We are progressing to a stage where VR games are becoming more and more immersive. We are delving further and further into ways to make virtual reality feel like REALITY.

The ultimate step along this path is a connection directly to our central nervous system. Can you imagine playing fallout 4 but where you can feel the wind, smell the decay and really sense yourself walking across the arid desert wasteland?

How would a totally immersive VR, like in Ready Player One, change our world? I think there are 4 main things that would change.

Economy:

With another world, another dimension, human beings have a choice on where they want to place their value. Which world do they fit best and which one treats them the best? In a virtual world you can be anyone. You can look like anyone. If a virtual world has a significant amount of the world population inside it then the money of the virtual world will be given real world value. At the present you can often perchance in-game currencies for real world money. In a VR focused future you will be able to do the opposite.

Jobs:

If our economy has shifted so that in-game money and items have real world worth then a significant number of jobs will be created to generate in-game items. If a set of armour will sell in the game for the same as a t-shirt in real life, then there is real value in spending time crafting that armour if it can be made with a similar effort. The gathering of in-game quests and resources will also create many jobs though many of them may harken back to a type of slave labour, paying pittance for weeks of grinding mobs or ore veins.

Entertainment:

In a virtual world, entertainment can be far more easily produced and distributed. Screen capture is already widely used on platforms like YouTube and Twitch. If most of the population already spend a significant amount of time in the virtual world, then accessing in-game tools for viewing video and streams of other player’s lives will be even easier. It is likely that entertainment will focus largely on topics that revolve around whatever VR world has become popular.

Technological developments:

Technological developments are being made all the time but often only technologies that follow the needs and desires of the current culture are the ones that flourish. With a large amount of the population living in the virtual world, technological developments will likely follow that trend. Developments that improve VR life and in-game experiences will likely flourish. No-one will need a new phone but new immersion technology will become a must. Better computers to run the game and more comfortable furniture to lie in whilst playing the game will be developed.

I think we are slowly progressing towards a world where a world-wide shared virtual world will become a reality. How do you think a shared virtual world would affect our current society?