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Someone Will Die Playing a Game In Virtual Reality 144

Posted by timothy from the and-in-augmented-reality-too dept.
SlappingOysters writes: Grab It has detailed a hands-on session with horror VR title Kitchen — from Resident Evil creator Capcom — and argues how the physical reaction to the experience could lead to death. The site also believes that classifying VR games will be a challenge and many titles could be banned. Virtual Reality has a big year ahead, with the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus all set to release, while Microsoft is working on the HoloLens, which the site argues adds a further challenge to traditional gaming.
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Someone Will Die Playing a Game In Virtual Reality

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  • Classification an Interesting Issue (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SlappingOysters ( 1344355 ) on Saturday July 04, 2015 @06:32AM (#50043099)
    I cannot talk for other countries, but in Australia, a rating is determined by the impact a piece of media has over a range of categories. The impact of the experience described in this article would be extreme. That would suggest Refused Classification (which is basically banned). It will be interesting to see how these titles fit into the classification in tough countries like Australia and Germany - people could be hard at work right now on games that won't be allowed to be released (legally at least) in many countries.
    • Anytime you let government make decisions about the impact of games, you're likely to suffer. If over-reacting legislatures had there way, there would be no D&D games from TSR in the 70's, no telnet MUDs in the 90's, no WoW in the 00's. Would we be better served by removing any of these?
      • for people with heart conditions and pregnant women.

        No news. Adding death warnings to labels on scary things has been an advertising gimmick since at least the 50's.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by rioki ( 1328185 )

          What's new? VR will have a new and improved iteration on the epilepsy warning label. But then doing anything is dangerous, if you do it wrong or have a predisposed condition.

          I demand that beds have warning labels! Excessive lying in bed can cause a plethora of health conditions, not limited to bone loss and muscle atrophy. /s

    • What do you think the Virtual Reality version of Frogger [wikipedia.org] would be classified as?

      • I guess if there are cars whizzing past you on both sides and you need to try and run/jump between them that would be pretty damn intense. You could soften it with super cartoony graphics, but still, going to be "Mature" you'd think. You wouldn't want a kid to think, "hey, I can totally dodge these cars on the highway as I have been practicing in Frogger VR"

  • > Someone may die playing a game
    > Some VR games may be banned under some nebulous concept of too much immersion

    Ahhh, lawyers. Is there nothing you can't invent ways for corporations to throw money at you over?

  • permaterm (Score:5, Funny)

    by alphatel ( 1450715 ) * on Saturday July 04, 2015 @06:37AM (#50043111)
    Finally, a way to be rid of noobs for good.
    • Soon you'll be crying out for a VR game allowing you to interact with a hoard of idiotic noobs. I know of IT departments that are already looking to outsource their hell desks to you, AND charge you for the pleasure.

  • 'Someone will die playing VR games'. (Score:3, Funny)

    by queazocotal ( 915608 ) on Saturday July 04, 2015 @06:43AM (#50043121)

    This article was brought to you by the makers of quality monitors, that are all you need, and do not cause your brain to melt like goggles do.

  • There should be a wavier on birth (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Karmashock ( 2415832 ) on Saturday July 04, 2015 @06:50AM (#50043129)

    Something along the lines of "you understand that beyond this point there are real dangers beyond the reasonable or desirable control of society and assume responsible responsibility for your own well being."

    I can't believe all the stupid shit that is banned or that people have to be warned about because they're just that stupid. My personal favorite was a waiver I had to sign before using an ice rink. It literally was about absolving the rink from responsibility should I slip on the ice and fall... as well getting my initials next to a statement where they inform me that ice is slippery and they wanted it on record that I had been informed of that.

    And that sort of thing is just everywhere.

    My big issue with these rating systems is not that they exist. I think ratings are fine. My issue is that some countries take the step that if something gets a bad rating or refuses to be rated... that they presume to BAN whatever it is. That's not acceptable. By all means... slap warning labels on things.

    I'd like a universal one that just basically reads "for adults only"... and then I'd put that on everything. Anyone that can't handle it will be assumed to be a child... even if they're 40 years old... and will be asked to go back to the various kiddy pools where they'll be kept safe from the big bad world.

    Can a VR game scare the piss out of you? Sure. A survival horror game can do that already without VR. And if you have a heart condition or something then there are already games that can kill you. But it isn't the game killing you... its your fucking heart condition. And if you have one... maybe you should be smart enough to not play a game that is guaranteed to scare a little pee out of you.

    • Yes, well... pacman and the ghosts scared the shit out of me :( And I won't even mention the Commodore 64 version of Friday the 13th because I've blocked it from my mind. Maybe I should stay away from this VR. :(

    • I can't believe all the stupid shit that is banned or that people have to be warned about because they're just that stupid. My personal favorite was a waiver I had to sign before using an ice rink. It literally was about absolving the rink from responsibility should I slip on the ice and fall... as well getting my initials next to a statement where they inform me that ice is slippery and they wanted it on record that I had been informed of that.

      This is what the world looks like without single-payer health care. On the other hand, they often don't bother fixing the walks in Australia because there's no motivation. If someone trips and injures themselves they just go to the doctor, and society suffers. On the third hand, we don't bother fixing the walks here in America because fuck you.

  • Of course (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    If you die in the matrix, you die in real life.

  • So stupid... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ...and the extreme speed of trains will of course also kill you.

  • What if you're playing a virtual reality game, click logout, and the system says "I can't let you do that, Dave" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
  • Someone Will Die Playing a Game while walking across the street.
  • Sorry, this is just bullshit!

  • Not new (Score:3)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Saturday July 04, 2015 @07:41AM (#50043235) Journal

    the physical reaction to the experience could lead to death.

    Horror movies used to have these warnings, and like this one, they were nothing but marketing.

    Here's a poster from an old William Castle horror flick where they promise to insure you for $1000 against death by fright.

    https://mattmulcahey.wordpress... [wordpress.com]

    And you know what? I bet at some point someone died of natural causes by watching a movie, just as someone will die of natural causes from watching a VR game. Nobody's going to "die of fright" from playing a CAPCOM horror game.

    Also, in popular culture a "ban" is almost always a great way to promote sales. CAPCOM's just trying to sell some video games with a more sophisticated, up-to-date version of, "If you have heart disease or are weak of constitution, you should DEFINITELY NOT see this film!".

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by phorm ( 591458 )

      "just as someone will die of natural causes from watching a VR game"

      And how are you going to be sure they died of a heart attack due to fright and now due to an diet of excessive pizza, chips, and Redbull?

      • And how are you going to be sure they died of a heart attack due to fright and now due to an diet of excessive pizza, chips, and Redbull?

        That's my point. Any FUD you hear about the "dangers of VR" is nothing but marketing to the gamers, who as a whole, are not a particularly bright bunch.

  • Can someone ship such games to our 'allies'? (Score:3)

    by unixisc ( 2429386 ) on Saturday July 04, 2015 @07:42AM (#50043239)

    In the war on ISIS, we've been on the losing end b'cos the Iraqi cowards have fled leaving US given weapons to ISIS, who are even better armed than before, despite the loss of their ability to sell Syrian oil.

    So how about this idea - instead of our weaponry, sell or give such VR games to the Iraqis (and Syrians) on the newer frontlines. They will flee, leaving those toys in the hands of ISIS. ISIS volunteers will play those games just out of curiousity or b'cos they want to, and drop dead! In fact, w/ some luck, such success could even spread to other Islamic groups, such as Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, al Qaeda, et al

  • To paraphrase South Park... [wikipedia.org] "Anime did it!" [imdb.com]

  • If can be done, someone will do it, no matter how brilliant or stupid it is.

  • Because golf, bowling, hunting, soccer, kayaking, and blackjack/hookers have had quite a lot of people drop dead on the fly.
  • Surely there would already be a long list of people who have died while watching TV, playing videogames, or putzing around on the phone while sitting on the couch; at least if such incidents weren't(while individually tragic), so boring that nobody has bothered to compile a list?

    This is not to say that highly immersive simulations are riskless; I'd personally want to be either sitting down, or in a decent sized room with no sharp-edge furniture and ideally a cushy carpet if I were going to play some VR h

  • we would just need to have a new rating system... the systems we have are retarded. esrb is a bunch of assholes who just shake down companies for money.

  • In John Carmack's in-depth critique of a horror genre GearVR game https://www.facebook.com/perma... [facebook.com] he too had a thought that people will die from VR: 'Some of the scares are just perfect â" walking along, see a table off to the side, turn to pick up loot, turn back to carry on, and *JESUS CHRIST*!!! Someone is going to have a heart attack in a VR horror game, it is only a matter of time. There were also times when I was legitimately afraid for a minute or two, since I really didnâ(TM)t know what

  • I wouldn't be surprised if someone did something stupid and died.

  • Does this concern anyone else? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by areusche ( 1297613 ) on Saturday July 04, 2015 @09:01AM (#50043485)

    I remember buying Grand Theft Auto 5 the day of its release and jumping right in. I loved all of the features and the advancement of the game. The story was great, but it felt shorter than the previous games especially San Andreas.

    I went online and saw some people mentioning all of the mini games. "Go buy in game stock! Go do Yoga/tennis/pimp out your car/go do multiplayer."

    Multiplayer! Awesome, just what I needed. However, GTA 5 multiplayer has so many stupid rules. You're telling me if i steal someone's car and blow it up it'll cost me money to replace it? The last kicker was the cost of property. $1.5 million for houses. Your mission payouts are only $1000 a pop too.

    What's the point in grinding for all of this pointless crap in a video game when i can do all of this outside in the real world and grind for real? VR offers more of the same. So you spend 500 hours playing mini games in some VR Los Santos. What do you really have to show for it?

    TL;DR: young guy realized that real life is the ultimate video game and went outside.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Greyfox ( 87712 )
      Heh, yeah. I took up skydiving in 2012 and the progression does feel very much like a video game. Can't advance until you demonstrate proficiency in the current training level yadda yadda. I'm building useful skills, actually have a social life now and am in much better shape than I was before. And my accomplishments are actually meaningful to me. Down sides are it's a pretty expensive hobby and has a higher than average chance of killing me. I'm pretty conservative under canopy, though.

      I'm still pretty i

      • useful? (Score:2)

        by hawk ( 1151 )

        >I'm building useful skills,

        useful???

        The overwhelming majority of the population gets through their entire lives without finding jumping out of a perfectly good airplane "useful" . . . :)

        hawk

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Greyfox ( 87712 )
          Well, they'll be useful when I decide to start jumping off perfectly good cliffs. If I ever get sick of IT, I could make a better-than-average living packing parachutes or possibly even flying a jump plane. I'd need to go get a pilot's license and a commercial rating for the latter, but demand definitely exceeds supply for skydiving pilots. Just because the majority of people never picks up a skill (Like lockpicking, contact juggling, parquor, etc) doesn't mean those skills aren't useful. They just require

        • Re:useful? (Score:4, Funny)

          by Swave An deBwoner ( 907414 ) on Saturday July 04, 2015 @11:14AM (#50043905)

          useful???

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper [wikipedia.org]

  • that's the plot of Gemini Game by Michael Scott (published in 1997)
  • Not from some lame VR game, but because people will become disoriented, trip over something and smash their heads in.

  • To me this sounds like the not uncommon hype that seems to follow the release of indifferent 'horror' movies. Like the one called something like 'The Human Centipede', which was supposed to be the most incredibly extreme horro movie ever. Only, it turned out to be a flop, hardly worth a shrug, something that could have been thought up by a couple of teen-agers and filmed on a smartphone.

    I don't know, maybe I've grown too critical with age - I've stopped having night-mares because I tend to wake up and think

  • Actually, the question is going to be whether VR kills more people, or saves more people, or has no statistical effect. People die at fairly predictable rates, so if you have a given number of people you can assume that a certain number of them will drop dead if you let them sit around long enough. But wait, the kind of people who go to any particular event will skew the results considerably; the death rate at Burning Man is below the national average in spite of it being more dangerous conditions than aver

  • Someone will die NOT playing a game in virtual reality, too. Let's classify and regulate reality, too.

  • Seizure problems with video games have been a thing since video games have been a thing. I can rember a friend's stepdad in the 80's having seizure issues with video games. Did that make him stop? No, he still loved playing. He made a choice to do it.

    Do we ban every form of entertainment that has flashy lights because there are some people that just can't resist? Or do we make sure that products with this are still labeled correctly? Maybe we should even fund research into seizures and curing the problem?

  • "If you die in the game (or a dream), you die in real life" is one of the most tired plot devices in fiction. It's on my short list of things that will make me stop reading a book, along with "hero loses their powers" and "best friend becomes worst enemy".

  • http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00... [imdb.com]
    It was about full brain recording and playback, kind of a super VR that Mark Zuckerberg talked about this week. (plot of many scifi stories)
    In the movie someone dies during a recording session. Then it becomes a tug of war for the recording between police who are investigating a suspicious death and scientists who want to see if there is life after death.
    Plus there is an ironic twist that the lead actress dies of a drowning "accident" during the filming. But some peopl

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