Chad Verrall

There’s no increased “presence” in VR. You’re still sitting on a couch looking at a screen and using an input device, it’s just the screen is closer to your eyes. FaceTime improves communication because you’re seeing their face; VR hurts it because you’re seeing a big robot face.

You are 100% incorrect. Immersion and presence are the strength of VR -- With it, I can see your body move, your hands, in addition to hearing your voice and in the future see your face.

You can see someone’s body, hands, and face move via FaceTime TODAY and you don’t have to wear goggles or hold a control device so you’re more free to be authentic and present.

And because you’re seeing their actual face instead of an animated fish or avatar you can see the micro expressions that are an essential part of deep human communication. That’s impossible to replicate in VR until we’ve got a holodeck, like Geoff said.

How many VR games have you played Russ?

I haven't kept track. I've played a decent number but not for long, because wearing VR goggles with the glasses I need to see quickly gives me a headache and some games cause nausea, which is not an issue I have with texting, video chat, or non-VR video games.

As a game developer for 23 years that has worked on flat screen games and now done VR games for 6 years (Lone Echo 1 and Lone Echo 2), I will again say for a fact that presence (seeing your hands, being at a location) is greater than non-VR games. Immersion in VR is greater.

That's awesome and I think VR is perfectly fine for games! I'm not talking about games, though, Geoff's original post was talking about basic communication like Zuck was selling it for. I was a game designer for 6 years then switched careers to online education.