VIP Spotlight: Master Shadow

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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 Master Shadow for his thoughts on VR gaming.

What convinced you to become a VR early adopter?
I’ve had a controller in my hands as far back as my memory goes. I’ve always been a gamer. Always will be. Even went to school for Game and Simulation programming after getting out of the Corp. So naturally when VR was finally announced I immediately wanted one. I think it’s every gamer’s dream to not only be able to visit, but actually live in the worlds we play in. I know it was/IS mine.

So, there really wasn’t any convincing me. I’d bought into VR long before it was announced I just needed to convince my wallet…

I was just starting my present career when the Rift Kickstarter launched or I would have backed that in a heartbeat. Thankfully, now I’m in a stable position where I can be an early adopter and get to play with all the cool toys. That’s part of what motivated me to start my YouTube channel and share those experiences.

What has been your favorite Raw Data moment so far?
To be honest, this. Being invited into the VIP program and to be interviewed. When I started my little hobby channel. I never though I’d get much traction or be noticed much less get to play with the CEO of one of my favorite VR games.

If I had to pick a moment in game, it would be finally getting the clear on Nuke Fusion while playing with the devs. I learned a lot in those couple of attempts. There are two reasons: The first being that it really felt like an accomplishment. I like difficult games that give you that feeling like you’ve put effort into something and were finally able to achieve what you were trying to do. The other, is that the devs reached out and offered to play with me when I posted to the Steam discussion boards. Not something that happens very often. The interactions with the Survios employees has been almost as enjoyable as the game itself. The culture that Survios appears to have really means a lot to me as a gamer.

What other VR games have impressed you?
Aside from Raw Data, the other two in my top list are currently Onward and Vanishing Realms.

Vanishing Realms is the VR RPG we need. Some are turned off by the somewhat cartoony graphics but I think they fit the game. The latest combat update that introduced Warriors challenge and some new areas was a lot of fun to go back and replay. I can’t wait for the next chapter.

I bought Onward on a whim, figuring I’d try it, do a video or two and put it down. Thirty-seven how-to videos later…. OK, maybe not that many,  but it feels like it! Onward really captures the adrenaline rush of facing off against an opponent where one wrong step, one mistake and you’re gone. It’s all real skill too. No bunny hopping and who’s got a twitchier wrist. It’s about who actually knows how to reload a M249 SAW and can accurately put rounds downrange. It’s a game that has to be experienced to really understand. Dante is also another dev that communicates frequently with the community and we love him for it.

Honorable mentions go to Space Pirate Trainer and Holopoint. Even though they’re wave shooters, they gave me several hours of fun. Emily Wants to Play also deserves a spot on this list for being one of the few games to actually scare the hell out of me with that first jump scare. Call of the Starseed also deserves a place up here as a great story-focused game/experience.

Which of your all-time favorite games would you most like to see remade in VR?
Final Fantasy VI. To stand next to Terra, Locke, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Shadow and the rest of the cast… It would probably be a really bad game to convert to VR but I’d fanboy over it in a heartbeat. Chrono Trigger would probably do better in VR. I miss SquareSoft…

Borderlands. I’d settle for a Borderlands clone too. Some story focused loot treadmill game with some co-op play? Sign me up!

Any of the Elder Scrolls games should be recreated as VR titles. That would sell VR headsets. Hello? Vive? Make this happen!

What brand new concept would you love to see in VR that hasn’t happened yet?
It might be a shorter list to ask what concepts I’m done with. Stationary wave shooter high score chasers and to a lesser extent horror titles can ease back. I’d like to move out of the VRcade era and into a place where we have real content. This might be an odd answer since the question is about new concepts but let’s start getting into more traditional game loops. Something with a beginning, middle and an end. Something with motivation and purpose. Something that changes and builds upon itself, introducing new mechanics each level. Off the top of my head, Raw Data and Vanishing Realms are the only two games I’m aware of that are doing this, though I admit to having a rather large backlog of titles to play.

Story-focused FPSs like Half-Life, Halo or Borderlands.

RPGs!! Both single player and MMO.

VR Roguelikes.

Games that allow modding in new maps for replayability (Raw Data feature request pls!)

More quality melee-focused games. It would be hard but a really well done melee PvP game would be amazing.

Human-based flight. Let me blast off like Superman or Goku.

If I don’t stop I’ll turn into a 5-year-old kid in a candy store and start rambling. I’ll take one of those, and one of those and that over there… I might already be too late…

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Thanks Master Shadow 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!