Assignment Week 1
VR Reading
The lesson I agree most with is the fourth one, “Everyone will become ‘Gamers’ & watching game streams will be a major pass-time”. As far as I am concerned, the only difference between “virtual” reality and our social life is the amount of information we received and deal with. For now, due to the limit of technology, the real world contains more information. While because of technology development, when the gap between the two world’s information total amount is getting closer, the game we play in the VR world is similar to traditional sports such as football and basketball. Nowadays, we can see people around the world celebrate the arrival of the World Cup, NBA Finals, Super Bowl, and etc. In the future, we can imagine that we will have similar scenes when holding a game final, and watching game streams will be like a daily activity of watching a sports game. Actually, in recent years, I can feel that watching game streams and playing games are becoming more popular among all age groups. My parents, who have just begun to play games after I entered the university have asked me about the result of the CS.GO competition because now they are playing it and have heard that my favorite team is in that race. And also my little bother has access to playing games because of the popularity of those electronic devices. In this way, I believe that VR will be another technology speeding up the process of entering the age of “Everyone will become ‘Gamers’ & watching game streams will be a major pass-time”.
The thing I agree least with is the seventh one, “VR can erase race and gender inequality gaps”. As I have mentioned above, when the total amount of information in the two worlds is getting closer, we can say that both worlds are of equal importance. Though we can change our appearance in the virtual game, it’s very difficult for us to change it in another world. Let’s think about the reason behind our actions, changing our appearances. The motivation is that we know with certain features, we are not welcomed in the real world. To avoid that, we need to change to a welcomed one. In this way, VR provides society with a good excuse to run away from the root of that problem. It’s not helping us to solve the inequality issues by fixing the root cause of it. In opposite, it might deepen the issue. You may find people changing their appearances in a similar direction because of the universal aesthetical standard. True equality won’t come if the issue cannot be solved from the ideological side.
AR Reading
As far as I am concerned, AR can be counted as an integrated combination of the real world and another. And this brings both advantages and disadvantages. Comparing it with its potential rival, VR, I could identify some points that might not match the readings’ claim. The first thing is that the Mirroworld mentioned still needs to occupy physical spaces. While VR can totally get rid of it. I imagine that space is definitely one of the most expensive factors in the near future. The selling example mentioned in the reading might not happen. Instead, the companies might turn to VR for help. Also, because of its mixed property, the benefits of AR will be restricted by our physical bodies. For instance, you can experience flying in a VR game. While it’s very difficult for AR to do so. It might enable you to see a wheel swimming outside of your window, but it cannot give you the ability to “fly” with it. This mixed property may also bring some unexpected benefits. One can imagine is the safety issue. If you want to put on a VR device, you are probably not fully aware of what has happened around you. Thus, there is no guarantee for the safety of your body in the real world. With AR, you can enjoy both worlds at the same time. So it enables you to handle your safety better. AR is definitely going to be one of the main driving forces to develop in the future because of the benefits brought to society. But it also has its own limits and concerns.
Video
The video is quite impressive. The thing I find most interesting is the gaming part and the socializing part. Like Mark Zuckerberg has mentioned at the beginning of the video. Because of the pandemic situation, we perhaps cannot meet with our friends or families in person. Though we have video callings and other ways of communicating, we still find there is a distance between us, making us feel lonely. While VR could provide us with the space to gather around and enjoy playing there at the same time. From this perspective, it’s reforming the way we socialize. We may find some people nowadays who are very active online but have difficulty in talking with people in real life. With VR, I think problems like this can be solved perfectly. The gaming part is also quite exciting. Games released recently like Last of Us II and Cyberpunk 2077 all move towards the same direction, which is to make the games more close to t our real life. I think VR is the right tool used in the near future to help achieve and go beyond this goal. It will definitely make the scene more vivid for players because it put us into a 3-D environment. It’s glad to hear from the developer from Ubisoft Entertainment that there will be a VR version of Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell. The first is famous for its wide-open world and the second is famous for its gun strike real sense. I cannot wait to see combined with VR technology, how these games can reach a new peak of gaming history.