Virtual Guns Not Realistic Enough for Actual Gun User

Interesting thread started in the Vive subreddit by "Utgaard", who describes himself as competition-level gun owner, making some points with all kinds of implications:

Vive is a fantastic piece of hardware that already can be used for some actual useful training and fun in that regard. BUT, the angles of the gun grips are mostly all off, and that screws up muscle memory for those of us who have been doing this for a long time. I enjoy [VR gun-oriented games] ... but I am afraid playing them too much right now will make me worse at competitions where speed and accuracy are absolutely critical.

He even goes so far as to create that image above for reference, citing another VR/RL gun fan:

"For reference, gun grips are typically between 105° (1911) and 112° (Glock). The Vive wand to ring is ~120°, which is a huge difference."

So much to unpack here! Just for starters: Does this suggest prior real world familiarity with an experience make it much more difficult to accept its virtually recreation? And can the virtual recreation than negatively influence the real world experience? And finally (assuming developers finally get the simulation right), if a virtual shooting simulation can actually help train people to be better shooters in real life, what kind of Pandora's box are we opening?

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Comments

[Nalates]

The world has a blatant history of destruction and warfare. It isn't like VR is going to open the box.

Just because people hide from reality doesn't mean violence has left the planet. Its with us every day. It is just a matter of whether we prepare or leave our fate in the hands of bureaucrats.

[Adeon Writer]

It would appear to me the problem is that Valve's VR controller was not designed with guns in mind, or, if so, they didn't have any gunheads on the team.

[Adeon Writer]

That said, this is VR. You can account for anything; so actually it would just be a problem with the game not allowing you to adjust the angle of the VR gun. grip.

[Wagner James Au]

"It would appear to me the problem is that Valve's VR controller was not designed with guns in mind, or, if so, they didn't have any gunheads on the team."

That's quite possible but would be really strange, considering Valve's biggest games are first-person shooters, and they're obsessive about simulating believable firearms.

[Wolkenreiter]

Did it ever occur to them that this might have been intentional?
I doubt Valve wants is eager to gain bad publicity because of ISIS using their gear for terrorist gun training...