Philip Rosedale: Spielberg's Ready Player One Isn't Growing Consumer Interest in VR Because the Movie Only Depicts It as a Gamer Platform

Really interesting NWN comment from High Fidelity founder Philip Rosedale, responding to news that Spielberg's hit movie isn't driving much consumer interest in the official movie tie-ins now available in Linden Lab's Sansar: 

Actually this is also true across all variations of "Virtual Reality" related search terms and steam product stats for VR, so far as I can see. It's certainly not just Sansar. The movie is not causing people to want to 'try out' VR. I think this is because it only presented the idea of VR as mostly a sort of multiplayer shooter for escapists, rather than for education and many other uses, as presented in the book.

Rosedale, of course, also founded Linden Lab and is still a major shareholder. Like a lot of observations from Philip, my first reaction to that is skepticism, followed by tentative agreement. If the movie depicts VR as solely a gamer's paradise, than it'll only seem appealing to the millions of gamers  who've already tried or use virtual reality... but not so much to anyone else who watches the movie.  If anything, VR might seem less appealing to them.

Comments

[jimjane]

Phil is being disingenuous for calling out that awful movie for failing to portray the educational possibilities of VR.

It was Phil's company LL that systematically screwed over the educators and educational groups in SL many years ago by pulling their discounts among other things. This directly led to the downfall of SL and led to it being thought of only as a place for sex and games.

So it's very much like the pot calling the kettle black here.

Phil? You had influence on LL's actions then. Why didn't you do something about it if you value education?

Yeah, thought so.

[JohnC]

What he says is so true. But he should have stuck to his real child and cared for it.
"downfall of SL and led to it being thought of only as a place for sex and games" So wrong. It is the only really truly free VR space left, where creative minds can Fay ce que veulx.

[Hamlet Au]

One can definitely make the case that Linden Lab could have served the SL education community better. But for the record, the company ended the eduction/non-profit sim discount in 2010:

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2013/07/second-life-education-discounts.html

So that happened many years after the big hype wave of 2006-2007, *and* after the "weird sex/hardly anyone's using this/marketing campaigns in SL don't work/etc." backlash of 2007-2009. So the trouble really began before the education discount's end, not after. (Though "downfall" seems a bit harsh -- the active userbase never went away and it was always profitable throughout and up to this day.)

[Virtuallycranky]

I had a conversation with someone fresh from "Ready Player One" on a gaming subreddit. He wanted to know if there were any games out there where he 'could do whatever he wanted' like in the movie. People pointed out that there is no current software that looked like a Hollywood movie, but suggested Second Life, Sinespace, Garry's Mod, VRChat etc. as places where there was freedom. He said no, those were all social places, and he wanted a game. Just a small example of how RPO is being received. (BTW no one brought up Sansar, which I thought ironic).

[q]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/06/disney-plots-high-fidelity-tv-series-with-female-lead

[Jack Reacher]

If VR glasses stay as big as they are now, i think VR will apeal mostly to gamers and those who like VR Porn. I want something portable, like just a pair of glases...

[Gwenette Writer Sinclair]

The movie is a cheap shot. very glad I watched online versus paying for a ticket. Basically, it was just another shoot-em up FX bore fest with sometimes ludicrous caricatures versus real characters. it's no wonder that folks are not flocking to Sansar.