Implicit within that is a time commitment far in excess of the half-hour increments currently recommended by headset manufacturers – the effects of which remain unknown. One of the primary methods of gaining access to this alternate reality will involve donning your own VR headset, which will act as a portal to new gaming experiences and environments for social engagement. And now, the tech industry is touting the ‘metaverse’ as the future of the web, with Meta (formerly Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg describing it “as an embodied internet, where instead of just viewing content - you are in it”. While VR remains a niche pastime, it’s growing in popularity, with up to 23% of US households estimated to own or have access to a headset. Even so, the depth and tenor of these effects – especially as they relate to time expended in VR – are dimly understood and only occasionally discussed. The vast majority of side-effects are mild, their existence alluded to deep inside headset instruction manuals.
In recent years, medical research has found that virtual reality can induce symptoms of dissociation, while there’s plentiful anecdotal evidence pointing towards cases of isolation, social anxiety and addiction arising from sustained gameplay. Grover’s symptoms are not unique among VR users – nor are they extreme. “And, I’m pantomiming these things in VR, like hovering my hand over something to learn more about it.”
“I’m just saying things to myself like, ‘Oh, these graphics are really good,’” says Grover. He recalls one such episode while walking outside with his wife. This is, Grover explains, partly down to symptoms of nausea he calls ‘simulation sickness,’ but also episodes of unreality he’s occasionally experienced after taking off the headset. Nowadays, he’s more likely to spend just half an hour in the headset compared to the half-day sessions he was indulging when he first began gaming in VR five years ago. In recent years, however, Grover has begun to question how that feeling of immersion in VR has blended with reality. “Sometimes,” says Grover, “I feel like I’m living a second life in there.” In addition to the impressive graphics, he explains, there’s also a randomness to many of the events within the game that imbues it with an unlikely sense of verisimilitude. What especially attracts Grover to this virtual setting is its sense of reality. An avid virtual reality gamer, he spends the most time in his headset exploring the dusty, deserted towns of Fallout 4, an RPG set two centuries after the world has consigned itself to atomic oblivion. Grover has similar feelings of wonder while roaming post-apocalyptic landscapes. “Hiking is a weird kind of hobby, because when you’re halfway through it, you’re like, why is this even fun?” he says – a feeling that disappears, he adds, after catching sight of the undulating vistas of green and brown stretching out beneath the mountain. Densely forested and scored by river and trail, Grover is self-effacing about his expeditions into this hilly terrain. Jeff Grover* likes to walk, a pastime suited to the landscape of his home on the border between Massachusetts and upstate New York.
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