We recently took a class trip to Otherworld VR in Hackney in what I found to be a really fun and informative experience, the décor was layed out in a stereotypical sci-fi aesthetic and it was hard to not feel like I was in a black mirror episode or something from minority report.
I think this was part of the experience though. While technically the experience itself begins when you enter the pod and put the headset on, the setup and lead into the VR experience is very important. In a VR storytelling workshop with the National Youth Theatre a few years ago, the people running it stressed that the onboarding and off boarding of the experience was very important for the immersion and comfort of the user. And so this sci-fi aesthetic was important to putting us in the right frame of mind.
I had a really interesting experience, doing some multiplayer and some singleplayer, the movement in the overworld was quite jarring however once I entered the games it became a lot less nauseous. The heaters and fans in the pods we entered initially felt like a gimmick. However, in one game I found myself swinging from tree to tree and when I picked up enough speed the fans turned on to simulate the wind in my face which most certainly aided in the feeling that I was moving quickly.
There were a few issues that broke my immersion, there wasn’t any time that I fully forgot I was in the VR world however at points the tracking would mess up, or I would hit the side of the pod, or the headset would move a few centimeters and ruin the view coming through it. These are all factors of the technology and not the medium itself and eventually they feel like they will become non-issues as the technology advances.
I slightly feel that this is a better way to experience VR, its a space dedicated to it which allows you to change your state of mind to better immerse yourself, the pods themselves feel safer and easier to setup in as you don’t have you worry about accidentally clearing a shelf or stepping on a pet during your experience. And its more accessible than a headset + computer able to run VR (unless you’re using the Quest) + the cost of the games. This way you can have a quick, low cost, low hassle dip into Virtual Reality.