The “year of VR” is less than half over and virtual reality is already seeping into mainstream culture again.
There have been some high-profile news reports, appearances on late night TV and commercials spotlighting VR’s availability to consumers, plus more than 7 million people at Six Flags amusement parks will see the Samsung Gear VR headset on a roller coaster this year. A different kind of mainstream appearance for VR is on the way though. Late last year Modern Family spent a fair amount of time spotlighting VR and, this week, The Big Bang Theory showed the Zeiss VR One headset during the show.
Fantasy over. #BigBangTheory pic.twitter.com/6WZ77umGD6
— The Big Bang Theory (@bigbangtheory) April 8, 2016
This is only the beginning. Given that the consumer Vive and Rift are now shipping to consumers on an ongoing basis, screenwriters can plausibly include walk-around or hand-controlled VR into their storylines going forward. Brace yourself for the return of “VR as plot device.” Sure, VR has been on TV before, most notably in the ’90s as Star Trek‘s holodeck, but it hasn’t been a technology you could buy at a store 15 minutes from your house. In other words, a whole range of shows from procedural dramas to sitcoms can incorporate the technology into stories as it would be relatively plausible for a character to be interacting with the technology.
And then there are the movies. My expectations might be a bit high (or a bit low) but it certainly seems like filmmakers could churn out a VR-focused horror movie before the end of the year. Freddy Krueger could hack a character to pieces inside VR and Jason Voorhees could sneak up on a character while they’re inside. For Hollywood, the allure of using VR for a story is almost too good to pass up. I bet the appearance of VR on The Big Bang Theory — a show seen by millions — is a taste of what’s to come as more people get their hands on high-quality consumer VR.
