In SuperhotVR there are multiple acts of self harm; Shooting oneself in the head, jumping to your death. They make up a very very small amount of the game's content. After an update which made those scenes optional, the devs did another update and removed them all together. The VR community has surprisingly responded in a very mature and supportive manner.

LOL, just kidding. They're totally shitting themselves. https://old.reddit.com/r/virtualreality/comments/op018r/all_scenes_alluding_to_self_harm_will_be_removed/ https://steamcommunity.com/games/617830/announcements/detail/2992063678829322337

  • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    You’re gonna blow your mind when you hear the concept of horror. I do the same when I replay Amnesia the Dark Descent every Halloween. People have been having emotional reactions to media for as long as it’s existed. This isn’t unique to VR in the slightest, it applies to literally every piece of media.

    lol , you're agreeing with me and don't yet realize it. Do you think these are different cognitive mechanisms we're talking about? If people now are "used to movies" and not freaking out over trains, what changed that allowed them to make fools of themselves in VR? What we're talking about is an increasing exploitation of those same mechanisms. We went from surround sound and bigger and bigger screens in the cinema to smaller ones strapped to your face for stereoscopy that blows away typical cinema 3d and gives us almost total control over the visual cortex. By adding responsive movement tracking to the screens we're taking over our equilibrium and balance and overpowering our ability to track the world beyond the headset. By adding in hands and body tracking we're tying in our proprioception mapping to "dissolve" our brain's ability to track the body. Matter of fact much of Bailenson's research ties into how that affects our self-image, they're doing shit like giving peoples third arms and putting in them cow bodies. Again, we're barely scratching the surface and you're telling me that people got used to it while also telling me you get physiological reactions to configurations of light on a screen. We got used to it by accepting these things happening as part of the new normal, but the technology is still doing a number our brain.

      • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Furthermore, you didn’t even respond to my Airsoft comment because it disproves your entire idea. AirSoft is the closest you can be to actually shooting people and you don’t lose touch with reality because of it. It doesn’t cause people to pick up a real 9mm and shoot people in the street. If we can abstract an almost perfect simulation of shooting another human, we can handle VR. You’re worried about simulations of reality when we do absolute fine with doing these things IN reality.

        I don't talk about your airsoft idea because I find it laughable how you ignore the environment around airsoft as if most of the people involved in airsoft aren't playing war games fulfilling jingoist fantasies of the imperial nation that they've been raised in. But if you'd like me to address it; feel free to put an airsoft gun to your head, pull the trigger, and then get back to me if the feeling of the pellet bouncing off your skull encourages you to do it again the way people are whining about not being able to do it in VR anymore since that's what this conversation spawned from in the first place.

        Then why haven’t we seen psychosis in people who read books or listen to stories? If this was something to worry about, we all would have turned into Don Quixote in our literature class. You’re acting as if humans haven’t been doing this for literally 6000+ years now.

        What makes you think we haven't? As if there aren't fucking massive fandoms of people cosplaying and getting way too into their favorite characters. Entire industries built on fulfilling those fantasies. A book, television, or movie is such a small portion of our lives, of our sensory inputs, and yet it fully takes over some peoples' lives.

              • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
                ·
                4 years ago

                lmao. Yeah, the one acting like a debatebro here is definitely me. If I ever get to fulfill my hope of touring the VHIL I'll be sure to let them know some random guy on the internet says that in their almost 20 years of studying the psychological implications of VR that they forgot to consider movies. Take care.

                  • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
                    ·
                    4 years ago

                    😂😂😂 Yep, I've already filled out their applications to be baker acted based on a very narrow and outdated version of neurotypical standards. That's definitely what I said.