Virtual Reality is the next big thing in home entertainment, and the PSVR is one of the more accessible ways to play. There are several bundles available, but as Black Friday is over, I’m not going to compare them and point to deals. This article is aimed to help parents and new PSVR owners out there get started and share what I’ve learned since owning it.

You need the following to play PSVR:

Playstation 4 (Pro is recommended for VR capabilities). The Headset hooks up to the PS4 and cannot be played by itself. PSVR Headset. PSVR Camera. Motion Controllers (not all games require these). PSVR capable games. A room with enough space to move around without hitting things. The official recommendation is that the PlayStation Camera is given a play area of 3m (9.8 feet) by 1.9m (6.2 feet) — so about 60 square feet of space in total. This is not exactly the same as floor space though. For example, that square footage in our living extends over the couch slightly, but we haven’t had a problem with that.

I want to emphasize having enough safe space to play VR.

Due to the fact that as a VR player, you are fully immersed in another world, it is very easy to lose track of where you are are in the physical room. This has resulted in people accidentally hitting people, pets, furniture, TV’s, etc. Also, the motion controllers have flown out of hands. This is not a problem if you have enough safe space to play.

On the same day of publishing this, 3 people (maybe even more that I didn’t see) posted these on reddit:

I do not want this to completely turn potential VR players off for this reason, but want to emphasize how important it is to be safe, and that it can be avoided with the proper precautions.

First and foremost, I would not let any child play this without adult supervision, period.

To keep the players aware of their physical presence, we bought a small floor rug and place that in the center of the playing space. As long as our feet are on the rug, we know we’re safe to move our arms around freely without hitting people, dogs, phones, etc.

The motion controllers come with straps to prevent them from flying out of the players hands. Use them! I have personally had a motion controller slip from my hand while playing and I’m a grown man who thought that would never have that happen to him. Well, it did but I had the straps on my wrists so nothing bad happened.

As mentioned in the list, not all games require the Motion Controllers, but if you don’t have them you’ll want to be careful with which games you purchase, as some games are unplayable without them.

We got the Superhot + Creed bundle which came with the Headset, Camera, and Motion Controllers. I immediately downloaded several demos and purchased a slew of games.

Funny story, we got this while the kids were at my parents house for a few days and played it while they were gone. They had a PS4 there and saw us online playing VR games. Busted! So, early Christmas present for the family!

And, honestly, I’m glad it worked out that way. We’ve had a great time playing VR together as a family. The TV shows what the VR Headset shows, so those watching somebody play VR get to see what the player sees, which makes it somewhat of a group activity.

The PSVR comes with a free game called The Playroom, which has a variety of multiplayer which pits the player with the VR Headset against the players with the controllers, or allows them to play on a team.