PS VR, The Future I've Always Dreamt Of For Games(Or Is It?)

With the dawning of a new era of gaming upon us, I ponder the future of this technology and if its implementation will match up to the expectations of an Atari age kids imagination. You see, ever since I was a child and saw my first 3D movie... I thought 3D in gaming was the Holy Grail. Having objects and people pop out of the screen, making you feel as if somehow theyve left their gameworld and entered our own. Creating a wave of emotion that nothing before... could match. Being able to reach out, touch and interact with in game characters and objects. Though, the more I ponder these incredible possibilities... the more I think about the technological shortcomings that could hold it back and keep it from being all that it could be.

While VR brings its otherworldly polygons out of the limits of the flat screen and into a true 3 dimensional axis, it is only affecting a few of our senses in the process. Sight and sound. In order for VR to fully immerse us into something more than a 3D experience that weve seen in movies for the past 60 years... it has to tug at more than our sight and hearing, to make us feel a true part of its environment. We need to be able to touch and get tactile feedback from in game objects. Be able to smell the world around us, for better or worse... and be able to talk to and get intelligent response from the characters we interact with.

For VR to succeed, it has to offer up more than a new way to experience 3D. Make us feel as if we are there and affecting the world around us. Making a difference, be it good or bad. Developers and hardware designers(Sony, Im talking to you) need to invest in its future and not give up on the tech at the first bump in the road, which a lot of game system designers are guilty of. The history of game system ad ons isnt a great one, with very few succeeding, or given the chance to...

VR needs to be completely wireless and offer tactile feedback gloves, that allow gamers to feel what they are touching. Sound that surrounds you and makes you believe there are a thousand speakers at every turn. Smellovision needs to make a return and offer up thousands of different fragrances that can be mixed together and accurately portray what lies in the game world around you. When all senses are affected... it tricks your mind into transporting you, day and date, to where the developer wants you to be. Seeing the sights and smelling the smells, hearing and touching your surroundings as if you are truly there. Then, being able to talk to and get intelligent feedback from in game characters...

As you can see, the future for VR could be very bright... But therein lies the issues. Take away one of these senses Ive mentioned and you start to realize the immersion is broken and you are really only playing an updated version of last gens 3D games. Then, comes the question if the technology will be given the chance to blossom into all it could be, or fall by the wayside like so many addons have before it. The little child in me that dreamt of this day so long ago, wants everything Ive mentioned to become reality... but the realist in me understands that there is a long, bumpy road ahead to make it all come true... If the technology is given the chance to survive past its infancy.

Only time will tell, my friends.