Time Magazine Puts Virtual Reality on Its Cover - VR Enthusiasts Duly Freak Out

Long ago in ancient times (by which I mean the 90s), it was considered a milestone of mainstream acceptance and recognition when a technology was featured on the cover of Time magazine. Nowadays, it more likely means your parents and grandparents are going to e-mail you from their AOL accounts, asking you, "Is that strange young man jumping around on the beach with goggles on the one you were talking about?" But lots of VR fans are actually not too happy with the cover, not at all. Samples:

• Time Unloads Full Clip Into VR's Chances for Mainstream Acceptance
• Time Magazine's Latest Cover Is Not Doing VR Any Favors

Then, of course, came the memes:

Internet Reacts to Time Magazine's Goofy Oculus VR Cover. http://t.co/jXnXNvFcVi pic.twitter.com/TbYv87rv5x

— GameSpot (@gamespot) August 6, 2015

I'm just annoyed Time magazine stole my idea of depicting people using VR while ignoring the beautiful real world (but actually not). VR enthusiasts have long known people look fairly silly while using VR, so what were they expecting? The real problem is that Time's headline, "Why Virtual Reality Is About to Change the World", promises far more than the technology can possibly deliver now, and probably not for the next 10-20 years (if at all), only setting us up once again for an inevitable dive into the Trough of Disillusionment.

The Time's author, by the way, is Joel Stein, who wrote this about Second Life during its own hype wave in 2006:

My So-Called Second Life

I stepped into this virtual world and found a lot of sex--and a guide named Cristal

 thought I'd want to have lots of sex.  Meaningless, multipartnered, degrading sex. After all, if Second Life is a virtual community in which you can look however you want, do whatever you want and use the fake name you want, then I could make all my fantasies come true. And as I quickly learned, having sex is exactly what many of the people on the site spend their time doing. Occasionally, it seemed, with characters that look like giant fluffy squirrels--which is wonderful, because there is nothing like the warm flush of superiority you feel when discovering a fetish you don't have.

So does that means his new VR article is likely to be just as wrong... or just as accurate?

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Comments

[Graham Mills]

Apparently this is what constitutes cutting edge cover design at the moment. I note that Palmer has his tongue firmly in his cheek.

My guess is that high-end VR is going to be the province of those enthusiasts with the necessary hardware readily to hand. Mass adoption may be some time in the future when this cover is long forgotten.

[Iggy]

So how many times do enthusiasts need to be dunked headfirst in the Trough before their curb their enthusiasm?

I was so hyped for virtual worlds in 2007-8. Remember that Business Week cover about Anshe Chung? I am sure the guffaws would be just as loud now, except there are even fewer magazine readers. I don't even see Time any more in checkout lines.

Should have learned in 69-70, when the promised Moon Base and Mars mission went bust. But I did not. Here's to the Trough!

[Graham Mills]

Not sure how noteworthy it is in this context but the educational use of virtual environments/worlds has been on the Slope for two consecutive years now.

[Graham Mills]

Incidentally I like that there are new bloggers from outside the virtual world domain, albeit that some topics seem familiar. Robert McGregor, for example, has a go at VR's nomenclature problem http://id-r-mcgregor.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-myth-of-virtual-reality.html

[irihapeti]

@Graham

thanks ever so much linking that Robert McGregor. I never heard of him before

in a previous article: Ballroom Dancing, he just won the internets

for real

+

whoever builds a 3D world platform based on Murmurs (as he has so simply stated it to be) will defo win the internets. I am agree with him about this

is very exciting to now know exactly what it is that people do actual want, and how it can be made

is amazing what he wrote. Murmurs

[Adeon Writer]

I love the cover. I think they know VR full well. This picture, is super silly, but it's important.

Yes, you look freaking dumb while you wear a pair of VR goggles. And the experience is so amazing, you won't care.