Palmer Luckey claims to have built a virtual reality headset that will blow up the user's head if their virtual friend dies in a game. I think it's a good idea. It's cool.
"You instantly raise the stakes to the maximum level and force people to fundamentally rethink how they interact with the virtual world and the players inside it" is what Luckey wrote about the grim prototype. Only the threat of serious consequences can make a game feel real to you and every other person in the game.
He said that if you die in the game, you die in real life.
If anyone else had claimed to invent such a device, we wouldn't pay them too much attention. Luckey isn't just a programmers. He is considered the father of virtual reality. Tech he built is currently serving as the foundation for Facebook CEO and wannabe deity Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse, and he now makes expensive weapons for a living.
He has unusual credibility in this area because he has been vocal about wanting to make something like this happen for some time now.
The device is a tribute to NerveGear, the fictional killer headset in the popular virtual reality series Sword Art Online, which will melt wearers' brains with microwaves if they fail to escape a virtual game.
He wrote that the series was important to both his and the company. His invention seems to be both a self-serving thrill and a twisted thank you.
He wrote that the popularity of Sword Art Online led to massive otaku enthusiasm for the product in Japan, which became our second largest market. The story of Sword Art Online was written in a world where virtual reality was a dead technology and the existence of the Rift made it seem more plausible and grounded.
Luckey joked that the murder part of the device is already functioning, but that the virtual reality component still needs work.
He said that they were halfway to making a true NerveGear. The good news is that I've figured out half of the problem. Half of the equation is still a long way from being perfect.
He says that the charges in the headset are tied to a narrow-band photo sensor that can detect when the screen is red.
The brain of the user is instantly destroyed when a game-over screen is displayed.
The equipment is still too volatile, and Luckey admits that he hasn't yet tried the headset on.
At this point, it is just a piece of office art, a thought- provoking reminder of unexplored avenues in game design. The first non-fiction example of a virtual reality device that can kill the user is what it is. It's not the last.
The founder of the company suggested video games that kill you in real life.
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