Incuvo Blog | VR is a contact sport...

When you think contact sports, you definitely don’t have in mind virtual reality gaming. I bet your first thought was football, soccer, basketball... but not VR. I am here to prove that VR is a contact sport. Of course, you won’t get knocked out by another player BUT!

Exhibit A.

Recently, I took Oculus Quest to my family gathering. Little did I know, the night ended with one of my family members… laughing hysterically with blood dripping down their face. But I am getting ahead of myself. My mom was overjoyed with the “little cute robot” from the first steps tutorial. At first, she got scared of this cutie, but in the end, the robot tamed her and they fell in love with each other. Next was my dad, he was blown away by the Everest VR docu series and could play Beat Saber forever. Finally, my sister decided to give it a go. Her poison was Richie’s Plank Experience. I know, I am horrible, but she should be happy I didn’t turn on the nightmare mode. Anyway, she was very cautious at first, walked the plank with me by her arm. She stepped off and yay she's falling down to the ground floor.

Ok, let’s repeat but this time “don’t hold me, I want to jump by myself”, it wasn’t thrilling enough when I held her. So I let go. She jumps. By jump, I mean a frog-leap-into-the-abyss-head-first JUMP, only there was no abyss… but instead her head found the TV stand. As I watched a Youtube fail video happen right in front of me, I couldn’t help but wonder, what should we use to bury her body in the woods… But seriously, who would have thought this girl would jump so far! My sister currently has a huge cut with a bump on her forehead and is ready to testify that VR is a contact sport.

My sister: 0

The TV stand: 1

Exhibit B.

Now, I have been playing for a while, but I still manage to hurt myself or others on occasion when in VR. Rickie’s Plank Experience got me, too. In the beginning of my adventure in virtual reality, I wanted to touch and do everything in every game. Ok, I still do that, but to the point! Walking the plank was thrilling, jumping off even more, flying is cool, and then… I found a button! Nightmare Mode. What do you do with a big hidden button of unknown consequences? You push that button, obviously, right?! So I did. Not to spoil the whole experience here, but I hung on pretty well. You could even say that I got a little cocky, and when I thought it’s over… BOOM! A bus came out of nowhere, to avoid the collision, I ran to the sidewalk and that’s when the real boom happened. I ran into a dresser, knocked over a big lamp (RIP) which shattered to million pieces. On top of that a big container of water started pouring on the remains of my lamp. That’s not the only thing that suffered. As if the lamp and water wasn’t enough, I also hit my toe on the dresser so hard that the bone cracked. Now, tell me that VR gaming isn’t a contact sport! The contact between my toe and the dresser was real, trust me.

My toe: 0

The dresser: 1

Lamps in the apartment: -1

Exhibit C.

Just look online! Haven’t you seen countless hours of video testimonies proving that VR gaming is a contact sport? They are everywhere, so many are affected! Youtube videos, gifs, Facebook posts… I think they are called something like… VR fails. Of course you’ve seen them, those videos are hilarious. Nevertheless, they do prove my point. I spy with my little eye lots of unpleasant contact between the depicted virtual reality heros and walls, floors, TVs, closets, animals, and other people!

Need i say more?

VR heros: 0

Internet: 1000000000000000000…0000

The thesis stands, but do your part in spreading the word. Send us your testimonies - written or video, we will add them to our case. In not too many words... Share with us your VR fail stories, so we can laugh at you. I MEAN WITH YOU! Let’s fight together for the right to call VR gaming a contact sport. Are you in?

Click here to try Rickie’s Plank Experience.

VR is a contact sport…