It’s only been a week since the release of the Meta Quest 3 headset, but people are already getting weird.
Meta’s third-gen VR headset makes mixed reality a big feature, and at $500, the Quest 3 is also one of the more accessible headsets out there — given that, people are obviously excited to experiment with lots of different XR applications.
Some of those experiments are simple tasks; some are chaotic; others are just downright degenerate.
The good, the bad, the chaotic
On the tamer side of things, some YouTubers have been spending entire days strapped into the Quest 3. While unnecessary for things like brushing your teeth, the headset’s XR mode feels right at home when you’re following along with a workout or cooking with a recipe. And with the Quest 3’s solid passthrough feature, people have been learning piano in a way that’s almost like playing Guitar Hero. You can even set up a virtual clone of your desktop PC to run games or movies while you tackle mundane chores.
Do you need to play Beat Saber while you cook an omelet? Definitely not. But you can do that now, so naturally you’re going to, right?
For every practical use of the Quest 3, there’s also a more chaotic one. For example, you can run as many screens as you want and really destroy your attention span. Of course, we all knew it was only a matter of time until someone tried to make a weird porn thing with it, too. Poor Tifa.
A NEW REALITY
We can’t even be mad that people are exploring what’s possible with the Quest 3, even if some of it is, um, questionable. Mixed reality is Meta’s Big New Thing in the Quest 3 and this is the time to get weird.
Plus, all of the experimentation combined with a curious community could really crack the world of mixed reality wide open. The eagerness of the VR community to explore such a range of uses has us very excited about the future of XR applications. Even now, we’re really only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to mixed reality.
Just be careful not to trip while you vacuum and watch YouTube.
