While this is kind of tempting, there's just too many niggling things that add up for me.
1) VR isn't comfortable for those with glasses, and some in the thread have stated the Rift is one of the worst offenders.
I have huge frames (Eddie Bauer) and the Oculus is perfectly comfortable for hours at a time. Still not ideal though (mostly that it's more difficult to take off and put on; now I can do it in about 20 seconds though).
2) Lack of deep games. I've seen some games that look neat, but very few exclusives that I think would hook me for a long time. Stuff like Elite: Dangerous is neat, but I can already play that in non-VR.
This is true. I've always preferred arcade-style gameplay. If you really want games with long playtimes, like RPGs, you'll probably be ultimately disappointed (for a while).
3) Clunky locomotion. It's clear that VR is still in its infancy, with things like teleporting to move being a prime example. Considering your viewpoint is literally strapped to your head, this seems like a really poor solution. Until things like Lone Echo are the norm and not the exception, VR will feel gimmicky.
I don't think anything about any of these locomotion systems makes VR
feel gimmicky. It feels amazing, pretty much all of the time.
4) Software pricing. Because there's only so many headsets out there, developers are needing to get more per consumer than normal. This leads to games that, being honest, would struggle to ask $15, now being sold at $40 -- and almost never going on sale. As a consumer, it's rough to already have paid hundreds of dollars on top of owning a gaming machine, only to be asked to pay a giant premium once again.
Personally I haven't bought a single VR game for $40. It's all been cheaper than that on sales. For that matter, we have 8 hour long games like Arizona Sunshine that have coop and survival modes to boot that go on sale for significantly less than $40...
Additionally, while if some titles that sell for $20 might sell for significantly less if they were 2D games. They're not 2D games, and they definitely make much more of an impression for that reason. I don't think you can directly compare VR and non-VR titles...
5) Gen 2 is inevitable. While current VR is impressive, it still has its issues. The screen-door effect can hamper immersion in a technology almost exclusively devoted to that idea. And having a bulky headset with a bunch of wires on it isn't ideal either. Both will be addressed in later revisions, leaving early adopters with a sub-ideal experience in order to get ground-floor access.
I've never had my immersion even a little hampered by screen-door effect (god rays is much, much worse). The wires are not ideal, but I think bigger things could be gained from more advanced optics and of course future screen tech.
