[batmansbelt]

Honest question? Why is the first example use case always killing? I'd probably be a lot more into video games if there was anything beyond Mario maturity games that wasn't a murder fantasy.

I don't want to fight aliens. I'd love to interact with real aliens though. That's an exploration that you could never have virtually.

[_Adam]

I wish it wasn't, but that's just what's already there. Two reasons why:

1. Killing is a very easy interaction to implement. It's much simpler to make an AI that tries to kill you than one that tries to engage you in meaningful conversation.

2. The intensity of violence compensates for the disassociation that resulted from the interface. In other words, you were just watching the game on the monitor. You didn't real feel "there" like you do with VR. What I find, is when I'm playing violent games with VR, it's less enjoyable and more stressful. Fighting becomes an unpleasant necessity.

I think as the technology progresses, we'll see more games focus much less on violence. Like that Voyager bridge demo for the Oculus Rift. If someone made the whole ship with the same level of detail, and had no people or enemies or violence, I could still spend many hours just walking around and exploring, and I would probably enjoy it more than shooting things.

[doorhammer]

Portal, paper mario, braid, flight sims, sim city, tropico, civilization(? you do kill people in that), kerbal space program, etc.

I'm not by any means going to deny the flood of games that are based on violence. Most of the mentioned games were off the top of my head, but when I went looking for more, I was definitely a little surprised by just how tough it was to find well known contenders.

I can see how a casual brush with games might not bring a lot of the good ones to the front, though. I like games that really change how I think about a problem (portal, braid, paper mario), let me experience things I can't pragmatically experience right now (flight sims), or complex strategic games with some satire (civ/tropico).

I'm interested in games because I think they can be a really valid art form and a powerful way to convey concepts and ideas.

I'm incredibly excited for how far the oculus rift and new motion tracking techs will let me take that.

I remember the first time I played Assassins Creed. I mean, the game is about murder. It's in the title. My brother got frustrated at me after an hour of watching and yelled "STOP CLIMBING SHIT AND EXPLORING. KILL SOMEONE." I think he left after I spent another fifteen minutes exploring the ancient middle east.