Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!dali.cs.montana.edu!milton!yamauchi@aic.hrl.hac.com From: yamauchi@aic.hrl.hac.com Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds Subject: The VR Entertainment Industry (was Re: Call for discussion) Message-ID: <9007160320.AA21126@aic.hrl.hac.com> Date: 16 Jul 90 03:20:54 GMT References: Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu Organization: Hughes Research Labs, Malibu, CA Lines: 40 Approved: hitl@hardy.u.washington.edu In article <1990Jun18.160252.10718@watmath.waterloo.edu> watmath.waterloo.edu!mwtilden@ria.ccs.uwo.ca (M.W.Tilden, Hardware) writes: > >In article mike@ixi-limited.co.uk, "try mike"@ixi.co.uk writes: >>For the virtual concept to propagate throughout the working/leisure >>population, we will need to not only give them dreams to work with (which >>is often what that 'first-sale' is based on - e.g. the home computer) but >>IMHO, concrete reasons as to what it will do for them in the long term... ^^^^^^^^^ >Well, personally I think it's just too irrisistible a toy to pass >up, but that's not really a valid reason. Not one you could make >obsene amounts of money from anyway. Well, that depends, would Steven Spielberg's proceeds from ET, Jaws, Close Encounters, and the Raiders trilogy be obscene enough for you? :-) I think many people are underestimating the huge entertainment industry that is likely to sprout up as soon as reasonably convincing simulations of reality can be acheived at consumer prices. Arguing about the business applications of VR strikes me as similar to arguing that the primary impact of TV is teleconferencing. Certainly, business applications will exist, but the largest impact on most people's lives will be entertainment. Interactive entertainment (video games) is currently at the stage of the penny arcade "movie" viewers of long ago. I wonder whether Edison could have imagined Hollywood movies with $60,000,000 budgets (i.e. Die Hard 2) and THX sound systems. Personally, I believe that in 20-30 years the VR entertainment industry is going to make both the movie and TV industries look like small potatoes -- if they're still around at all. ______________________________________________________________________________ Brian Yamauchi Hughes Research Laboratories yamauchi@aic.hrl.hac.com Artificial Intelligence Center ______________________________________________________________________________