[Despite their improved ability to evoke compelling presence illusions, there are still many significant barriers to providing consumers with sustained presence experiences that lead to adoption and continued use of virtual reality headsets. In this essay from Make Use Of (MUO), a tech enthusiast describes five of these barriers (I’d add the lack of effective, inexpensive accommodation for those of us who wear corrective eyeglasses, and too-often overly complex operation and glitchy performance). –Matthew]

VR Simply Doesn’t Interest Me: Here’s Why It Fails to Capture My Attention

By Oluwademilade Afolabi
September 2, 2024

I really lucked out in scoring a Meta Quest 2 for a decent price just after it hit the shelves. Those first few months, I was all about diving into virtual reality (VR)—it was easily the coolest tech I’d ever experienced.

But over time, my interest started tapering off, until before I knew it, I’d passed my headset along to someone else, even though it wasn’t even a year old yet. I do feel that the VR world is insanely impressive, but I just haven’t felt the urge to return. Maybe someday, but for now, a few things are holding me back.

1. VR Feels More Isolating Than Immersive

As soon as I put on a VR headset, it’s like a wall goes up between me and the real world. All of a sudden, I can’t see or hear what’s happening right outside, even though my body is still there. That feeling of sensory deprivation is supposed to help suck me deeper into the virtual environment.

But paradoxically, it also makes me hyper-aware that I’m just one person disconnected from everything around me at the moment. It’s kind of like when I put on noise-canceling headphones at a lively house party—I can see everyone enjoying themselves, yet I’m cut off from all the surrounding noise and conversation.

Additionally, many VR experiences tend to focus on solo exploration or individual goals, which can really enhance that isolated feeling. Unlike traditional games you can play sitting together or online, VR tends to be a solo thing. Even multiplayer options are tough because setting up multiple headsets is a logistics nightmare.

The novelty of VR can quickly wear off if you don’t share the experience with others, especially if you are like me, who prefers the communal aspect of entertainment.

2. VR Hardware Is Too Cumbersome

While the Meta Quest 2 works great without any wires and looks nice, wearing it for a long time used to bug me. The front-heavy design strains my neck and face, leaving temporary indents and redness from the pressure.

Another issue I’ve encountered is how hot it can get wearing the Quest for extended periods, which makes total sense since it’s basically a computer strapped to your head. This heat can make you sweat, especially on warmer days or when you’re moving around in VR.

Hygiene in VR is definitely something I think about, too. The headsets rest right against your face, and sometimes friends want a turn playing on the same headset. All that skin contact over time means sweat, oils, and bacteria can build up, which feels pretty gross when others take turns.

Regular cleaning and disposable face masks help with that icky factor, but they do make the whole VR experience a little more bothersome.

While the controllers may work better for some VR games than a regular gamepad, they can really wear your hands out over time. Even though the Quest 2 controllers are designed to be comfortable, they still require you to grip them tightly and move them a lot. This leads to hand fatigue if you play for too long.

Sometimes, the position of the tracking rings and buttons can feel a bit awkward, especially in games where you have to move your hands really fast or repetitively.

3. I Get VR Sickness

One of the biggest things holding me back from getting into virtual reality is how physically uncomfortable I feel when using a VR headset. It’s not just a minor annoyance—VR sickness, or motion sickness as some call it, really affects my ability to enjoy the tech.

VR sickness happens because your eyes see one thing in the virtual world, but your inner ear senses something different about movement. This mismatch sends conflicting signals to your brain, which can trigger nausea and other symptoms like dizziness or headaches. In bad cases, some people even end up vomiting.

Some friends can wear a headset for hours with no problem. For me, though, it may only take a few minutes before I start feeling ill. It’s a bummer that some can handle VR while others, like myself, struggle with it. This divide means VR can’t be fully enjoyed by everyone.

In addition, the severity of symptoms varies depending on what you’re doing in VR. Fast-paced games or experiences with lots of motion tend to make me feel worse. As a result, the types of VR content I can comfortably use are limited. This really diminishes how appealing VR is for entertainment, in my case.

4. The Cost of Entry Is Still Too High

VR headset prices really range widely, from a couple hundred bucks to thousands of dollars. For instance, top-of-the-line models like the Apple Vision Pro (though it’s a mixed-reality headset) can cost as much as $4,000, depending on the storage or accessories you opt-in for.

Also, consider the Meta Quest 3, one of the affordable standalone VR headsets, priced at around $500. For that money, you can get a PS5 to play literally every major AAA gaming title coming out for the next half-decade. But spending that kind of money on a Quest just doesn’t seem worth it.

Sure, it’s standalone and doesn’t need a PC, but only a handful of AAA-level games are on it. It also drains its battery in just a few hours at best and requires me to be much more active than just sitting on the couch playing the PlayStation.

There’s also something to be said about high-performance VR gear like the Valve Index (priced at around $1,438) and the HTC Vive Pro 2 (priced at around $1,199), which require a powerful gaming PC to run maximally. And those are just for the headsets—you’d need to spend several hundred or even thousands more for a VR-ready computer to run them.

So, between the headset and rig, VR has become an even tougher sell for casual users like me looking for a cost-effective way to relax and enjoy entertainment at home.

5. Traditional Media and Real-World Experiences Still Offer More

Nothing really compares to experiencing the real world with all your senses. VR these days is amazing, but it just can’t match the full sensory experience you get from actually being somewhere. Just taking a walk in the woods, for example—it’s not just what you see and hear, but also feeling the ground beneath your feet, smelling the fresh earth, and noticing the little changes in temperature or wind.

All these things together create memories that stick with you so much more than anything virtual.

The social aspect of real-world activities is also really important. Going to see a play live, for instance, creates this shared energy between the audience and performers that’s tough to recreate with VR alone. Hearing a whole crowd collectively gasp, laugh, or go quiet together adds extra layers of meaning and feeling to the experience that is difficult to convey with VR alone.

Also, real life’s unpredictability often leads to its most interesting moments, like striking up a random conversation at an art gallery or stumbling upon a cool spot while wandering through a new city. Carefully planned VR can’t provide those kinds of surprising discoveries that can really change your perspective. Those unplanned moments tend to be what I reminisce about the most.