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Why did the founder of Oculus create a deadly VR headset?
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The founder of Oculus VR and designer of Oculus Rift, Palmer Luckey, has created NerveGear, a virtual reality headset capable of killing the user if they lose in a video game.
“You die in the game, you die in real life”, Luckey titled the most recent entry on his official blog. In honor of the anime Sword Art Online (SAO), the entrepreneur has modified a Quest Pro helmet to have three explosives capable of killing the wearer. You can't take it off or destroy it either.
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The way the lethal headset works is as follows: the explosives are connected to a light sensor that detects when a screen turns red; then, when a Game Over message appears, the explosives detonate, "instantly destroying the user's brain".
Luckey asserts that it is impossible to remove or destroy the NerveGear. On the other hand, he admits that it still has flaws that could kill the user at the wrong moment, so he has not dared to test it himself.
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Luckey decided to bring this invention to life in honor of the SAO anime. In the series, November 6, 2022, is the date when humanity got trapped in a video game where you couldn't escape until you completed it, and if you died in the game, you died in the real world.
The entrepreneur explained the relationship between Oculus and SAO, as the anime's popularity generated "an enormous otaku enthusiasm for Oculus, especially in Japan, where it quickly became our second largest market". Furthermore, the Oculus Rift made SAO itself "much more plausible and grounded".
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Luckey expressed that, for the time being, NerveGear is only a piece of art and "a reminder that invites reflection on unexplored paths in game design". The entrepreneur also believes that the invention is the first example of a VR device capable of killing the user, but that "it won't be the last".
“See you in the metaverse”, concluded the designer.