A couple weeks back I went to Otherworld with a couple of friends. This was the first VR experience I’ve been to. The building is meant to feel futuristic. The room was a long hall with pods on either side. A white table runs down the middle of the hall with an animated purple marble like texture projection mapped onto it. At the back of the hall is a bar.
When we first walked in we were unsure of where to go, very quickly we were met by a guy wearing white robes. He looked like he was part of some cult. Anyway, he gave us a brief rundown of how Otherworld works. He explained that we will all go into an individual pod where we will use controllers, a VR headset and a pair of headphones. He then used an iPad that was built into the table to explain how Otherworld worked, where to find games and what to do if you get lost. Soon enough we were in our own individual pod setting up our gear. One of the cult members helped us put it on though so it wasn’t bad at all. Once we were in, we were met with another intro video meant to familiarize us with VR and the controls. After finishing that, we moved through a portal and were dropped onto a mountain in the Otherworld. Instantly I heard my friends around me as they oriented themselves with the environment. How the map works is that there are different season zones, spring, summer, winter, etc. Each zone has a set of different games that you can choose to play. In order to play them, your whole team has to walk to the zone and all join one of the games. We already had a look at some of the games so we knew where we wanted to go. As we were all at the top of the mountain, we had to slide down a big ice slide in order to get to our destination. As we began to slide, I felt wind blowing past me. Once we were all at the bottom, we had to walk through a gate that had torches on either side. As we walked past the gate I felt heat from the torches. Once we made it to the game, we all tried to play. It turned out I was actually in the wrong game. Long story short we ended up having to press a “Help” button to call one of the “overseers” to help us. He loaded all of our characters into a game called Cook Out. The goal of this game is to work as a team to create unique sandwiches within a timeframe. We had a lot of fun playing this but eventually decided to give another game Hyperdash a try. Eventually our time was up and we had to leave. We all had a lot of fun but agreed that there were some flaws with Otherworld.
- The biggest thing for me was that all of the games Otherworld had to offer, were not unique to Otherworld. All of them are public games that anyone with a VR headset can buy and play. We realized that Otherworld isn’t really about playing a game but more so about renting a VR headset. Because all of us already have VR headsets, it felt like a waste.
- We got the cheapest time slot available and it still cost each of us 18 pounds for only 40 minutes. Some of my friends were 10 minutes late plus the additional 5 to get set up and say another 5 for the tutorial and actually navigating to the game. This left us with about 20 minutes of actual game play. A pound a minute is far too much to play VR with your friends. Back when I visited Amsterdam, I found that you could purchase sexual favors for this much. Sure this isn’t going to be the highest end lady of the night but it still proves my point that this is an expensive experience.
- I mentioned it a bit before but getting into the same game was far too hard. I like the idea and I like how you have to first explore the Otherworld a bit but this function didn’t work great on such a short timeframe. I would also like to state that Cook Out didn’t have any wind or heat added into it, it was only hyperdash that had a bit of wind. I feel like Cook Out could’ve had something really good if they had heat flowing out from the pans that you are cooking on. It felt like only in the Otherworld could you actually experience what the pod was capable of.
- The pod was just big enough so if you were standing in the middle in a T pose, your arms wouldn’t touch the walls. This was fine but anyone who plays VR knows you drift around. I kept finding myself hitting the walls with my arms and then immediately apologizing as I thought a worker had come in and I had hit him. Eventually I realized to ignore it and just keep playing but it definitely took me out of the moment a couple times.
- Another thing I noticed near the end of the experience was the wire attached to my headset. I must’ve been turning in one direction more than the other because the wire got very twisted and tangled up in my hair. It also kept tapping my shoulder which of course made me take the headset off as I thought it was another cult member trying to get my attention.
Now I would like to note down a couple of things that I enjoyed about the experience.
- If you do not already own a VR headset, you get to experience one for 20 pounds rather than 400 which is roughly what they cost new.
- Because you have overseers monitoring everything, they can really help/get you what you need. If you all want to join a game, just say so and you can sit back while everything is worked out for you.
- The wind and heat was a really cool addition. Specifically the wind though. Something about the wind really took me out of the stuffy pod and brought me into a bigger open space. It also really helped prevent motion sickness for some reason.
- The headsets were comfortable and I wasn’t constantly adjusting it.
- As you play, you earn points. You can use points to get discounts on real drinks at the bar. The points are also linked to your specific account meaning they transfer from location to location.
Here are a couple ideas on how they could improve the experience. Some of these are not financially possible but I still find it important to write down EVERYTHING as the tech is always improving and maybe in a few years they will be valid.
- Make the space bigger and create an X-ray boundary that shows up when you are approaching the edge. The Quest 2 has this function and I find it super helpful in terms of reorienting myself. I would also prefer to be warned by a visual cue that I’m approaching the walls rather than just simply hitting them or running into them.
- Create unique games that highly incorporate the immersive functions of the pods. This would cater to people who already have a VR headset as they wouldn’t be paying for something they could just get at home.
- Have less focus on the Otherworld and more focus on the actual gameplay. Sure the whole experience of the world with the wind and heat was cool but it felt like a glorified lobby. With only 40 min to play, I had no time to actually enjoy the world as I was rushing to get to the game.
- This is a completely new experience for maybe a different company but I was thinking it sure would be cool if there was some type of physical aspect to this stuff. Maybe at one point in VR, a pen shoots out from a wall and you actually have to grab it. (There would be a real pen shooting out at you in the same location). Then you use the pen as a stylist for whatever. I think this exists already but just to reiterate, it would be amazing if you are all in the same room that is roughly the same dimensions as the one in VR. Maybe there is a hologram couch that appears in the space that is actually already there so you can go and sit on it and it really feels like the hologram is real. There are endless number of things you could do with this and I really believe it would make spending the prostitute level of money worth it.