Have you ever had a dream that felt so real that it didn’t even feel like you were asleep, and then you wake up confused because you thought you were wide awake? It’s like when you take off your virtual reality headset because you have motion sickness and you are slowly processing that you aren’t in the middle of a warzone, but you’re actually in your bedroom. 

That’s what it felt like when I played virtual reality for the first time. I didn’t realize how much it seemed like you were actually looking through your own eyes when you played. What helps with the immersive experience is you have to do all the movements in the game with your own body, so after a while you forget that you are still in the real world. 

“You can get motion sickness after a while, but you can get used to it,” Senior Leo Fernandez said.

In case you don’t know, virtual reality is basically like instead of you playing a game behind a computer screen, you feel like you are actually inside the game. Virtual reality is a far more immersive way to play video games. 

Instead of video games becoming more realistic by improving graphics and adding realistic physics, with a virtual reality headset it’s like you are looking out of your own eyes in a game. 

Virtual reality is very popular with simulator games because it helps give the user a far more realistic experience while they are playing.

Virtual reality uses software to simulate vision. There is a lot of technology like sensors, magnetometers, and a bunch of other complicated technology that helps give the user that immersive experience. 

The unique thing about virtual reality is it’s mostly space-themed. When you look on the home screen and you see stars all around it’s pretty cool.  It makes you feel like you are outside at night watching the stars in real life.  

“Virtual reality is really cool, it makes you feel like you’re actually in the game,” Sophomore Santino Wright said. “For example, if you’re playing a shooting game you have to aim like you are shooting a real gun, and if you are getting shot at you have to crouch in real life to take cover.”

When I played a zombie game in virtual reality, I even had to reload my own gun by taking out the empty clip and putting a full one in. 

“It feels like you are in the game and it’s more realistic,” Senior Janae Crowder said of virtual reality. “Shooting games are my favorite because they are very thrilling and exciting.”. 

But the sensation can be strange because you move around in the game, but you are standing still in real life. It’s like your brain gets confused.

“It can make you feel light headed and you can get motion sickness,” Crowder said 

Some virtual reality headsets cost less than PS5’s and the new Xbox. You will have more fun with virtual reality because you play video games in a completely different way. 

“Virtual reality is better than a console because you are interacting with more things than you would with just a controller,” Wright said. 

The Oculus headset I tested didn’t need anything extra to make it work. No TV, no cords, everything you needed to play games on the headset came inside of it. Virtual reality also has a better selection of new games compared to new games that came out for consoles and pc’s.

 “Playing VR is a good way to get some exercise,” Fernandez said. “One of my favorite things about VR is being able to get active.”

 This is true, depending on what game you play because there are games that make you do more physical activity than other games.  

Wright and Fernandez both thought that virtual reality would continue to get more popular over the years. If virtual reality continues to expand it could cause consoles and pc’s to be less popular or  even replaced. It could be possible since Facebook is coming out with the metaverse.   

“The metaverse would be similar to the movie Ready Player One,” Wright said.

Basically, the metaverse will be a massive virtual reality universe.  

“There is a good chance VR could get better, not a lot of people have tried VR, but in the future I could see more people playing it,” Fernandez said.