This blog post highlights the dirty secret of virtual reality (VR) — we need to solve its nausea problem. As people learn in business school, it is best to avoid designing products that make customers vomit (tequila being perhaps the only successful product exception to this rule).
As we have highlighted in prior posts, VR is gaining momentum, notably through gaming, sports applications, content promotion and 3D animation. All these applications point to significant financial opportunities, and many observers believe that you can make hundreds of millions of dollars in profit from a working VR ecosystem. VR could even be worth billions, if you believe in the potential of Facebook and its acquisition of Oculus Rift.
Last week, we discussed action gaming as being perhaps the key VR application. Hardcore gamers want this product and will pay real money for it. A game developer looking for paying VR customers and early adopters would be wise to design a fast-paced VR game for the gamers who play “Doom,” “Halo,” “Fallout” and “Grand Theft Auto.”
Unfortunately, most action-oriented VR content has one major flaw. Fast VR action makes many people nauseous, which is a particular issue for intense shooting and combat games. The more you add exciting, fast-paced action to VR, the more you create nausea.
Virtual reality nausea is a real threat to VR taking off. Let’s talk about the causes of VR nausea and what can be done to fix the problem.
A root cause of nausea is a mismatch between what our eyes and inner ears tell us. Most people have experienced the problem while below deck in a ship on rough waters. Our eyes tell us that we are stationary and sitting down in a cabin, but our inner ears tell us that we are heaving about. This mismatch causes nausea in many people.
In VR games today, the headset tells your eyes that you are moving a certain way, and this differs from what your inner ear is telling you. VR games today creates a mismatch that causes nausea remarkably like seasickness.
For VR to prosper, there are a variety of technical issues to solve. The technical issues have many names (mismatched motion, field of view, motion parallax, viewing angle, rotational latency, etc.), but all are issues that may defeat the mass adoption of VR action gaming.
The first solution that some have attempted is to simplify the games and slow down the action.
Some developers circumvent VR nausea by limiting the action. For example, you can slow down the pace by creating a game in which the player is only able to swim slowly in a diving suit that limits how fast he or she can move.
Developers can also decrease the action by avoiding a first-person perspective and providing a bird’s eye view.
Both of these tactics diminish the visceral excitement of a fast-paced, first-person shooter. Getting rid of fast-paced, first-person action is a big problem for hardcore gamers. They are looking for killer VR experiences. They will likely not pay “Grand Theft Auto”/”Fallout”/”Halo” prices or drive “Grand Theft Auto”/”Fallout”/”Halo” volumes for low-action, slow VR content.
There have been so many "Star Wars" video games in the 40 years since the franchise began, and most of them were not good. Hell, a couple of the ones I list here aren't good. But they all deliver an experience you can't get anywhere else, and that's worthy of some praise.
Not actually good, but still great. It's a game that defies description because there's nothing from the past two decades to compare it to. For that reason alone it makes the list.
12. "Masters of Teras Kasi"
How we haven't been inundated with "Star Wars" fighting games is anyone's guess -- aside from "Soul Calibur IV" letting you play as Yoda or Darth Vader, "Masters of Teras Kasi" on the original PlayStation console is the only one. And it was the style of fighter that was easy to learn and enjoy, so we remember it fondly.
11. "Yoda Stories"
This weird and cheap little "Zelda"-esque thing had Yoda sending Luke Skywalker on bite-sized randomly generated missions, and somehow it was extremely engaging. We are well overdue for a smartphone version of this thing.
10. "Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast"
If we're being honest, the beloved "Jedi Knight" video game series is pretty mediocre all the way around. "Jedi Outcast," though, is the peak as it features the closest we've ever gotten to realistic video game lightsaber combat.
9. "The Force Unleashed"
The "Star Wars" universe is full of stories about good apprentices going bad and wreaking havoc on the good guys, but we've very rarely gotten the inverse. That made "The Force Unleashed" a really novel experience. You play as Darth Vader's secret apprentice in the years between the original and prequel trilogies. You're a dark side force user and soldier for the Empire who goes rogue in a really epic way.
8. "Rogue Squadron"
We'd been flying in space battles for years with "X-Wing" and "TIE Fighter," but "Rogue Squadron" gave us something new bringing our starfighter into a planet's atmosphere. "Rogue Squadron" was also built to be accessible, which was a pretty new thing for a "Star Wars" game.
7. "X-Wing Alliance"
Develops the minimalistic narrative approach of "X-Wing" and "TIE Fighter" and develops it in a great way -- you're still a grunt, as a fighter pilot for the Rebellion, but now you're a named character who has real-life concerns beyond the next confrontation with the Empire.
6. "Racer"
There aren't a lot of "Star Wars" racing games, weirdly enough, but "The Phantom Menace" provided the perfect in with its big pod racing sequence. It turned out pod racing translated perfectly to video games.
5. "The Old Republic"
Bioware attempted to meld their style of story-focused role-playing game with a "World of Warcraft"-style online game, and that was a mistake. But it's still full of really outstanding "Star Wars" stories that are better than most all of the ones you'd get elsewhere. It's also funnier than most others.
4. "Knights of the Old Republic"
If you're trying to replicate the beats and "feel" of a "Star Wars" movie, you do it like this: with an entirely new cast of characters in a fresh story. "KOTOR" even manages to have a twist as powerful as "I am your father," but without feeling as though it was copying "Empire."
3. "Rebellion"
Not a technically great game in the traditional sense, but the first galaxy-scale "Star Wars" strategy game is still a blast. It's also great fuel for the imagination because you can mold the war between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire in whatever way you want.
2. "TIE Fighter"
It's a great example of minimalistic "Star Wars" storytelling, putting you in the boots of a a mostly anonymous Imperial pilot during the Rebellion period. You're a grunt, but things are happening around you, and it's weirdly enthralling.
1. "Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords"
Obsidian Entertainment created an experience that manages to subvert basically every way "Star Wars" has ever operated, starting with its predecessor. It's a total downer, every character is in a bad mood, and none of the decisions your character makes will ever be greeted with approval from her master. "There are no right choices" is not the normal "Star Wars" way, and it works perfectly.
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There are so many ”Star Wars“ games to choose from, but these stand out from the pack
There have been so many "Star Wars" video games in the 40 years since the franchise began, and most of them were not good. Hell, a couple of the ones I list here aren't good. But they all deliver an experience you can't get anywhere else, and that's worthy of some praise.
Dan Schechter is a Managing Director and Partner at L.E.K. Consulting, and he leads the firm's Global Media, Entertainment & Technology practice. He has broad experience within the media, entertainment and technology sector, including TV, film, Internet content and commerce, radio, magazines, theme parks, advertising and news. He also has experience working with retail, consumer products, travel and industrial clients. Dan was awarded his MBA from Stanford University and his BA, cum laude, from Harvard University.
This blog post highlights the dirty secret of virtual reality (VR) — we need to solve its nausea problem. As people learn in business school, it is best to avoid designing products that make customers vomit (tequila being perhaps the only successful product exception to this rule).
For VR to prosper, there are a variety of technical issues to solve. The technical issues have many names (mismatched motion, field of view, motion parallax, viewing angle, rotational latency, etc.), but all are issues that may defeat the mass adoption of VR action gaming.
Developers can also decrease the action by avoiding a first-person perspective and providing a bird’s eye view.
