Virtual Reality Can't Teach Empathy to Those Who Don't Want It

Sample of negative user reviews of Project Syria on Steam

We talked about the problems with calling VR an "empathy machine", and here's a perfect if depressing case study of that:

Project Syria, a virtual reality experience created by immersive journalism progenitor Nonny de la Pena about child refugees, went live on Steam this week to mostly racist and politically vitriolic reviews.

That was a few months ago, and the negative reviews, mostly by people who clearly haven't even bothered to try out the free experience, have only increased since then. This is part of a larger trend, where many will reject any journalism which doesn't agree with their ideology as "fake news". Thing is, most of the population still absorbs at least some news they may hate from their periphery: From the headlines of newspapers and electronic billboards they pass on the street, to the news channels they flip past, on their TVs, to the news items their friends they disagree with on social media share. 

VR, however, is very much an appointment-based, opt-in media -- it's time-consuming to install, time-consuming to climb into and experience. (Even assuming it's free.) This very much defines who is going to choose (or reject) which variety of content they want to experience -- and what kind of people and stories they'd prefer to feel empathy for, or not. And this is going to be true until VR becomes about as mass market as film. Movies have also been described as "empathy machines" or similar terms. But everyone watches movies -- making it much easier to smuggle in moments of empathy past viewers' personal biases.

For instance, very few people paid money to see Three Kings because they wanted to empathize with the plight of Middle Eastern war refugees depicted in the film -- much more likely they were fans of George Clooney or of quirky, well-reviewed action movies, or even of the director David O. Russell. But I bet most of them wound up feeling empathy for the refugees all the same. And it's doubtful we can really talk about VR being any kind of empathy machine until the content is as broadly appealing and as accessible as Three Kings.

Comments

[Shockwave]

Is project syria a game?

Then why is it in a gaming forum for discussion? Why not place it in Disney cartoons: it does not belong their either. Regardless of how poorly some may word their objections, invading unrelated groups with offtopic material - any offtopic material - wont get your friends or interest in your subject. If it is a game then fine. If it isnt then no amount of pointing out that it has graphics will turn it into a game. Blender has graphics but that doesnt make it a game.

Be honest here. This was nothing but someones attempt to ram HIS cause d jour down the throats of folks who wanted to talk about games instead. And as the gamers were in a gamer discussion area, the syria subject being forced on them is akin to someone hijacking your conversation in a party to talk about Amway whether you like it or not.

And being so rude, the angry responses can hardly be called unEmpathy. People dont like their conversations hijacked is all. The poster should have had some empathy and realized that forcing the conversation to revolve around HIS interest was rude. Somehow i doubt if a bunch of folks entered a syrian relief group and went onabout how realistic call of duty is, you would not be defending the invading gamers.

[Ennui]

It's not on "a gaming forum", it's on Steam which is a software distribution platform which focuses mostly - but not solely - on games. Especially in the VR section of Steam, there are many applications that are not games in the classic sense, but rather interactive experiences, some of which touch on RL subjects. The screenshot that Hamlet posted is from the review section for that particular application.

[sirhc deSantis]

...and those were some of the milder comments. I doubt even 'mass market' (wtftm) would instill 'empathy'. Hordes lack the capability.

I guess PewPewAryan does know its market though.
http://tinyurl.com/zslsmld

[Amanda Dallin]

Blender isn't a game but it is on Steam.

[Rin]

Now I do not own a VR headset or plan to buy one anytime soon, so I will sadly not see this Project Syria. But I did looked up the comments and the discusion section on Steam and seeing that pile of ugly (insert bad word of choice here) being piled up there I can only think that I am ashamed to belong to the same species that those people who write such things and seem to honestly believe into them.
It is fairly easy to discount the trolls ... like all trolls ... need the drama because they have no other source of self worth but the rest of those commenters really seem to have their minds stop developing somewhere in the previous centuries.

But it is more easy to hate then to actually learn something new and think. That costs effort and might be hurting to some of those people.

So thumbs-up for Project Syria.

[Rin]

Also .. Three Kings is a very good movie.

[Patchouli Woollahra]

Let's remember that Steam has at some point ceased to be merely a games platform - In a awkward reversal the steam account that once held several hundred dollars of games I bought now has way more money spent on videos, development tooling, utilities and even experiences like Project Syria (TBF, the cost of some of these tools heads into three figures easily, so it adds up way faster than binge-buying games during periodic mega-sales)

If you're only going into Steam to get the next high you can find, you have basically ignored a significant amount of extra value that the platform now offers. Suggest you reevaluate and look through the Software part of Steam as well.