A Soliloquy From A VR Arcade Employee
Working for a Virtual Reality arcade is pretty damn cool. Even though the every day tasks are fairly repetitive, and not much dissimilar in nature to other service jobs, there’s just something about working with cutting-edge (or close enough to it) that makes the work all so very interesting.
Its fun for me to see kids and adults alike so very taken with the experience… its pure joy to see them so immersed they forget where they are and move around invisible, virtually (non)existent enemies and objects.
Even when you have to deal with the same types of frustratingly stubborn or loud or even rude customers, its almost always tempered and overwritten by the fact that new technology makes fools of us all… and even more thst this technology is one that inspires wonder and excitement in even the staunchest of people.
When I see grim suit-and-tie or ‘too-cool-for-you' types skeptically put the headset on and load up a game.. Or even when they first see the launcher and realize that they’ve somehow been transported to another world,.. I smile every time.
Whether it’s an old woman who’s never played video game in her life, or a ‘hardcore gamer' whose played it all, or a little kid that doesn’t want to be here because their parents dragged them over without telling them what this is…
When they put on thay headset… all I hear is
Woooow
Then I pass them controllers that look like hands in their virtual vision, and when they hold them and marvel at the fidelity, their already aware that this is like nothing else they’ve ever done before.
They then tap a game and realize that even virtual worlds can have weight… then they press play and are transported into the ‘matrix,’… because even the empty SteamVR space is amazing to the first-time virtual traveler.
Finally, they get into a game and become a part of a whole new world… an experience… a reality that grants them powers beyond their normal life. Even if its just shooting zombies or robots…
This is why VR is the future.
Because no matter how unweildy the hardware (currently) is, the tech actually does its job. Virtual Reality truly does transport us to a new world. And that is far more powerful than even the initial connecting power of the Internet…
The actual revolution is decades in the making and years down the line before it becomes an everyday utitility… but it is inevitable.
Comment below if you (in Atlanta) and have never tried VR! I’ll be happy to let you try.. On me! 😙
