How VR Is Changing the Future of Content: 2017 Realities360 Keynote

This past July, members of the eLearning community gathered at2017 Realities360 Conference to learn from the experiences of pioneers in thecreation of AR, VR, and other alternative realities. The tone of the conferenceand high expectations were set during the opening general session, “How VR IsChanging the Future of Content.” Keynote speaker Maxwell Planck described hisown journey that began with animated feature-length films during his 10 yearsat Pixar. Then, believing that VR was the next great medium for tellingstories, he moved on to VR as the technical co-founder of Oculus Story Studio,where they created Lost, Henry, and Dear Angelica, short (10-minute) immersive VR experiences for theOculus Rift.

Facebook closed Oculus Story Studio in May 2017, ending thefirst chapter of VR for Planck, and he decided to step back and evaluate whereVR fit into storytelling, entertainment, and learning. He found that he came upwith some new insights into what content does and does not work in VR.

Planck’s insights include the following:

• VR adoption
  

  Planck sees VR’s adoption status asjust emerging from the Trough of Disillusionment in Gartner’s Hype Cycle (Figure1). In his wide-ranging talk, he described many barriers to VR adoption, somefundamental mistakes we have made, and what we may need to do before VR iswidely accepted. Perhaps the most valuable takeaway from his speech was his observationthat VR is an entirely new medium and requires different content than themedium of film.

   

  Figure 1: Virtual reality isjust beginning to emerge from the so-called Trough of Disillusionment inGartner’s Hype Cycle (Bianca Woods, The eLearning Guild) 

• Thenature of VR
  

  Previously, Planck believed that VRwas an evolution of film—the next leap forward. He now believes that he waswrong: VR is a new medium, and we will be more successful with VR when we treatit as such. Film is great for telling stories in a sequential, linear fashion,while VR is an empathy machine,providing immersion and a crafted presence unique to VR. But presence is an enemy to storytelling. InVR, users need time to look around and discover things for themselves, but allowingthe user to look around interrupts a story. Therefore, a story told in VR mustbe simpler, less dense, and faster-paced compared to that same story told in film.

• Thedelivery devices are not compelling to consumers
  

  The current delivery devices forimmersive VR experiences are something not everyone wants to take home. Theyare both expensive and bulky—you are still strapping a smartphone to your face,using sensors, upscale computers, and a bunch of “magic tricks.”

  As with other emergingtechnologies, the costs are coming down and new technology is on the horizon,including untethered, immersive, and stand-alone VR hardware—something you canput in a backpack.

• Thecreation tools are not appropriate for L&D
  

  The early adopters of VR are using theUnity and Unreal game engines to create content. These tools require the hard-earnedskills of a game engineer. This was not a barrier to early adopters who ridethe wave of new technologies, but it will be to the subsequent early majorityadopters and late majority adopters, slowing the adoption rate even more. AtOculus Story Studio, engineer Inigo Quilez created the VR illustration tool,Quill, that allowed illustrator Wesley Allsbrook to draw content in VR. Educatorsneed more tools like this.

• The costof VR
  

  A Pixar feature-length animated film,approximately 90 minutes, took four years to create. The cost of creating a VRexperience is much higher. Oculus Story Studio made about one 10-minute shortper year. An audience of one is not big enough to justify the cost of producingVR.

So, given these realities, what should we do?

Social first

While VR has found a place in games, VR for other forms ofconsumer entertainment is very hard. Our attention is saturated. We often usemultiple devices (phone, tablet, and TV) simultaneously. Asking people to giveup something and strap on a headset is too much to ask. It causes an entry barrierbecause being isolated in VR is not enough—and it is intimidating. Planck oncethought the problem of telling a story to a single person should be solvedfirst, before moving on to something involving multiple people. He now believeswe need to build in social from the beginning. VR should be a socialexperience, not a single-player experience.

What about the future of content?

We still have a content problem. VR should engage and buildsocial value. It will become a new thing to do that is like “going out.” To goout with our friends, we dress up, leave our homes, go to theaters, sportsevents, bars; and we pay money for all this, mainly to meet up with friends.

How can we build social value in VR? With VR-centriccontent. Planck suggests that a VR experience needs a quest and puzzles tosolve, much as groups of people do in Dungeons and Dragons. A VR experience canbe something that brings friends together to create stories and solve problems.Rather than simply recount a story that you cannot change, a VR experience cansay, “This is the beginning and you are going to create a story.” The ideal VRexperience provides a puzzle or quest and common tools, but how each group of participantssolves that quest together can be unique.

Pamela Gutman, learning consultant in talent development atthe Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, made this observation afterward:“Maxwell Planck’s keynote session was a fantastic way to open the Realities360conference. He discussed what we’ve done well in VR, what the challenges are,and what the future holds. After his talk, my focus on what VR can and shoulddo has really shifted; instead of just using VR as an amazing storytellingplatform, I’m now thinking of how it can be a social adventure where multiplepeople can experience a new environment together.”

There were so many very valuable information nuggets in MaxwellPlanck’s keynote, but his views on VR as a wholly new medium and the type ofcontent we should craft for this medium struck me as the highlight. I amlooking forward to a future with rich VR content that offers socialvalue—something that will work in group problem-solving experiences. I believethe L&D community will put this new medium to good use.