Virtual Insanity

As about 40.000 people on the planet, I’m patiently waiting for my Oculus Rift DK2 to arrive.

Although I’m impatient to get it, I’m not going insane, a trait that some members on the Oculus dev forums or subreddit are clearly exhibiting. Am I annoyed ? Slightly. Am I mad at Oculus ? Definitely no (though if I ever run into Palmer Luckey I’ll only buy him regular juice and not that expensive organic cranberry apple juice).

I’ve been shipping software long enough to understand that it’s tough to make estimates, even more so when you’re innovating.

I’ve been in small start-ups and not so small corporations and understand that PR is a tricky job. And although I’m a firm believer in being open and honest, there’s a way and a time to present information. There’s no way to please everybody, it’s a balancing act and there will always be someone to call out the conspiracy theory.

I also do understand the slight difference between making a prototype, making 100 copies of some hardware and making several tens of thousands of pieces in a month. Can you make yourself a sandwich ? Can you make sandwiches for all of E3 attendees lunch ?

But seriously, Oculus, where is my rift ? What am I gonna do without it ? Well I’m just gonna do the same thing I did yesterday.

Looking at forum posts, I think some clarification of the meaning of urgency is required:

Getting the organ for that transplant that will save a life: urgent Drilling a hole to put a nuclear warhead in a meteorite and save the earth: urgent Getting the latest tech gadget to play around or even to work on your next great invention: no so urgent Seriously, instead of just waiting and whining, do something for VR. I’m sure you can still create some 3D models, improve that bit of code, re-think the UX of your game or simply listen to the many great podcasts on the topic.

I can hear the critics say “It’s just because you’re not a core VR enthusiast”. Well it’s true I did not participate in the kick starter (can’t remember if I even noticed it before it closed) or even ordered a DK1 (I nearly did a couple of times but never pulled the trigger).

But the truth is I’m not a new comer to VR either (more on this in follow up posts) and it took me a bit of time to realize that, this time, VR is here to stay. So, with or without a rift, I’m fully on board.