Will virtual reality end up like 3D?

[Intrinsic]

Not. Completely not. And its not a fad either.

3D adds absolutely nothing to games. No functional value whatsoever. VR is a completely different thing. It will add a completely new dimension to some already existing genres fundamentally changing how those genres are played and it can create completely new genres too.

VR to gaming is like the controller growing analogue sticks. There are things VR can do for some genres that once a gamer experiences them, would probably not want to play games in that genre without it. Its just not something that will be bolted on and devs can say...oh yh, our game does VR. Its something that devs have to specifically design for.

Eg. You are playing a racing game and using the in car view. For the first time in a game it would feel like you are really sitting inside a car, cause what moves around isnt the camera, but rather your head. You can stretch your neck to look over your hood. you can look at the reiw view mirror like you would in a real car, you can look out of your driver side window to see who is your your blind spot. You can have contextual elements like looking towards the centre console and the nitro button lights up for you to interact with it.

Or when playing a flight sim, think Ace combat. You can be literally looking behind your plane at your six while still flying effectively forward due to a heightened positional awareness.

Really, the possibilities are vast, and this is me just thinking out loud about the things I had a problem with using a normal controller and TV setup that i wished could be changed.