No no wait I mean Oh, wait - you saw me coming! Mmmmmmno. Throwing on an Oculus now is remarkably similar to throwing on a Virtual Boy in 1996. It's like wearing a video game on your face. But bonus points for dragging Csikszentmihalyi into it. Jane McGonigal would be so proud. (Everyone else is just confused) The guy who wrote this article graduated last year. It's entirely possible the Nintendo Virtual Boy is older than he is. So while I'm all for optimism, I'm afraid that it's a little more hyperbole than truth when he says "this time it's different." 'cuz those of us who were his age the last time this hype train left the station? Yeah... "flow" got nuthin' to do with it.Virtual reality technology had a highly visible false start in the early nineties, leading many to write the technology off as vaporware. However, even the doubters have had to take notice of the recent resurgence in VR started by the Oculus Rift. These doubters have frequently and loudly wondered what’s different between today’s virtual reality hardware and the machines that caused the failed takeoff in the early nineties.
The difference can be boiled down to a single word — presence.
Presence is the phenomenon that occurs when your brain believes, on a very fundamental level, that a virtual reality experience is really happening. This doesn’t mean that you forget about real life. Rather, it means that when a virtual Tyrannosaurus Rex attacks you, your brain feels an instant pang of terror. It means that your subconscious believes you are there.