---- Free Virtual Reality Content is 90% porn 10% Everything Else ----
So this year I got a Virtual Reality (VR) headset for my birthday, now I was pretty stoked at the opportunity to step into the VR realm and see what it had to offer. To be honest, I didn’t know too much about VR as I wasn’t really following the movement, this is because I didn’t see myself owning a VR headset anytime soon. After a quick unboxing and a flick through the contents I got into research mode. I had started catching up on the long and winding road which has been VR to date. There were lots of kinks I needed to iron out in my understanding of what VR actually was before I even started plugging things up and having a play with my headset.
Now I have to admit I did have some considerable expectations going into it. I had seen quite a few videos on YouTube which had pegged VR as being the future of many facets of everyday life. For instance, I recall seeing a clip which showed a lecturer at a university guiding medical students through the human body in a VR environment.
I also saw clips which indicated that schooling for children would be improved using VR technology and would make schooling for special needs children easier and more accessible through specialised programing and teaching etc.
Children in VR schooling environment
And that was just the tip of the iceberg, there were numerous articles stating massive advances using VR beyond gaming. Such as various vehicle training simulations, space explorations, scientific applications, factory production, military applications (though that is old news), live events, museums/tourism, etc. these articles created such an amazing picture of what I could be experiencing within only a few moments. Examples of such articles below:
12 Exciting VR Applications Other Than Gaming
Beyond Gaming: 10 Other Fascinating Uses for Virtual-Reality Tech
So as you can imagine I was expecting quite a bit from VR after my small knowledge base was met with the data I was reading through in preparation of what I was going to experience.
There is no doubt that the VR experience can be quite profound, there are a myriad of videos which can be found displaying intense reactions to VR and the repercussions of fooling ones senses.
Virtual Reality (VR) Fails on YouTube
So now that I was up to date on some VR knowledge, I was VR ready. I prepared myself to have my first experience. Looking through the available titles to purchase for VR I was considerably unimpressed with the offerings. Many of the titles fell short of what i consider to be a game per se and I most certainly was not going to fork out any kind of money to go back to a format which had not been seen since 1994 DOS based point and click adventures no matter how pleasing they were to the eyes.
Searching for free VR experiences online led to the discovery of only a few sites providing predominantly the same short VR experiences, also at varying low end quality of a couple of hundred MB. Needless to say the quality of these experiences were quite underwhelming, but it was better than the alternative of absolutely nothing to experience. The link below is the springboard into free VR content I used.
8 Free Places to Find the Best Virtual Reality Video Content
This is not to say the content itself was not good, in fact some of the content was excellent and moving. The thought and depth put into some of the VR experiences genuinely stirred emotions from within. I literally had tears welling in my eyes experiencing "Pearl" and I truly felt empathy, compassion and understanding when experiencing "Help".
VR experience: Help
However, the quality was so poor for some of the experiences available that it detracted from the overall message that the creator was trying to express, it insulted the tremendous efforts to immerse those viewing this masterful art form and cheapened the experience outright. Even set to the highest quality some of the images displayed would struggle to rival the Stereoscopic ViewMaster introduced in the 1940s.
Feeling a little short changed on the VR experience so far the pursuit continued to find high quality VR content for free. So I started tweaking the search, then after some parameter changes on searches for quality and duration as well as removing the safety locks and filters success!!! I had done it!!! I had found a mountain of quality VR content for free… unfortunately it was mostly porn…
Now don’t get me wrong im not hacking on porn, it has and serves its purpose, much like the sex industry itself. Where these activities are permitted there is a reduction in sexually based crimes etc. and this is supported by scientific evidence. Regardless if you agree with it or not this is the data on the subject.
Evidence mounts: More porn, LESS sexual assault
However, this is a conversation for another time, what we are observing is the predominance of porn as the primary content for VR experiences. The vast differences in search results was astounding, but the new search parameters had increased hits to higher quality non pornographic content also. This was quite interesting so I went further into research mode and some comparisons were drawn. I ventured over to The Piratebay and typed “VR” into their search bar.
The first page displayed twenty (20) pornographic results and twelve (12) non pornographic results. A bit rich, but ok. However, the ratio on the second page was far more skewed with thirty one (31) pornographic results and only one (1) non pornographic result. Results similar to the latter continued to surface more often than not page after page of content available on The Piratebay. In addition to this, the average size of pornographic files was approximately four (4) gig, but peaking as high as sixteen (16) gig in some cases. While non-pornographic files generally remained below one (1) gig and peaked at approximately one and a half (1.5) gig. The duration of the content was another factor to consider, with the pornographic content averaging approximately thirty (30) minutes to over one (1) hour, while alternative experiences last approximately five (5) to ten (10) minutes on average. These trends were observed on various torrent based sites and also on various search engines with safe searches off. It was abundantly clear that I would need to wade through an ocean of porn to find any half way decent VR experiences not based on that medium. Well I had come this far and I wasn’t going to be denied the VR experience of my choosing because of a needle in a haystack situation.
Moving forward, the sifting process was difficult and, to be honest, was an eye opening experience into the psyche of the human mind… but wouldn’t recommend it. The content quality found is still extremely poor in comparison and in many cases far too short lived. As the availability of 360 VR cameras become more available and more G through to R18+ content is uploaded or created it may turn the tide on the ability to host and share larger HD files more commercially. Until then we are kind of stuck with the ratios of around 90% porn based content and 10% everything else by my guesstimations.
Conclusion
After all of that, I must say I am quite disappointed with what I have found within the free content of the VR realm. While I did expect to have to deal with some degree of this kind of material I didn’t think that the numbers would be so skewed in all aspects of the content such as duration, quality, availability, etc. This is more a reflection on society than anything else, but again this is a concept for a psychological discussion and not a blurb on the VR experience and content. So where to from here? Well, it is my hopes that the future of free VR content balances out considerably. There are some incredible artists who have created amazing projects for VR and hopefully those works will be able to be displayed in their full HD VR glory.
So where does this leave the average VR user looking for free content other than Porn right now? Well im glad you asked. My efforts were not in vain after all, I have complied a number of findings from this research into another article which highlights what I think is “The Best Things To Do For Free” in the VR realm. This article spans the basics of free VR experiences as well as what I believe are the current best free VR experiences. This can be found in the link below:
Virtual Reality (VR) Best Things To Do For Free
So what are your experiences with free VR content? Do you agree with the finding’s here or have a differing opinion? Feel free to leave a comment, share your thoughts or start a conversation.
I tell you gaming has gon insanely creative now with this new technology, but with viritual gaming now. I think you need a whole lot of space to play cuz youll get hurt and your furniture will get buss up lmao
@mjramosbuilt Depends on which VR headset you get, the HTC VIve can be a whole room set up. I play on a swivel chair with a standard controller so the only floor space i take up is that of the chair. so no furniture issues for me :) Are you using a HTC Vive or something else ?
Nice to see advanced technology put to a good use;D
Hey @stormtossed, technological advancements such as this first go towards becoming militarized, drone pilots etc. but porn is clearly a close second, lol.
My experience matches yours unfortunately. That said it was slightly more humorous as the VR set was one that my previous place of employment purchased as a 'fun' thing for the company.
But with VR and free content that is both non-pornographic and of a decent quality, I think that comes down to the price of the platform, the maturity of the platform and the price of the hardware needed to simply run VR. Put all of that together and it's quite understandable that with the investment needed to create VR content, freebies would be rare.
Hopefully in the future VR proves to be more than a gimmick (like 3D was in gaming). If the overall platform price starts to drop and the system requirements become more reasonable, I do think we'll see some more free VR content.
lol, that would have been interesting, porn in the workplace. Well i guess my question us if we can have such high quality pornographic material for free why can we not have the same quality non pornographic material? we have the capabilities clearly its just not happening.
I think VR does have a good future if it is utilized "as advertised". That is , being implemented in all the ways it was suggested in the post above and making it accessible. system requirements aren't too bad im running my VR set up on a 2013 laptop.
This was a great, well~ written post!! You filled it with all the questions I would have wanted to know. Thank You for that!!
On a side note: when VCR's first came out there were 2 main types of formats, VHS and Betamax. The porn industry used VHS because it was the cheaper of the 2 formats. Betamax had much better graphic's but you paid for it.
So the reason the world went with the VHS format was that of the porn industry. They are still very powerful I see.
Thanks for the Kudos @snook, i just documented what i experienced and my thoughts on it all, lol.
I know about the VHS vs Betamax wars that raged in the past, but i was not aware of the large role that Pornography played in swaying the vote, very interesting.
That's free stuff for ya haha. The games I have played are quite amazing, especially Robinson on the PS4.
Hey @thegoliath, yeah i know, lol. Im just amazed at the Huge differences between the content as a whole, IE: file size, quality, duration, everything!!!! and so much of it. I just really thought there would be far more "other" stuff from what i had found in my research.
I will have to look into Robinson on the PS4, i didnt really find any of the games were that fleshed out when i looked into them to be honest. I almost jumped in when Res Evil was announced and again when GT sport was on the list, but seeing what they produced as their final product was rather disappointing... so i passed on it. that's why i found solace in running retro games in VR (if you checked out the other article i linked at the end of this one).
I think there is a lot VR can offer the gaming industry, but i think its being squandered so far, hopefully the future looks up for VR.
what else would you recommend for paid VR content? I was thinking Superhot would be a good experience, but still somewhat limited.
It's harder to produce amazing games in VR, it is still relatively new, but Robinson had an amazing feel and atmosphere. The rush of blood game was a lot of fun too, quite well done I think.
I haven't dealt with much else except the PS4 games pack you can get with deep sea diving etc, my cousin has it all. I want to eventually get one for the PC though and make a VR game myself.
I totally get that its harder to make the games, but personally i feel that they are trying to implement too much in one go with all the accessories, controllers, "new" game play etc. if they just keep using the standard game controller and just make some decent FPS style games without all the gimmicks it would be so good. only thing close to a good complete game that i have seen is the Dirt game in VR. Most other full games only partially support VR ##cough, GT Sport, cough##.
Yeah the PSVR is good for what it is, but definitely more advanced products coming out all the time. Nice, what kind of game would you be looking at making ?
Not completely sure yet, but I want an immersive and atmospheric sort of world that is enjoyable and fun to play.
So not a survival horror or psychological thriller then? that's where im at, but i like having a good scare :) no spitball ideas? would love to hear what you have planed, keep me posted as it comes together.
Very very uhm interesting post. Porn and VR 🙃😏 intriguing
@kristyyd lol, well that is the truth about what is out there for free in the VR realm at the moment, just calling it how i see it. I do hope that there is a more... um... diverse range of material in the near future. im not really doing much with my vr headset due to the lack of content. I do retro game on it, which is pretty good but not a "real"VR experience. i cover that in my other VR article up at the moment. did you get to see that one ?
This is a great post your detail is incredible thank you for sharing this with our gaming community keep up the good work and thank you for your support.
Thanks for the support and confidence boost @grownfolksgaming :) I hope to keep writing articles for gaming in general and in particular focus on VR Retro gaming for set up, software/hardware to use, game reviews, etc. this article was a byproduct of what I was going to be writing about initially. I have also posted that here:
Virtual Reality (VR) Best Things To Do For Free
but it hasn't had as much coverage, i guess what they say is true, sex sells, lol. Anyway keep an eye out in the future for similar articles in regards to VR gaming and gaming in general. thanks again for the kudos :)
No problem at all @mfxae86 I'm here to support you.
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