Eternal Starlight.

In the time since I've purchased my Quest 2, I've been very impressed by the degree to which Oculus works on maintaining and developing the customer connection for its VR headsets. Virtual reality is a relatively small part of the entertainment marketplace*, and whereas Oculus seems to have found a solid niche position, they obviously recognize the need to encourage their user base to invest - literally - in VR usage by sending out periodic discounts on games.  

Fortuitously, their most recent 30% discount perfectly coincided with my decision to buy Eternal Starlight, a real time tactical space combat game - the discount actually arrived in my e-mail as I was putting on my headset to log in and purchase the game. 

It's not a sophisticated game - at least not yet, there may well be upgrades in the game's future.  The narrative elements cry out for actual audio and more realistic character illustrations, and the in-game graphics rely on polygons rather than smoothly rendering the shapes.  None of this disappoints me, it's a $22 game** that screams indie developer, and any shortcomings pale in comparison to the game's outstanding interface, which is the first example I've experienced to date of anyone truly attempting to utilize the manipulative nature of the VR environment to its full capability. 

There's a strong Tony Stark/Minority Report feel to the interface, where the player's interaction with the ships in their fleet is almost completely controlled through hand movements and gestures.  Pulling your hands apart while holding down the HOLD buttons magnifies and rotates the map view, tapping on a ship with your hand reveals its stats, and grabbing a ship and dragging it to a new location sets in a course.

So far I've only done the tutorial, and I'll do it a few more times before I start the game in earnest, so that I can start to create some muscle memory for the game functions - the physical nature of the system makes it fairly intuitive, but when the survival of your fleet is on the line, you really don't want to be thinking to yourself, "Wait, is it the trigger button or the grip button to aim the beam cannon?"

- Sid

*Although, that being said, one of my co-workers also owns a Quest 2 - she's an outdoorsy 30-something training supervisor, which would indicate that Oculus has some horizontal spread in its appeal.

** Seventeen bucks and change after the discount.

1,000.

 Wow.  I was working on a posting on a VR game, and I just realized that The Child was my 1,000th post. Thanks to any and all who have taken a few minutes to look at The Infinite Revolution over the years!

- Sid

The Child.

This child is extremely gifted and has been blessed with rare properties that have the potential to bring order back to the galaxy.

Moff Gideon, The Mandalorian

Today I made one of my twice-weekly commutes to our company offices.  Some of my co-workers haven't been in since the first stay-home order last year, but the physical aspects of my job have made it necessary to actually go in and load paper into my printer, roll up posters, laminate signage, and so forth.

This morning's trip was much like any of the others, until the bus pulled up at the corner of Granville and West Georgia, and a small child boarded the bus with his mother. Beaming up at the driver, he chirped, "Do you want to see my Baby Yoda? Mom, can I show him my Baby Yoda?"  His mother shrugged and laughed, and said, "Okay, but hurry!"  

He dug into his little Star Wars backpack and pulled out a small stuffed Baby Yoda from The Mandalorian for the driver's approval. "Isn't it great!?" he asked, and the driver agreed.  Mother and child made their way to seats, and the bus continued on its route.

Normally I'm a bit obsessive about delays on my commute (too many years of constant professional deadline pressure have ruined me) but in this case, I did not begrudge a single second of the time lost to Baby Yoda and his joyful owner. Never lose that joy, my little fellow fan - and don't let them take it away from you, either. 

- Sid