Epic Games CEO: VR is Anti-Social Right Now

2016 is the year that virtual reality gaming really got traction, despite lower than expected sales of the various headsets. The Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR all made great strides in the VR sphere this year, and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, a major proponent of emerging immersive gaming technologies, likens this year to the first year of the personal computer over thirty years ago. But, while the technology is making strides, Sweeney warns that the games themselves are not doing enough to connect users within game spaces. According to Sweeney, VR game developers will have to tackle the issue of “anti-social” gaming in the near future, tasked with encouraging positive interactions and stymying toxic behaviour.

“Right now, VR games are for the most part a solitary experience,” Sweeney told The Verge. “It seems almost anti-social. But the next step with the VR hardware is to have cameras pointing in toward your face and out to pick up your body motion, and picking up all of your facial and body motion and being able to replicate it in real time over the internet to other VR users.”

“And so I think in a few years we’re going to see a very rapid emergence of social VR experiences that are incredibly compelling, that enable you to get together with friends and do things that are completely impossible in the real world,” he added. “I think it’s going to change really rapidly over time, and we can’t really predict all of the ramifications of it, but I think it’s going to be a much more positive social experience than a multiplayer game today, where you can’t really convey your emotions.”

Sweeney believes that the solution to anti-social behaviour in VR gaming is the creation of realistically expressive avatars that are able to convey emotions in response to the behaviour of others.

“Once your VR avatar really looks like you, and people can see you, and you can see them and their faces and emotions, I think all of the normal restraining mechanisms will kick in,” Sweeney explains. “If you insult somebody and you see that they have a sad look on their face, then you’re going to feel really, really bad about that. And you’re probably not going to do it again.”

“And so I think VR might be something that’s humanizing, as opposed to forums and multiplayer games today being dehumanizing,” Sweeney said. “But I think we also have to consider that with VR, the experiences may be so intimate that you will choose instead of playing with random strangers on the internet to only play with people you know.”

Epic Games is currently developing its first VR game, the arcade shooter Robo Recall.