Maybe Mixed Reality Parties Are VR's Killer (Mini) App

Highlights from our Day of the Dead live event earlier this month. Thanks to @theorkestrate and @brandundeshay, and to all who came by! 🎶 pic.twitter.com/xXwSTeRkDB

— High Fidelity (@highfidelityinc) November 17, 2016

Here's what High Fidelity's Day of the Dead party looked like from both in-world and from the point of view of the live musicians who performed for it. It's easy to imagine this being turned into a full-fledged party in the real world, making it into a mixed reality event. I could even see this becoming a mini-killer app for VR, popular at parties, nightclubs, and so on:

I've been involved with lots of Second Life-based mixed reality parties, but the problem was they require someone to sit there on a laptop to generate the SL feed that's then displayed on a big screen. In the real world, in my experience, people at the party tend to get distracted by that video feed, and start gawking at it like it's a non-interactive 3D animated movie. But when you got someone with a VR headset and controllers interacting in the real world (and looking like a fool), there's a clear, interactive connection between the virtual and the real, and an easy way for other partygoers to grab the headset and jump into the fun.

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Comments

[JohnC]

Is anyone keeping count of user numbers in Hi Fidelity.

[Orca Flotta]

Doesn't look like a hot candidate for my must-have list.

[sirhc deSantis]

Well if you changed the Reality to Media after Mixed - well yeah idea is older than - tricky, at least as old as the BBC micro projects. So why not. If HiFi is going that way - sure. Its a meme that keeps giving. And theres me still with a tear in my eye about the dad uncomfortable in a sea of -teenies- at the boy band concert filming 3d for his daughter who has a cold..best use of it I ever saw. And him underarm dry too.
As to users? Ask them. A rough back of the beer mat calc based on number of regulars in the forum digest (taking into account usual 5% forum minus the ones who lurk participation cross referenced to number of posts versus obvious 'logged in to existing platforms they state they hate' hihi nnnpd as Dad said) gives us somewhere between 2 dozen and 3 billion.
I think I should go in to this political polling lark, seems an easy few marks.

[JohnC]

For what it's worth
http://steamspy.com/app/390540
Although that's just a rough estimate of steam users
It's a shame all these VR companies and platform developers are not a lot more open about user numbers. It wouldn't matter but for the fact they make such silly claims for the popularity of VR. But then again PSVR is going to wipe the floor with the lot of them this Festive season. If anyone is going to open up VR to the general public it will be Sony. the mobile market is a long way from real VR just 360 camera stuff. That advert of the dad filming the concert for his kid, is easily the most effective VR/ 360 VR add out there. It starts to answer the question of ordinary people "why do I need VR in my life" Well there you go, you need it for your kids, sales immediately rocket.