Seeking a virtual reality breakthrough

The 18th Floor, a room-escape game, features different immersive scenes created by the virtual reality technology. [Photo provided to China Daily]

James Iliff, co-founder of Survios, thinks the release of many hardware options with various features in the last year has created a lot of confusion for content producers.

"Many people are asking: What is the key to make VR successful?" said Iliff at a conference in Beijing last month.

"What we realize is that this is the wrong question to ask - VR itself is the key. The question we should be asking is: What are we unlocking? What doors are we opening?"

The three-day conference Iliff attended was held by a Chinese technology forum, Geek Park, and half of the second day was devoted to virtual reality.

"VR is the next step in a very long history of art and entertainment," he says, "from the scribblings of pictures on the wall of a cave to theater and photography, radio, television .... And now, we are creating our own simulations."

"What does VR unlock? It unlocks human experience - it gives us the opportunity to expand ourselves," Iliff tells an audience of around 500 people.

"If you had a thousand lives to live, what would you do? Would you be an astronaut, a knight with shining armor, or a speed racer? What character would you be? What goal would you want to achieve?"

"In a way, a virtual reality experience is like a miniature reincarnation - a small life that you get to live. It allows us to learn, to grow, and to evolve ourselves."

Lu Lili contributed to this story.

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