Right around Christmas last year, Erin showed some interest in VR. My guess is it was fueled by talk on Cortex, where CGP Grey has discussed what he considers to be the vital acquisition of an Oculus Quest 2. I was totally on board with getting one, but our Christmas spending had been accounted for. Also, they were out of stock everywhere.
The other week it popped back into my mind, so on a whim I got one from Best Buy to surprise Erin. It’s been a hit. However, it’s worth considering both the present and future of VR, and specifically Oculus, now that we have seen the light.
My first experience with VR was going to one of those VR-specific arcade setups in a strip mall in Minnesota with a couple of friends. They had Vive systems available. I played an archery game, an escape room, and I think the typical “you’re in a room with a bunch of stuff to mess with” activities. It was fun, but the entire setup made the associated costs clear. You had a big space available, a high-end PC mounted near the ceiling so you could route the wires down to the headset. This was only around 2017 or 2018, and it was clear I would not be getting into the VR arena anytime soon.
After that, I moved to San Diego and heard about the Oculus Go. Despite only having one basic controller, leading to a limited gaming experience, I was still thrilled to have it. Enjoying a roller coaster game, some golf, or even VR “around the world” experiences, was thrilling. I would come back to it once a month or so, but was always disappointed to find the one controller needing another AAA battery and the headset needing a charge (which took a stupdily long time over the micro USB port.)
Enter the Oculus Quest 2. Between the aforementioned Cortex and some YouTube videos, I was aware of how much this changed the game. Suddenly VR gaming was accessible: good-enough resolution and refresh rate in a reasonably-priced device that could play the most popular VR games, and even with the potential expansion for it to be used as a dedicated headset for those with computers. It’s a no-brainer, and the best VR experience I’ve had.
Not only have I found the Oculus controllers more immediately intuitive than my experience on the Vive, the lack of a cable has two major upsides: you won’t get tangled up, and there’s an in-built system to temper your playtime. Whether the second aspect being a positive is debatable, I find that I can hardly make it an hour into any game before I’m ready for a break.1
I’ve only had the Quest 2 for a couple weeks, but I can tell it has so much more staying power than the Go. There’s a wider selection of games, and the visual experience is superior. That leaves the bigger issue: Oculus is owned by Facebook, and Facebook is getting increasingly antsy to point that out.
The branding on the box (Oculus by Facebook) is understated, but the push to get you signed up with a Facebook account is not. Facebook has removed some features from Oculus-specific accounts, and has announced that by 2023 you must be using a Facebook account to use an Oculus device. On the surface, this is a simple annoyance to those who don’t want to be associated with Facebook. Deeper down, there is the same underlying concern people have with the home devices made by Google and Amazon: other aspects of their business can subsidize the hardware cost, increasing adoption, then use that hardware to further their data-driven advertising businesses.
Each time I put on the Oculus Quest 2, I’m making a conscious decision to support Facebook in some way. I’m also potentially compromising myself in a way I don’t yet understand. Perhaps no data beyond my purchases and play history are being recorded right now. Maybe they’re scanning my surroundings and I’m simply living in ignorant bliss until someone unveils bigger issues.2
This is an interesting tradeoff these days. Society is becoming more aware of the maxim If you aren’t paying, then you are the product. The free services Google provides come at an indirect cost. Yet, it becomes more problematic when there is a hardware medium that someone paid for. We are in a nebulous region where tech companies frequently want to sell both their hardware and software essentially as a service, thus removing any obligation to treat you as if you own anything. If you believe you have the right to modify or block data going in to, or coming out from, those devices, the companies selling them to you wholeheartedly disagree.3
Despite all these issues arising, the reason it works on people is because the tools (and toys) these companies build are incredibly compelling. They provide new means of productivity or entertainment, and the trail from you back to the company remains veiled. This is perhaps best seen in the smart TV industry, where the hardware margins are so thin that many manufacturers rely on you keeping your TV connected to the internet so they can consistently send off, and sell, usage data.
I don’t think there’s an easy answer here. Public companies that make hardware are under pressure to diversify, or simply sell off resources they have, namely customer data, to either stay afloat or increase margins. This becomes more muddled as companies who started in software and data insert themselves directly into the hardware business. Perhaps this is a sign of them being emboldened. It might be too late to switch society away from their technological expectations that the likes of Google set with their free services. This post has no answers, but I will continue to consider them. And, in spite of what many of these thoughts may imply about reasonable usage of the Quest, I’m planning on taking my chances for now. It may be naive, and my mind may change. But the world of widespread alternate reality is coming and hoo-boy is that going to have even wider implications.
Footnotes
- The Quest 2 does last a bit longer than 2 hours depending on what you’re playing. While on paper that doesn’t sound impressive, I still stand by it being an overall benefit for me. ↩
- Admittedly, the “This game would like to access x” alerts are rather vague. It’s unclear why games want to access files, or my microphone. I’m sure some games have good reason to, but I’m given no guidance as to whether denying those requests will cause issues. It’s no surprise Facebook is not quite as good at this as iOS and Android. ↩
- Right to repair is at least getting some traction on the hardware side, but the software aspect is pernicious and dangerous. ↩