Recently I had a few people try the Oculus Rift and tell me their thoughts. Many agreed that while the technology was mind blowing, something important was lacking: a social element.

Games like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes provide at least a small remedy to that problem. This game allows two or more people to get together and enjoy virtual reality while in one another’s company. One person wears the Rift and describes a bomb, while everyone else frantically flips through a manual and tries to tell the person how to defuse the bomb. header.png

However, once my friends left and I was alone in my room with the Rift, I realized that there was still something missing. Though trying demos on my own was fun, there was an online gaming element that I wanted incorporated in VR.

In a recent report published on Polygon.com, studies found that frequent gamers spend 6.5 hours a week playing games with others online and 5 hours a week playing with others in person (http://www.polygon.com/2015/4/14/8415611/gaming-stats-2015). While gamers do enjoy playing games with others in the same room as them, they spend an average of 1.5 more hours playing with others online.

I searched for a game that could incorporate the idea of playing with others online into VR and eventually came across CasinoVR.

In this demo you are given an avatar (currently just a dark-haired male, as the demo is still under development) and you can walk around inside a carpeted casino, go up to a poker table and play some games.

The first time I played CasinoVR I was a little disappointed. The game requires there to be at least one other player on in order to play poker and when I went on, no one else was there. Still, I found the graphics beautiful and spent ten or so minutes wandering around and looking at the slot machines and tables. casino-vr-gesture.jpg

A few days after I first tried CasinoVR, I read that they were having a meet up. I was excited to try out the game with fellow VR enthusiasts.

I entered the casino fifteen minutes after the meet up started and was pleased to find two full tables of people playing poker. I sat down at the first table, used the voice chat feature to say hello and then played some poker.

The entire experience was some of the most fun I had had on virtual reality. I was able to talk to twenty or so different people all with the same interest and excitement for VR.

I think social experiences will be the key to VR’s success. People like to feel connected to other people, especially if those people share their interests.

I’m excited to see what CasinoVR has in store for the future. I hope that in time its playerbase will grow so that more people can experience one if the best aspects of virtual reality. Social VR has so much potential, and I believe people will take to that much more willingly than they even suspect.

I also hope that more games will be developed that incorporate a social aspect Games like these will provide a wonderful opportunity for collaboration and may even help to produce new projects within virtual reality as well as cultivate new friendships.

Featured Image: @casinovr on Twitter

Keep Talking Image: http://www.keeptalkinggame.com/

Casino Table Image: http://www.roadtovr.com/first-look-casino-vr-social-vr-meets-texas-holdem/