas Group
Matchbox Homewares
Positive Poster
Tassal
Think & Grow Rich Inc
Oakdale Meat Co
Buy Aussie Now
Instant RockStar
MAP
Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals
Engine Swim
Wild Rhino Shoes
The Royal Melbourne Hospital
Vendor Advocacy Australia
GPT Group
Toni&Guy
OJAY
Beaumont
Arc One
Castran Gilbert
Uber
ADP Payroll
Drupal
Engineers Without Borders
Kadac
Associated Press
Bostik
The Age
131 Pizza
Madman Entertainment
21st Century Australia Party
Fresh Cheese Company
Celebrate Health
Oracle
Paypal
News
Coles
Plan It Sync It
National Relay Services
ISO CERTIFIED 27001
Natralus Australia
CAN- Common Wealth Bank
Van Egmond Group
University of South Australia
Bank of Cyprus
The Canberra Times
DeeWhy Market
Naturtint
Victorian Government
Tek Ocean
Maxine
Schiavello
Melbourne Central
POSTER Magazine
Ego Pharmaceuticals
Florsheim Shoes
BlackMores
National Museum of Australia
Bintani Australia
Cronos Australia
Brisbane Times
Melrose Health
Garmin
Fairfax Media
CSquared Executive
NextTech
Appstore
Fast.co
Marshall White
McArthur Skincare
Banki Haddock Fiora
TPP
One Shift
Loan Market
Liveoneday
Unsw Australia
Novvi
Herbert Smith Freehills
Australian Government
Watches of Switzerland
Adobe Professional
Sports Power
Bigcommerce
Taylor Rose
Movember
Dial Before You Dig
Windsorsmith
NMI Insurance
Mecca Brands
Inferflora
Grainshaker
Grays Ecommerce
Chia
Viktoria & Woods
White Suede
Peter Mac
Melrose MCT
Hairhouse Warehouse
RMIT University
NGS Super
The Burger Cheese
OpenAI
WTFN
Ebay
Shell
Thomson Geer
Tomorrow Stars Basketball
Cooper Mills
Federation University Australia
Focus On Furniture
King Wood Mallesons
Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre – MSAC
Heat Holders
Palace Cinemas
Elucent
Moov Head Lice
Melbourne Heart
Metricon
PranaOn
Kay&Burton
Parker Lane
Cell Therapies
Etihad Stadium
Bulk Nutrients
Plants
Ello
GooglePlay
High Street Armadale
Xavier
Carlton Football Club
Eway
OMS – Order Management System
Hanover
Rackspace
AC/DC
Aqium Gel
Mark Alexander Design
ISO Certified
Arthur Galan
Macpherson Kelley
HGG 
Magento
Max’s
MyAccount
Crumpler
Macmillan Publishing
Australian Organic Food CO
Google
QV Skincare
Passage Foods
Telstra
Vitura Health
French Tables
Tribe
Magento Solution Specialist
ACTUATE IP
Amino Active
Grow Your Business
iPrimus
SunSense Digital Agency
The University Of Melbourne
Toy World
Green St Juice CO
Dinosaur Designs
Craft CMS
Street Kitchen
Jalna
Federation Square
LBG Australia and New Zealand
Rock Pool Group
Gadens
Smart Company
James Buyer Advocates
VISSF
Australian Anthill
Gilbert+Tobin
Scrum.org
Fit My Car
Rydges
Switzer Media+Publishing
CB Richard Ellis
SMH – The Sydney Morning Herald
DUSA, Deakin University Student Association
Passage To India
Acquia Certified Site Builder Drupal
The Fortune Institute
Jetstar

Testimonials

Thank you for all of your hard work in getting our beautiful Melrose website live today. Woohoo!From the incredible design, to all of the behind the scenes technical aspects, to making it all come together and managing all of our feedback. - Lucinda Hobson, Melrose Project Manager Thank you to each and everyone of you for your dedication and hard work in getting this live and running and for your continuous hard work over the week in ironing out the issues that come with a website launch. Kat Heath, Melrose Group Marketing Manager

More Testimonials
AndMine-Google-Partner-Signature