10 reasons virtual reality ‘films’ are still a pretty terrible experience
[Philip Lelyveld comment; after this intro portion, the write articulates 10 important, known problems with the current VR equipment, tools, and experience that everyone knows needs to be addressed. That said, I believe that they aren't VR-killers if the experience matches the equipment capabilities and the expectations of the audience for an experience from that equipment. No one expects much for Cardboard, so a great experience there can be a winner.]
People across the nascent medium readily acknowledge that the current narrative content is embryonic at best — and are optimistic, of course, about its horizons. Writes Robert Stromberg, director of The Martian VR Experience in a blog post for 21st Century Fox:
This moment feels very much like the beginning of film. In particular, this intensely different way of experiencing content reminds me of the cinematic lore of the “train effect”: In the early days of cinema, a train on the screen approached the audience, and — alarmed by how realistic the imagery appeared — the moviegoers panicked and ran out of the theater. ... Like those nascent days of film, there’s a power to VR that hasn’t truly been contained yet.
But when is some piece of content going to break out that will finally capture mainstream attention on its own merit?
“There are a couple of reasons why it’s going to happen sooner than you think,” VR pioneer and Emblematic Group CEO Nonny de la Pena told Mashable in between demos of Planned Parenthood clinic experience Across the Line. “And the Oculus pre-order sales of a million headsets were gone within a day is one indicator. … Everybody said it was going to be hard-core gamers, but there are filmmakers flocking to the medium. In fact you hear more about the filmmakers’ pieces than you are about the gaming pieces.”