When I first heard about virtual reality, I had one thought before any other: this, finally, is the technology to bridge gaps between people across the world. I’ll be able to watch movies side-by-side with friends in distant countries, or maybe even get to go on a date with a long-distance beau.
Since then, I’ve realised how naive I was, because although there are a multitude of games dedicated to brilliant vistas, sci-fi worlds and trippy kaleidoscopic experiences, the rest are focused on either anxiety-inducing horror, or porn aimed at heterosexual men – making it unlikely that I’ll own a headset for the time being.
Which makes sense, of course: both produce sensations which are amplified by the visceral proximity afforded to the player (or viewer) by VR. Why watch third-person porn when you can be the active participant? Why limit yourself to being scared by what’s happening to other people when you can tap into your own body’s instinctive reactions to real-life horror?
Yet, it seems like the social aspect of VR isn’t being spurred along as much as it should be, and that’s a shame when we consider the possibilities of this technology for the human connection. Or to put it more cynically: perhaps there’s not as much money in VR dating.
Or maybe it’s because the technology for real-time animation, character interaction, and realistic portrayal of people is… not quite there yet. Perhaps the best place to see where the tech is at is with VR dating reality show, Virtually Dating, made as part of a partnership between Conde Nast Entertainment and Facebook.
In Virtually Dating, two strangers meet for the first time in a virtual world, both wearing VR headsets and various motion-tracking body gear. Presumably because the gear needed to track their facial movements would be prohibitively expensive, the pair are 3D body-scanned and then presented to each other as frozen-faced, grinning marionettes; most of the date is spent admiring the broken physics and body modelling rather than actual small talk.
But despite the technological limitations, there’s something beautiful about the date as it starts to play out. The two people are, at least according to their self-descriptions, pretty dull; the kind of people that you’d swipe left on some human carousel because their profiles listed them as liking “white wine and travelling” and all their photos were of them on holiday holding a cocktail inside a coconut (in a later episode, the woman asks for “somebody with a job” and the man asks for “a good girl who makes me feel like a man” and then quotes Scary Movie). And yet, because VR is still exciting and novel, and also because it’s incredibly imperfect, it makes for a much more interesting date than the usual.
The pair dance on the moon, build a spaceship around each other, and do the YMCA as a cactus and a skeleton. There is, surprisingly, very little awkwardness, especially when it comes to physical touching, although there is a lot of awkwardness in trying to figure out exactly where the other person’s hand is (clue: it’s probably not actually sticking out of their stomach like it is in VR). They even agree to a second date, which either says something about the success of VR dating or about how desperately awful the dating scene is in New York.
Could Virtually Dating be seen as a VR success story? Perhaps. But it’s being used as an augment to real-life dating, with two people in the same room, rather than making it possible to date, or spend time with, someone far away – or even someone who doesn’t exist at all.
VR getting married in the morning
With Niitzuma Lovelyxcation, Japanese grooms have been offered the chance to marry their favourite anime character with a real-life wedding ceremony, where only the groom – wearing a VR headset – can see the bride. It’s not hard to see the potential application of this, like being able to marry someone while they’re abroad on military service, for example, or just being able to spend time with a virtual partner that can take on the appearance of someone from your favourite TV show or movie.
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Source: Wareable