The current generations of VR are, to me personally, one of the most exciting things in technology since wireless internet.

As mentioned in my other comment below, for disabled people VR is a huge huge deal. Until now it hasn’t really been good enough to truly give you that feeling of “experiencing” something, but playing with the current generation is awe inspiringly good and you can actually get lost in it and feel like you’re there.

I’m really excited for the future of VR for people who are stuck at home or in hospital with disabilities.

There is a whole market opening up for nursing homes in this regard. I'm honestly surprised Facebook hasn't pushed that more because it's such a huge untapped segment and you're talking about a demographic that is perhaps one of the loneliest - we're talking about the generation that would never sit alone at a restaurant, if you walked in and found someone else to be alone you would sit with them and have dinner and talk just because it was a polite thing to do.

It is cool. Its actually close unlike every other vr claim since I was a kid in the 80s,but IMO we aren't there yet. It is useful and it is incredibly fun, but we're just scratching the surface.

I can't wait for hardware to catch up in terms of performance and price.

I actually want to learn vr dev and transition from my netsec gig into doing something cool with VR that helps people. Got a long way to go though.

try it for a few weekends and let us know if the enthusiasm is still there. Imho, VR as a medium doesnt have long term potential

You're half right - VR's problem is it ONLY has long term potential. The hardware is holding them back; Oculus is trying with Quest but people still need to see their hands.

People working with VR don't state this enough - your users are BLIND when you put them in VR. No one likes being blind. This feeling is inherent when you can't see your hands and try to interact. Combine this hardware barrier with the lack of deep content, you are going to have to make a product with some serious depth, something that people can't get anywhere else, before you get buy-in on a consumer level. The biggest problem is that VR is difficult to appreciate until you try it.

I think Facebook is onto something with their face scanning and if you haven't tried Big Screen Beta, which let's you watch movies together, it's pretty awesome.

Industrial applications though, are being done right now. There are some concepts that are so much easier to display or skills to train in VR that simply can't be done anywhere else.

> VR as a medium doesnt have long term potential

I sortof agree, with two caveats. I think VR has potential to greatly impact gaming, and I think VR has the potential to greatly impact a few niche areas, like helping the disabled and specialty industrial uses.

Outside of those, I'm really not seeing it, though.

I’ve been using the Vive almost everyday since release in 2016. My enthusiasm is very much still there! Although most VR apps out there don’t really have enough content or quality to keep the medium exciting for long periods, some apps like Beatsaber have changed my daily exercise routine

A certain technology isn't made conceptually or functionally effective by its ability to capture your imagination every weekend. I've only had an MRI once, but that was pretty incredible in terms of effecting my life. I'm interested to see how constructed experiences that are closer to reality change how we learn, entertain and communicate.

I m pretty sure you dont want to have an MRI every day either. IMHO VR is a great medium for short presentations but not world-changing because of the lack of interaction and generally uncomfortable experience.

What do you mean lack of interaction? I agree the experience is uncomfortable after some time. This was using the HTC Vive. I have used the smaller Rift device before though and that was miles better although the visual aspect was much lower in quality. I think once they make the hardware smaller, lighter and cheaper the novelty could have a larger commonplace in day-to-day.

I've spent more gaming time in my Rift S than not.

For the type of games I play it's a step change in enjoyability.

Racing and space sims basically

As a physically disabled car nerd mostly stuck at home, VR car sims changed my life. It lets me “experience” racing and has drastically increased my quality of life. Even just PSVR with Gran Turismo was absolutely incredible, and I’m now building a full motion PC/Rift based sim that takes my disability into account.

VR has immeasurable amounts of potential for disabled people alone, not just with racing sims but with giving is the ability to “get out” more and experience new things.

Sorry to hear that, I have some serious health issues that while not impacting me much physically often leave me drained after work (and the meds while amazing don't help) and escaping into VR feels so much more relaxing than playing the same game in front of a screen (in part because I spend all day in front of a screen for work I think), it's hard to describe to someone who hasn't done it but after an hour in a good VR title (my favourite example been Project Cars 2) your brain accepts the VR as something close to reality.

I was playing the other day driving around le man in a thunderstorm and when I took the headset off and it was beautiful sunshine outside I was sorta surprised.

I've found using a good set of headphones really helps, the Rift S is a cracking bit of kit but the built in speakers are weak as hell (but they put a 3.5mm on the side so who cares, headphones are great).