VIP Spotlight: VRME

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Virtual reality attracts a unique mix of gamers, tech enthusiasts, and visionaries—each with a compelling story to tell. We want to know what makes them tick, so we’re featuring top players within the Raw Data community in a series of interviews here on Survios.com.

For today’s VIP Spotlight, we reached out to Japan-based Brit VRME for his thoughts on VR gaming.

What convinced you to become a VR early adopter?
To be honest, I’d been out of gaming for a good few years. Nothing managed to capture me anymore quite like it used to. Maybe I’m getting old or perhaps I just noticed the change in the way games were being developed. I’m just glad I wasn’t around to get stumped by the microtransaction trend. Even when the Oculus Rift turned up I had little interest to delve into VR.

However, after stumbling across the guys at Node playing Raw Data with the Vive, I was pretty astounded! I mean could you have painted a prettier ideal for a fan of sci-fi’s and fps’s!? From that point on, my ambition to try out VR shot from 0-100 and I started to see all the other capabilities VR had to offer. There was just one question: how do I get my hands on it?!

Contrary to popular belief, tech in Japan is either ridiculously overpriced or quite simply unavailable. Great. The Vive was indeed initially unavailable, then when it landed, it was $300 more expensive than in America. Double great!

Miraculously enough, I found a fellow foreigner selling a Vive in mint condition at a considerable discount. I don’t think the planets could have aligned any better for me to jump on the bandwagon. I leaped at the opportunity and haven’t looked back since.

I now demo out my Vive to the local area at http://www.vrme.tokyo and ponder how long it’ll be until your grandma sends you a friend request, with everyone now having access to some kind of VR device.

What has been your favorite Raw Data moment so far?
When it comes to describing a flamboyant robot crouch stab that wins the game or a dominating roly-poly of doom, I tend to feel they’re a little over shadowed from winning the #PlaylikeaBOSS competition. It made my day with the Survios team recognizing my efforts, as well as seeing others enticed to try new things. It’s great fun thinking of interesting ways to play like a boss with what VR gives you!

What other VR games have impressed you?
It’s still early days and early access for most, but there’s promise within:

  • HVR-01‘s amazing locomotion.
  • Rec Room‘s simple ability to get everyone playing and connect others easily.
  • WEVR’s stunning experiences that show not everything has to be a bow and arrow game.
  • The Lab‘s diversity and interactivity.
  • Svrvive‘s overall concept. I like their take on story driven puzzle solving and interested to see where this heads.
  • Tilt Brush’s creativity.

Which of your all-time favorite games would you most like to see remade in VR?
Doom VR! Which is already in the works! Hopefully they can pull it off because holy balls Doom 4 was such a refreshing experience. As for Serious Sam, you’re on my wishlist baby, just working on getting you.

On the other side of the spectrum, I would love some sort of take on Omikron: The Nomad Soul. A creative dimension with a story that warps you into uneasiness with its take on realities, yet still connects directly to you. It was an open-world, shooter, rpg, beat ’em up and music video all in one! I adored it and unlike others felt it worked surprisingly well. With VR you are yourself, but to transcend through various forms and alter play through different techniques in a similar manner, would be very impressive. A unique experience with depth is something I think we all crave and I really hope VR can open up these avenues for gamer’s again.

What brand new concept would you love to see in VR that hasn’t happened yet?
Ultimately I’m looking towards the horror genre. I’m dying to experience something that manages to immerse you, especially in unbelievable fear but without just riding the gimmick of VR or jump scares. I think there’s some truly interesting and engaging mechanics that could be introduced through horror, that couldn’t otherwise necessarily take place in other genres, but perhaps would open doors. It doesn’t have to be extravagant either. I mean, look at what Amnesia did. You could really see the developer step out the box with Amnesia when compared to their early title Penumbra. They made it simpler and tuned a primary mechanic.

That being said, when new concepts come out I would implore the dev’s to release demos along with early access and for players to take the time to rave and support their likings. The community is still small, especially with things that make use of the extraordinary capabilities of the HTC Vive. So yes, it matters if you piss us off and make us pay for another generic archery game.

Eyes on you now Survios to see if you can pull off the next hero, because I have a feeling they’re gonna have a bow (hehe)!

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Thanks VRME for taking the time to chat with us! And be sure to stay tuned for more VIP Spotlights from our amazing community. To learn more about the Raw Data VIP program, tweet at us!