I puke on the Oculus Ralph. ...
Most of the side effects issues with VR relate to mismatches in sensory input. The way Oculus has focused on precision and other aspects of the design suggests to me that they've worked heavily on getting this right. However, it's not about whether there will be side effects or not (some people will never able be to use such devices, just as some can't watch 3D cinema, etc.), it's about how the public will react. If consumers behave sensibly and simply return the product if they find it's not for them, than that's great, the device will find it's relevant audience, the common set of those who can use it and those who want to. But if people start filing lawsuits because they barfed or something, then it'll be a problem. It's down to how US consumers deal with the fact that by definition some of them will not be able to use a device like this (so far, the lawsuit culture hasn't really spread elsewhere to the same degree). These issues are precisely why Nintendo canned their development of an HMD for the N64, fear of side effects & consumer reaction, so they ploughed $40M into the rather pointless VirtuaBoy instead (I tried it at NOA's HQ on a visit, it did work rather well in terms of basic stereo effect, but was very obviously incapable of being a winning product, it was too early back then for anything usefully advanced in consumer HDM tech to be viable).
... A lot of them walked away determined to buy a new video card to prep for when these are for sale. Nvidia and AMD will really benefit from this stuff.
Where the article talks about content, I think a bigger win for game devs is just to add support for the device to existing games, or factor it in if they can to newer ones. It's a mistake IMO to believe they have to churn out all sorts of VR-specific gamey demos that look more like cartoons. These demos feel too much like the way 3D movies have events in them designed specifically to shove something 3D into the audience's collective face, like the director feels the need to tell THREE DEE!! at them, as if they'd forgotten they were watch a 3D movie.
Instead, just have a flexible game world which should naturally allow what a tracked HMD can do to enhance the game play, eg. this is why the Oculus is already so popular with people playing Elite Dangerous.
The one down side of this VR bandwagon is the effect on social gaming. Stuck inside an HMD, one can't show a friend what's going on in the game. Not a problem for people net-linked, but I think it'd might be a little weird at LAN parties.
Ian.
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