While Kat was writing the post Virtual Reality Video Games: Population Control we got to talking, and as of right now I have some serious unanswered questions about VR and gaming. Lets just start out with the most open question:

If Dragon Age: Origins was virtual realty would that mean that video game developers would actually have had to create…well… Alistair penis? Video Game design and development meetings certainly would take a whole different turn wouldn’t they? “What should Leliana’s nipple to boob ratio be?”

“We need to pick a design for Morrigan’s hair.” “We did that last Thursday.” “No her other hair.”

For the sake of realism all the motion capture work would have to take it to the next step. Can’t you just picture it now: Man covered in full body motion capture suit. Little white ball on the tip ‘o the tallywhacker. Would the actors dispute the size of their motion capture?

Would someone actually have to decide what Leliana’s crotch smells like? I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume they aren’t going to decide cinnamon and Day Lilies. Who has to determine that? Nerds everywhere (myself included) would LOVE to be a video game tester, but not if video games go virtual.

“Oh man, someone needs to crank down the funk on body odor for Niko. He’s going to make people vomit.”

Would this make in game showering mandatory for in game interactions? For every smell level you increase your charisma drops one. That would be an absolute pain in the ass. Imagine Fable III taking the touch mechanic one step farther into the smell mechanic. If you come home smelling like the town whore your wife bitch slaps you with a wooden spoon.

“Why do I smell stale beer and canned fart?”

“That’s just Oghren.”

Would you be allowed to turn smells off? That might be nice. I really don’t want to know what a sloth demon smells like. Desire demon maybe. Sloth demon no.

Would playing a simple game like Mario be huge stress release? You’re running around, punching bricks, jumping angrily on things. I bet getting shot out of a cannon is a rush. I wonder where the raccoon tail attaches to my body. Also I wonder how I wag it to fly. Do I have to actually EAT the mushrooms to grow bigger? I don’t like mushrooms, can we change it to gummy bears? Can I just touch the mushroom?

For Kat, VR means population control and getting to “experience” Alistair. For me, it means I have to smell the dwarf.