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From: mbutts@mentor.com (Mike Butts)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: The VR Entertainment Industry
Message-ID: <9007172028.AA03530@case.MENTOR.COM>
Date: 17 Jul 90 20:27:32 GMT
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>From article <9007160320.AA21126@aic.hrl.hac.com>, by yamauchi@aic.hrl.hac.com:
>>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.
...> 
> 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.
> 

I recently spent a week at Disney World in Florida, and came away with the
impression that it is mostly a *very* elaborate mechanically-induced artificial
experience.  In other words, it does brute-force through rides, audio-
animatronics, etc., what will eventually be done in the arcade and the home
through virtual reality.  

Star Tours is the latest hot ride, and it's distinctive because it provides a
more intense experience for fewer people (a few dozen) at a time.  Indicative
of a trend.  How soon will we see such rides spin outside of the parks?  Also
look at the convergence of theme parks with the movie business.

I imagine that once virtual reality systems are really perfected and
widespread, that the 20th century theme park will seem as quaint and clumsy as
a 19th century circus side show seems to us today.

Wonder how many people Disney has working on VR???

-- 
Michael Butts, Research Engineer          KC7IT          503-626-1302(fax:1282)
Mentor Graphics Corporation, 8500 SW Creekside Place, Beaverton, Oregon   97005
!{ogicse,sequent,tessi,apollo}!mntgfx!mbutts              mbutts@pdx.MENTOR.COM
Any opinions are my own, and aren't necessarily shared by Mentor Graphics Corp.