Sword Art Online apparently inspired Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey to put explosive charges on the Oculus VR Quest Pro.
The idea that dying in a video game or simulation can cause death in real life is a common metaphor that has popped up in dozens of fictional works in recent years. Now, Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey has made this concept a reality.
Luckey writes on his personal blog about a new VR headset he designed that uses three embedded explosive charges placed on the forehead that can "instantly destroy the user's brain." Luckey writes that the deadly explosion was triggered by "a narrowband photosensor that can detect when the screen is flashing red at a certain frequency," making it easier to navigate during the "Game Over" screen.
To be clear, Luckey says his deadly headset, which looks like a modified Oculus VR Meta Quest Pro in the footage, is "just a piece of office art at this point, a thought-provoking reminder of unexplored paths in game design." However, Luckey also writes that “I have always been fascinated by the idea of connecting your real life to your virtual avatar – you are maximizing the risks instantly and forcing people to fundamentally rethink how they interact with the virtual world.”
Sword Art Online Inspiration
Luckey attributes this fascination to Sword Art Online (SAO), a series of Japanese novels (and spin-off anime, video games, etc.) about a virtual reality MMORPG of the same name. In this fiction, November 6, 2022 marks the day when thousands of SAO players are trapped in NerveGear headsets and threatened with death via a hidden microwave generator if they die in-game (or try to remove, tamper with the headset).
The Sword Art Online anime was live when the first Oculus Rift Development Kit was released on Kickstarter in 2012, helping to drive what Luckey calls “the big otaku enthusiasm for Oculus, which is fast becoming our 2nd largest market, especially in Japan.” Throughout the year, “literally thousands” of fans reached out to him about Sword Art Online and he said, “When are you going to make NerveGear [headset] real?!” He says he asked.
I didn't think it would be released as such an interesting product. But it's weird that he even did that.
In fact, there is a part of this explosive Oculus VR that does not seem realistic by saying "who would dare to buy and wear it that will not be proven anyway". I hope a game where Palmer is GM (Game Master) will not be released..
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