One of the most respected game developers in the business, Warren Spector, has been a fairly vocal critic of virtual reality’s recent resurgence of late. But in a recent interview, the Deus Ex creator says he’s changed his mind and that “You may see me dabbling in VR yet”.

There are few games of my generation which has garnered such universal praise as the first person action-RPG Deus Ex. It was a genre-busting, game-changing, rip-roaringly flawed master-class in game design and of overcoming technical limitations and critical expectations. As head of the Austin branch of Ion Storm, the studio formed by ex-id founder John Romero, Warren Spector steered clear of the disasters unfolding at Romero’s own studio in Texas (anyone remember Daikatana?) to build the complex and compelling Deus Ex atop the Unreal Engine, eventually releasing it to critical acclaim in 2000. To say Deus Ex is much loved is to massively underplay just how important the game was to legions of PC gamers.

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And so, when a developer of that kind of pedigree takes a negative stance on a subject, related to gaming, the gaming industry tends to sit up and take notice. Having been stung by his embrace of VR technology circa 1994 Spector, speaking just a couple of months ago to Kotaku, said:

“This is where I look like an idiot in five years, but I just don’t care,” he laughs. “I was a big supporter of VR in 1994 when we did System Shock and Wings of Glory and supported the Vortay VFX1 headset and the Cybermax headset. And I just don’t believe fundamentally that people are going to want to put a goofy set of glasses on, isolate themselves from the world and play games that way. They’re not going to want to look stupid and they’re not going to want to be so isolated they can’t tell when somebody’s looking over their shoulder making fun of them.

“Prediction is a fool’s game, but I personally don’t have any interest and I think there’s a lot of hype and a lot of buzz. And I’ve certainly put on an Oculus Rift and seen some cool stuff, but as a player, I’m not very interested and as a developer, I’m not interested at all.“

Which not only disappointed VR enthusiasts who were also fans of his work, it gave extra ammunition to those entrenched in their own VR-sceptic positions.

It’s a difficult thing to admit you’re wrong, especially when U-turning from such a seemingly fatalistic stance. So, kudos to Spector, as in his most communique to Kotaku, he admits that after much more consideration (and a considerable amount of brow beating by the sounds of it) he has “..started to come around,” to the idea of developing in VR.

“Since the interview that led to [Kotaku’s] Johnny Cullen’s article about teaching design, and after many discussions with developer friends and gamers of all stripes, my thoughts have changed some on the VR front,” Spector admits. “I still worry a lot about the non-content issues around VR, the human issues that seem to me to be largely unsolvable: humans not wanting to wear goofy-looking glasses… isolation from your surroundings, not knowing who’s there with you and not being able to share the experience with others… the space required when you kind of have to move around to get the full experience… Those are the things that specifically concern me. Those are the things I wish people would talk about publicly when they talk about widespread/mainstream adoption of VR. (I have no idea if people are talking about these issues behind closed doors, for what it’s worth.)”

What does this mean for virtual reality as a gaming platform? It means that one of the gaming industry’s most respected creator may concentrate some of his talent in helping to build the new renaissance. “You can blast me for what I thought and said earlier, here and elsewhere but I hope people will give me credit for being a learning animal. I’ve started to come around. Colour me dubious, but intrigued (as I was in the ‘90s, the last time VR was The Next Big Thing). So ignore what I said in that interview about not being interested from a developer standpoint at least. You may see me dabbling in VR yet. Now, let’s talk about those human issues I cited above and see if we can solve them!”

Quite what, where, how and when we’ll see anything from Warren Spector, developed for the VR space, is as yet unclear. However, just the knowledge that he’s thinking about it is exciting enough for me, and I suspect many others out there.

 

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • Darshan Gayake

    I want to see same reaction from ‘James Cameron’ can any one VR Baptise him?

    Sure it does not matter too much if Mr.’X’ says Y about Z thing if you already tried Z thing and you are pretty intrigued from what is potential. Sure what he thinks if he has great potential to create content for ‘Z’ thus imo Warren Spector’s opinion has more relevancy to James Cameron even though later is more known out side game circle.

    His concerns are genuine and pretty self explanatory. why would any one invest time and money in building some thing for platform which has very high risk of not being successful. Opposite is also true what if you make true compelling experience for platform that people neglect few downsides and adopt platform exclusively to try your creation..Didn’t Cameron did this when he first attempted Avatar. How many Stereo 3D movies were there before Avatar and how many after, number tells true story.

    If road to vr can convey this is my humble suggestion to Mr.Warren Spector that VR Equipment has much more maturity and Economical accessibility to masses then what it was in 90s

    So if he learn present hardware limitation and cook up something wonderful around what tools and hardware available (There is vast potential in humble Google Cardboard too) that be so compelling that people prioritize experience over hassles Sure VR Age is here and he can very well be rewarded for that too guaranteed.

  • augure

    It’s a shame but he’s absolutely right: VR is dead until the half/late 2020s. It’s better than the 90s destiny that saw the demise and potentially the disappearance of VR until Palmer Luckey’s Oculus. But it is as certain that the VR launches of next year are doomed to fail.
    1. Desktop/Console HMD are clunky, limited and way too expensive. The fact that an Oculus or Vive System (PC hardware+HDM>1200€) or the cheaper PS4 option (PS4+VR>800€) are still expensive for most people is a big problem, especially for a new category of product.
    The fact that most people don’t care, think you look like a dork and that the hardware are indeed clunky and tethered doesn’t really entice people to buy such device in a era of ultra-portability, miniaturisation etc…
    2. They’re too much imperfect and incomplete: the fact that you have a device which premise it to immerse you in the virtual world, but that your body and hands still have to reach into reality to awkwardly manipulate you gamepad or keyboard/mouse, while the first thing most people try when they first put on an HMD is to see their hands, says a lot about huge mistake of the lack of hand motion. And it is the same thing for freedom of movement, body tracking or simply the fact that VR headset are ultra tethered (with I don’t how many cable and clunky accessories like trackers and hand tools. This is almost the cliché of a future failure to come
    3. Content: there simply is not enough argument or good enough technology for VR to be adopted fast enough so that content creator invest and keep investing in VR. With friend and colleagues we already saw a big lack of updates, the big unnerving mess that the runtime and drivers are made us all completely disinterested in VR eventually.
    4. So since I work in a prospective/intelligence agency, you can bet that we’re all sure the imminent launch of VR will fail like in the 90s. Except that the amateur community that’ll keep experimenting with it, although the whole market as quickly forgotten it, will be big enough to make the technologies evolve the coming decade so that eventually it finally becomes the product it should’ve already been for people to mass adopt it.