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[Lectorog]

VR most likely won't become common and fully immersive until we don't need most people to work, anyway.

[hops]

VR most likely won't become common and fully immersive until we don't need most people to work, anyway.

*IGNORING* most world problems, I think the ideal future would be an intelligence-centric society with robotic workforces.

To prevent Skynet scenarios, there should be a law preventing AIs from taking influential positions, and super-intelligent humans should be trained. I think asking their consent when they reach maturity should eliminate most ethical concerns. And if worst come to worst, there should be a contingency scram button to liquid-nitrogen the fuck out of AIs.

[Lectorog]

The Matrix.

[hops]

The Matrix.

That would be near impossible, or at least it has 50% chance of failing. Seeing that irrational numbers exist in our universe, it would be hard as hell to replicate them using machines without having infinite amount of memory and faster-than-time-itself processing power.

[Lectorog]

irrational numbers exist in our universe

I fail to see how this negatively impacts the VR process. It's all about approximation either way.

[hops]

irrational numbers exist in our universe

I fail to see how this negatively impacts the VR process. It's all about approximation either way.

It would be hard to pull wool over the eyes of the scientists when it comes to enslaving humankind if they started doing experiments.

Eh, then again, I suppose you're right.

[i2amroy]

VR will probably cause another big arcade boom as it first starts to move into the entertainment industries, similar to what videogames did before they were common/cheap enough to be everywhere. As the technology is then further miniaturized and made less expensive it will spread out into individual homes for personal use.

As for the idea of the matrix, a system like that wouldn't work as a deception since you can't handle the fine details fast enough and still have the level of complexity required (not to mention the fact that humans aren't magical batteries that generate endless sources of energy). There also would probably be a few tells (reflections not always existing for objects and similar details) that would probably manifest themselves in the earlier forms of the technology. Assuming the VR technology existed I don't see any problems with running a "The World" a la .hack//sign type VR universe though, where you could meet and talk with other people.

DF-centric wound system...

Marvelous!
Though really, the chance for people to quite literally detach from reality would reach great new proportions.

I can imagine parents reactions, when their children start screaming in agony playing a game 

This is something kids should quite literally be legally banned from using. Developing mind in an enveloping world is dangerous.

I would assume that most VR technology would have built in buffers that dull the amount pain that would normally be transmitted for a given wound or end the simulation automatically once pain reaches a certain threshold level. Of course this opens up the whole use of VR as a torture device by the unscrupulous, where you can enter a simulation, inflict whatever type of pain/agony on a person, and then have absolutely no sign of it appear in the real world, thus leaving no proof. I can imagine several various governments and other organizations that would love to get their hands on a device that could do that.

As for the idea of escapism, as long as the majority of VR revolved around social aspects and not single ones then I wouldn't see too big of a difference between it and what we are doing now. There are already people that spend the majority of their time texting/facebook/similar. In fact VR would probably be better for those people, in that they would actually be interacting with their friends "face-to-face" rather then through words alone (side note: crazy people now can Facebook in a VR of Facebook! SOCIALCEPTION!).

[alway]

VR will probably cause another big arcade boom as it first starts to move into the entertainment industries, similar to what videogames did before they were common/cheap enough to be everywhere.

No it won't, and here's why:

1. Arcade machines are cheap. Most run-of-the-mill arcade machines these days are around $6000, plus or minus $2000, plus a few thousand more for extras in the setup (like extended cabinets, cabinets with attached stools/booths, ect). A full VR system would cost waaaay more than that.
2. People aren't nearly as willing to go out to some shop somewhere and spend a bunch of money to play video games. There's a big cultural shift that took place there. Outside of some specialty adult-only VR systems, there just isn't a market for it because VR doesn't offer something fundamentally different. In the end, it's a hyped up video game with novelty controllers. Back then, the closest experience to a video game was... well, not really anything. These days they would compete with things which are basically the same games.
3. Arcade machines were cheap to create games for, while a VR system would have a large hardware cost AND a massive development cost. Today's game industry isn't nearly as profitable as it was during the arcade golden age. As games became higher and higher quality, particularly in terms of graphics, dev costs increased rapidly, to the point where today they are about $50 million for last gen console games. And since a VR system is based entirely on the things which make games more expensive to produce (art, models, sound, music; content things), you're looking at hundreds of millions, likely approaching a billion per title for something which can outcompete other available games.
Factoring in the economics, it just doesn't work. The reason games like COD can have such large budgets is because they charge 10 million+ people $60. Meanwhile, during the height of their existence, the US had approximately 13,000 arcades. At that point, you have to charges tens of thousands per game just to pay for development.

So in summary, no. Literally nothing works out in favor of the idea of VR shops.

[Dutchling]

Note to self: Never enter a VR shop in Japan.

[Loud Whispers]

What would be the consequences of such a thing becoming widespread and accepted?

Why, pUrist gamers of course! THOSE WHO SHUN SUCH HIGH TECH SORCERY IN FAVOUR OF ASCII AND GRAPHICS CARDS!

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