If you have ever spent much time inside of a modern VR headset then chances are you’ve had your fair share of “Wow!” moments. But not many people have actually had a WoW (World of Warcraft) moment in VR because Blizzard’s actual game doesn’t have VR support. As the most popular Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) on the planet, it was only a matter of time before fans took the mission of solving that feature’s absence into their own hands.
Originally created by user Puffycheeks in Unity, the video shows YouTube user Ultra (a friend/colleague of the creator) exploring the city of Dalaran from inside an HTC Vive headset. You can even see models of the Vive wands floating in place of his hands. Check it out (we hosted it on our channel with permission from Ultra):
The video is very long because he flies around and explores every inch of the city. When stationed on the street-level he looks up and marvels at the sheer sense of scale. Perhaps more so than anything else, that is what is missing from most modern non-VR MMOs that release these days. It’s very difficult to capture a feeling of awe and wonder with modern flat games.
This is a far cry from a playable mod or anything like that. Essentially, it looks like the city’s 3D model was transplanted into Unity and is simply explored as you would if it were an actual game world. Jason Trenkoski (aka Ultra) describes it to us as a “walking experience” for now.
In order for something like this to ever work in the game itself Blizzard would have to enable it. There has been zero indication that they’d ever be interested in doing something like that, at least not in the short term.
“As for now, we’re continuing to work on more maps, we’ve got molten core coming soon (perhaps a week or 2) but the aim is to try and get as many cities and experiences put into virtual reality and really recapture that nostalgia,” writes Trenkoski over email. “Turning this into a game isn’t the aim for this, but after its all completed (which will take some time) we will look into doing a co-op experience or something of the sort.”
But still: it makes you wonder. With games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4 both getting full VR support, is a fully-fledged VR MMO closer than we might think? The prospect of playing a game like World of Warcraft, EverQuest, The Elder Scrolls Online, or Guild Wars 2 inside of a VR headset makes my mouth water.
Here’s another video of World of Warcraft VR that Trenkoski uploaded, this time exploring the city of Stormwind.
What do you think of the footage in the videos above? Let us know down in the comments below!
