You Shouldn't Worry about the “Dork Factor” of Anything

On Monday, July 1, I wrote up an article about Electronic Arts’ CEO Peter Moore referring to virtual reality devices as having a “dork factor,” and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little bemused as to why someone would refer to something that’s (technologically) a leap forward in gaming as something that’s “dorky” in this day and age. "It's an incredibly immersive experience, but it's you," Moore said in a recent interview. "You're inside this world and you're oblivious and of course, you can't see. You hope it doesn't get what I'll call the Segway effect: incredible technology that kinda looks dorky. Or the Google Glass effect, which is the dork factor that goes with that. And that's what we have to overcome, because I think the tech is great. These things done right, commercialized so they can be truly a consumer device with plenty of innovative content to go with it, feel like a blast." I can only think that what Moore was talking about was that players may feel embarrassed about wearing either Oculus VR’s Oculus Rift or Sony’s Project Morpheus, because it’s a device that may look kind of odd when scene in a public or private scenario, like seeing someone ride a Segway down the street, or seeing someone chatting on a bluetooth headset while commuting, or someone yelling voice commands at the Xbox One; it’s just something you don’t normally see, and therefore construed it as something that’s uncanny to the norm. Of course, that could just be me projecting, but let’s explore this issue a little further. There will always come a time when something new, flashy and innovative comes into our lives, and sometimes said something that’s new and flashy turns out to be too new and flashy when put into practice.

For example, the idea of wearing Google Glass seems like a pretty awesome idea in theory, but when put into practice it may put some users into a state of embarrassment because said device is so unorthodox in a public setting, despite it being a well camouflaged device. It’s the same reaction I had with Xbox One’s voice commands, which sounded really cool, but when I thought about it in a practical sense I was put off it, because I was put off by the idea of announcing commands to a console. Granted it would be in the comfort of my own home should I actually have an Xbox One, but I would still have to get over the initial hurdle of feeling absolutely silly for talking to an inanimate object and wanting it to do something. While I would consider it natural to be embarrassed about something like that, I really don’t think one should have to worry about the “dork factor” of anything if they’re really for it, like wearing Google Glass or riding a Segway to work.