I interviewed VR YouTubers Jasmine Uniza (VR with Jasmine) & Naysy on their first impressions of the Quest 3 at Meta Connect 2023. See more context in the rough transcript below.
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Rough Transcript
[00:00:05.412] Kent Bye: The Voices of VR Podcast. Hello, my name is Kent Bye, and welcome to the Voices of VR podcast. It's a podcast that looks at the future of spatial computing. You can support the podcast at patreon.com slash Voices of VR. So this is my second of 12 in a series of looking at MetaConnect and highlights from MetaConnect. And today's episode is going to be talking with a couple of VR content creators on YouTube and TikTok, Jasmine Unisa, also known as VR with Jasmine, as well as Neysi, who's a VR content creator on YouTube and TikTok. So, both Jasmine and Neysi were a part of what was originally called the Quest Ambassador Program, and now has since been renamed to the Quest Creator Program. So, these are a number of different content creators who get access to early looks to some of the hardware, and so they were all being brought out to cover the MetaConnect in various capacities. They were in the same kind of building for where the press were and just going on to different assignments throughout the course of the week and to see different experiences. And some of them were reporting on Instagram and a lot of them had actually already had a chance to see an early look at the Quest 3 and the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Classes. And so I wanted to sit down with both Jasmine and Nasey just to get some of their reflections. And this was actually the first interview that I recorded at MetaConnect. So it was just also an opportunity for me to start to share some of my own first impressions around some of what I had had a chance to see at MetaConnect. So, that's what we're covering on today's episode of the WorcesterVR Podcast. So this interview with Jasmine Naisy happened on Wednesday, September 27th, 2023 at MetaConnect at Meta's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. So with that, let's go ahead and dive right in.
[00:01:49.695] Jasmine Uniza: I'm Jasmine Yaneza, also known as VRwithJasmine. I'm a YouTuber, TikToker, but also I'm the CEO and co-founder of Impact Reality, XR. We do marketing and PR work for VR, AR, games, apps, products.
[00:02:04.643] Naysy: NAZIE HEMPENIUS Hey, I'm Nazie, and I'm a VR content creator. I make content across YouTube, TikTok, and probably best known for my Beat Saber videos.
[00:02:14.528] Kent Bye: Maybe you could each give a bit more context as to your background and your journey into working with VR.
[00:02:19.881] Jasmine Uniza: Yeah, my background's quite interesting. So I did mechanical engineering, focused in robotics. So I did space robotics. I got into the tech industry after that. I worked at Apple making iPhone factories. And then I worked at Meta for a little bit, doing engineering program management on the Quest Pro. And I've just always been interested in the VR space. So when COVID happened, I started creating VR content. And basically that just kept growing and going at a certain point. I was like, I think I just want to go all in on this. So yeah, so that went full time on content and then co-founded our company.
[00:02:56.965] Naysy: I was originally working in game development, doing marketing for mobile games. And I think initially, Sean Edwards, who made Lunafly and working on Dead Seconds, was really into VR and demoed some stuff to me. And yeah, eventually fell in love with Rick and Morty VR, because I was a Rick and Morty fan. And yeah, I got into content creation from doing marketing. I'm like, oh, that other side of the fence looks way more fun. So I started doing content and did that for years. And eventually, yeah, started doing more and more VR stuff. And then, yeah, just completely fell in love.
[00:03:28.453] Kent Bye: Yeah, so we're here at MetaConnect, and they just announced a number of different things. They've already announced the Quest 3, but they're giving some demos to the broader developer community for the first time here at Connect. And there's also announcements of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses that are the next iteration of the Ray-Ban stories. So, yeah, I'd love to hear some of your initial thoughts on these latest technologies, since I understand that you had a chance to get a little bit of an early look at being a part of the Ambassador program. So, yeah, I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on what you see is compelling or not with mixed reality.
[00:04:02.811] Jasmine Uniza: I'm really interested in mixed reality. I thought that what they did with the anchor in your room, so if you do work out to go to one place in your room, it'll just show the portal to be able to work out. I thought that was really creative. It's very Doctor Who-esque, which is really cool. I think there's a lot of opportunities in mixed reality. from what I saw, but I guess I'm not sure how well it will do. I think it depends on how comfortable people can be in a headset for a prolonged period of time. I think that's still the main issue with VR.
[00:04:36.960] Naysy: Yeah I've been really loving mixed reality apps on my Quest Pro. I think my favorite thing lately is just going on like SideQuest or like App Lab and just finding what indie devs are doing because there's some really interesting things they're doing and I think it just makes it a lot more accessible like I feel like my mum could pick up something that's mixed reality a lot easier because she struggles with like the UI and stuff like that or like worrying about like punching something so I think it's Yeah, it makes it more accessible and I think, yeah, just what people are doing with the tech is really, really interesting.
[00:05:08.892] Kent Bye: Yeah, one of the things that I noticed in the mixed reality demos that I was doing here, and also I find this on the Quest Pro, is that there's this weird warping that happens sometimes with your hands where they have this reprojection that as I move my hand around, it looks like I'm bending space-time in some ways. It feels like a bad computer vision artifact, but it feels like it's also like the world around me is undulating waves as I move my body, which makes it, for me at least, feel a little bit more unstable. I don't know if that's something that's a part of the software, or if that's something that's just endemic to how they've built the actual mixed reality experiences. I don't know if you've also noticed some of these weird artifacts that make me not feel completely immersed into the space. It makes me feel like I'm having a mediated experience, rather than just being in the space, because the technology is altering the space in a way that just makes the house of cards of embodied presence in this environment collapse for me in a certain way. That was sort of my first take. I don't know, again, if that's a software issue, if that is something that will continue to increase over time. But I'd love to hear any thoughts you have about how much you're able to be fully immersed within some of these mixed reality experiences.
[00:06:14.193] Jasmine Uniza: I agree with that, but I think some of the demos that I've done where you're really looking out kind of in the room rather than closer to your hands kind of thing, I think there I don't really see that distortion as much and that part of it to me feels more fun.
[00:06:29.639] Naysy: Yeah, I guess the Quest 3 has the depth sensor, so I guess maybe that will fix some of those issues. But yeah, I don't mind it. I think it looks awesome. I think mixed reality is so cool. But yeah, I think the higher quality it is, the better and more realistic it's going to look as well.
[00:06:45.156] Kent Bye: Yeah, the other demo that really was incredibly stunning was the Red Matter 2 demo, just to see the increase of the graphics and to go back and forth from the high fidelity of the graphics and to see things that reminded me of different moments from Half-Life Alyx, you know, picking up a bottle and having like a liquid shader or just the level of visual fidelity felt like it was taking it up to the next level. So I was really encouraged to see that Red Matter has already been pushing the edge of fidelity and graphics within the quest. on Quest 2, but to see how far they can take it. For me, that was something I got really excited about, to see that there could be whole new vistas of having new levels of fidelity on some of these experiences. I don't know if you experienced anything similar.
[00:07:25.156] Jasmine Uniza: I didn't get to try the Red Matter 2 demo. But overall, my experience with the Quest 3 was really good. It's definitely a big improvement. And I think it'll just be better overall for all the users.
[00:07:37.665] Naysy: Yeah, I tried Red Matter 2 demo. I was really impressed. I was like, oh, this is so good. It almost felt like playing a PC VR game in a way. So I hope that we can see more and more games at that quality because, yeah, it's really cool. But I guess it's a problem of those games may not run on the Quest 2 then. So it's like, will we start to see Quest 3 exclusive games? But I guess that'll make people mad. So yeah, it'll be cool to see more, but it'll be interesting how devs handle it.
[00:08:05.087] Kent Bye: Yeah, I saw a report from Upload VR that said that we won't be seeing any Quest 3 exclusives, at least for a couple of years, at least what they're reporting. So it sounds like it's going to be a while before developers can maybe do things that are exclusive to the Quest. So yeah, I don't know how they handle that if they have additional textures.
[00:08:22.138] Naysy: Yeah, maybe like two versions, like a Quest 2 version, a Quest 3 version. I don't know how they manage it or how hard that is to do. But yeah, definitely impressive tech.
[00:08:30.223] Kent Bye: Any other thoughts or impressions from the Quest 3, from having a chance to get an early look and some of your takeaways from what you were able to see?
[00:08:36.974] Jasmine Uniza: Yeah, I definitely think it's a big improvement from the Quest 2, and I think anyone that's played the Quest 2 or any new users that are getting into VR will be pretty happy.
[00:08:45.444] Naysy: Yeah, same. I think, yeah, I think the improved, like, resolution in the pancake lenses. I think, yeah, once people try that, they'll be like, oh, this is really nice. And I think mixed reality. I think a lot of, I see, like, people in my comments being like, oh, I don't care for mixed reality. But I'm like, I feel like you need to try it and then, like, you might change your opinion about it. So I think it's one of those things you have to experience it to understand how cool it is.
[00:09:06.565] Kent Bye: Yeah, I opened up the Oculus browser to read the text, and I was able to read things a little bit easier, but also it was nice to pin it into the world, which was, you know, have this windowed effect. The comfort level of this, I felt, was also a lot better as I was trying it on. I know a lot of folks have the VR comfort inserts, especially folks who do a lot of active things like Beat Saber. This felt like, natively, it felt like more of like they went in that direction of not needing to have that additional peripheral, that just out of the box, it felt way more comfortable than what I've seen in the Quest 2.
[00:09:37.169] Jasmine Uniza: Yeah, that's definitely one of the main things that I talked about in my video I released on my first impressions, where, like, on the Quest 2, you really needed a lot of accessories in order to feel comfortable and play longer sessions. And I was a bit weary when I first saw that the Quest 3 was using the same, like, fabric strap. But I think how much slimmer the front is and how light it is and, like, the split strap in the back, it was much more balanced and super comfortable. And I was pleasantly surprised.
[00:10:03.049] Naysy: Yeah definitely like I don't think it is lighter but it felt lighter. Yeah I did struggle like with the comfort a little bit but I struggle with comfort like every single head strap so I feel like I'm just one of those people that struggles with comfort but I think it's just like once you find that sweet spot then yeah you're good to go.
[00:10:18.324] Kent Bye: Yeah, I know that SixLive had leaked some of the weights of the Quest 3 a long time ago and that it ended up being around the same or maybe even more but the fact that it was more compact meant that as you turn your head you have less of that weight that's leveraged in a way that it feels more compact even though is maybe around the same weight. It didn't feel like there was like this long thing that was hanging off my nose and pushing down on my nose which I usually get If I play too much of the quest to that just the way that the weight distribution is You know have that weight fall on my head in a way that creates discomfort after using it for a long time So I felt like out of the box this felt like a lot better for how it was interestingly enough I had a chance to do two demo sessions because the press there's just a lot of open spaces here and the first time it was like a perfect fit And the second time I had to like play with it a little bit more which I thought that was kind of interesting that When I did have to adjust it I felt like the way that you have to adjust it is a new Mechanism somehow or at least it was different that it probably is gonna take some getting used to but it wasn't at the same time if it was a wrong fit it wasn't intuitively obvious how to get it to be like a good fit and which I think for folks who are getting into VR for the first time is a potential thing to look out for, because it felt like when it didn't fit right, it was a little bit harder to adjust it. Maybe it's just a matter of learning how this new thing works, but it could be that it's just a little bit more difficult.
[00:11:37.272] Jasmine Uniza: Yeah, so actually my YouTube channel is all about tutorials. One of the videos I did previously for the Quest 2 was how to adjust the Quest 2. It seems weird. To me, it seems obvious because I've done it so many times. But so many people have commented saying, thank you. I just didn't know that this is how you do it. So don't worry. I'm going to make a bunch of tutorials for Quest 3.
[00:11:56.736] Naysy: Yeah, I imagine, because I think normally with like your first setup and walkthrough, it walks you through how to adjust that stuff. But yeah, like from memory, you got the Y-strap and you kind of like pull it apart. Yeah, it was definitely new. And I did need the guy to like show me like, oh, you got to do it like this. So I think, yeah, one of those things like at first, you're like, how do I do this? But once you work it out, you're like, oh, it's fine.
[00:12:16.080] Kent Bye: Especially as things scales up if it's not immediately obvious. I think it's one of those things It's just gonna be a point of friction. So that was something I experienced. I was like, okay Wow, they're introducing new comfort once you get it, right, but getting a dialed in may be a little bit different I also really enjoyed the new controllers. They felt a little bit lighter at least the haptics also felt much more dialed in, more similar to what you see with the Quest Pro controllers. And so as someone who plays the Quest Pro quite a bit, I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are on comparing what the controllers felt like and some of the different experiences that were playing with haptics and giving these different haptics feedback versus what you see already with the Quest Pro.
[00:12:52.130] Naysy: Yeah, like, I definitely noticed the haptics. I really enjoyed the haptics. I forgot to mention that, like, in my, like, video stuff. Yeah, they felt really nice. Like, just even, like, hovering over menus and stuff like that added a lot. Yeah, definitely, I think a lot better than the Quest Pro. Like, I can't even remember the Quest Pro haptics now, but I enjoyed it. And, yeah, like, in terms of, like, tracking and stuff, I didn't notice, like, any issues or anything, but, yeah, you're using it in, like, such a small period, it's hard to know any of that stuff. In the small period we tried it, yeah.
[00:13:20.842] Jasmine Uniza: The quest Pro has been like my main headset for the past year or so And when I use the quest 3 controllers like I didn't really feel too much of a difference It was a bit lighter in my experience, but I think that's good like to me I didn't notice anything unusual, and I think that that does mean it is pretty comparable to the haptics on the quest Pro Okay, yeah, that's good to know and what about the Ray-Ban meta smart classes any thoughts on that I? I cannot wait to get my hands on these. They seem so fun. I think live streaming on this for me as a creator will be really great. I think like unboxing or showing how to do certain things on a headset or even just like doing my day to day life. I'm really excited about.
[00:14:00.292] Naysy: Yeah, I had no interest in the Ray-Ban Metas. Like, they announced it over there. I'm like, eh, whatever. And then I got a demo. I'm like, oh, these are actually really cool. Like, they feel like glasses. It's really light. The, like, audio is really good. And yeah, the direct latency from, like, streaming and then, like, to the phone is pretty impressive. So I think I'll actually use these things and I want a pair now. And I feel like everyone here feels the same after they've seen what they can do. So I think it was surprising. Yeah, that they've pulled this out. I'm like, oh, that's actually cool.
[00:14:31.477] Kent Bye: Yeah, for me, the most impressive part of it was the spatial audio that they have, where it had a chance to record a video. And there's like five microphones, like one underneath the bridge of the nose, two on the side where the logos are, and then two closer to the ears, like pointing down. And so with those five microphones, it's able to create this sound field that they said it was just more of a stereo mix rather than creating an ambisonic with head tracking, which would be really cool to create a sound field that then you would be able to Create a whole recreation that you could have head tracking, but this didn't seem like it has head tracking included yet But that to me seemed like a real powerful aspect of being able to record videos that have spatial audio now I guess it's probably mixed down to stereo because as people watch back maybe on other devices I Beyond the headset of these Ray-Ban meta smart glasses because the sound also sounded really great The Bose AR frames was a short-lived attempt that Bose was trying to do with this augmented reality But using with the smart glasses and just to have like a platform that does spatialized audio in a way I feel like that's gonna be maybe one of the more underlooked Capabilities of this new platform and what can be done with that? There was a lot of stuff that had started to be done with the use of spatialized audio But I feel like to be able to record Different immersive experiences and to have people listen to them and have like a corresponding video I think there's gonna be a strong use case there for the specialized audio I'm not sure if you had a chance to check that out
[00:15:59.047] Jasmine Uniza: Yeah, it did sound really good. I guess it's just not a medium I'm used to working with since I'm mostly doing video. But you know what would be cool in the future is if they did have cameras on the back as well. And then now you get 360 audio, you get 360 video, and then maybe you can experience some of the things that you've experienced in real life recreated in VR. That'd be cool.
[00:16:20.322] Naysy: Yeah, spatial audio stuff. Yeah, I got a demo of it. It was pretty cool. I have nothing to compare it to, so I was just like, oh, this is cool. I think it was impressive. You can't really hear what other people are listening to. And I think it works for hands-free calling and stuff like that. So yeah, pretty impressive tech.
[00:16:36.031] Kent Bye: Yeah, and during the keynote, there was a lot of announcements about different stuff around AI, generative AI, large language models, these AI personas that are tied to different celebrities. So yeah, I'd love to hear any of your thoughts on the continuation of starting to announce different things about AI and then how that may be tying into different things that are happening in the context of these spatial platforms and horizon worlds or the so-called metaverse.
[00:17:00.526] Jasmine Uniza: I thought that the AI stuff was very cool, like all the different, I guess, assistants that you can have. Usually, I think with Tragic Petit, you have to tell it, like, you are now this, but for Meta's AI, they separated each person already. The Snoop Dogg, obviously, was hilarious, but they picked him as Dungeon Master. Yeah, I guess I still need to try it, but I think the main thing is I am excited to try it, and it sounds like it's going to be integrated into the Ray-Ban, so you can talk to it. So I think it's really cool, and I guess we'll see how it goes.
[00:17:30.908] Naysy: Yeah, with anything AI, I'm like cautiously excited. Like, yeah, I think it's all really cool tech, but I also wonder like, oh, what consequences will this have in the future? But I think, yeah, Meta is very much keen to make it accessible to people. And I think that's why they've kind of injected this celebrity aspect to it. So people know what that is. I think, yeah, they have a chance to like reach all those people if it's through like Messenger or whatever. So yeah, I think it's cool. They're jumping on board with it. And yeah, it'll be interesting to see how it goes.
[00:18:00.398] Jasmine Uniza: I think it's also interesting, too, that they tied all these celebrities to AI. I think it makes a lot of sense. Meta is all about social media and influencers and all that stuff. So tying AI to celebrities, I think, actually makes a lot of sense.
[00:18:16.172] Kent Bye: They had a screenshot of some of these embodied AI characters within the context of Meta Horizon Worlds. Part of me is a little bit split in terms of whether or not I want to be in these different worlds with these different AI bots that are going around. I think just in general, like the Ray-Ban meta smart glasses have all sorts of potential privacy implications as you have these cameras that are on the phones, these 12 megapixel cameras that are on there, and just how subtle the lights are on it. But yeah, just also as you look at AI, what's it mean to have these AI that are in these worlds? If you have had any experiences with AI chatbots, both in 2D and what you think the future of that may be, that gave more of a future aspirational thing, like there's going to be a fusion of this, but they weren't showing anything specific and I have a little bit more of cautious skepticism around it because generally I like to be in spaces with other people rather than other AI bots.
[00:19:09.917] Jasmine Uniza: Yeah, I've actually had experience going into in virtual reality where there's AI NPCs. If you've heard of RiftXR, it's like a new metaverse platform. And gosh, it was so much fun. I actually talked to these AI NPCs with other people that were with me, and we would just chat with them. Their personas were based off of celebrities. So one was based off of Morgan Freeman's personality. And we would just talk to him about our day. I don't know. I thought it was a lot of fun, actually. And I didn't do it just solo. I wasn't just talking to the bot solo, although you could. We were able to, like, bounce off and take turns chatting. So that was fun.
[00:19:46.804] Naysy: Yeah, I think the idea of AI for, like, NPCs, I think that's, like, really cool. I think the, yeah, of AI and, like, you know, your more, like, multiplayer communication games could be, like, interesting. But, yeah, I'd want to know it's AI. Like, it'd feel weird if you're chatting to someone and you're like, oh, by the way, it's AI. You'd be like, what? You feel a bit cheated. So yeah, I'm like, I'm just curious to see how it would go.
[00:20:10.082] Kent Bye: Yeah Well being here at Meta Connect. It's an opportunity to have the XR community come back together It's been a number of years since we've had this specific community around the technologies that Meta is putting out like I think back at Oculus Connect 6 that was back in 2019 so it's been a Four years ago now, so I know that as people are here There's lots of people that are just catching up and there's different buzz that people have I know there's lots of buzz around like the Apple vision Pro for example Who's tried it what people are thinking about it? But yeah, I'd love to hear what are the other conference buzz that you have as you're here And what are the different types of topics that are coming up?
[00:20:46.514] Naysy: I guess, yeah, we've already talked about it. I guess, like, I'm all about the mixed reality. Like, that's what I'm most hyped about. So I guess whatever headsets have that as an aspect is always going to, like, interest me. And, like, I think, yeah, hopefully devs can, like, I guess, create for all these different, like, headsets and stuff like that. So that's what I'm most excited for and just, yeah, seeing what people come up with. Because I keep seeing on Twitter, like, devs just creating these different concepts using, like, hand tracking and mixed reality stuff. So, yeah, I'm just most excited about that.
[00:21:15.447] Kent Bye: Are there any applications in Mixed Reality that you've seen that you can imagine a future that you want to start to use this in either a specific work context or friends? What type of applications get you the most excited about Mixed Reality?
[00:21:29.318] Naysy: I think the fitness ones is what I've been using the most. I'm still not sure about working in VR, like work applications, but I think if there's something that makes it obvious and comfortable, then yeah, I think that will get me excited for it. Yeah.
[00:21:47.541] Jasmine Uniza: I really like the piano vision demo of like learning how to play piano. To me that's really exciting to be able to learn something in VR and then be able to translate it into real life. I thought too that being able to watch TV in mixed reality, I don't know why but that seems so interesting to me even though you're already able to do big screen which is like all around you like VR watching in VR fully. Yeah, I thought the mixed reality being able to watch TV and maybe even like being able to hang out with other people. I don't know if that's possible. But if you can see someone's avatar watching with you, I think that could be really useful for long-distance relationships or family that live far and just want to watch TV together without being able to do that.
[00:22:25.876] Kent Bye: MARK MANDEL-WALDAU Yeah, I'd love it if you each could expand a little bit about your channels and what kind of content you've been diving into and what gets you excited about continue to evangelize or to explore different potentials of VR.
[00:22:38.867] Jasmine Uniza: Yeah, having a tech background, I'm all about the tech. I love talking about it. I get really excited when there's something new. So usually I review the different tech that come out in VR and AR. And then the other part of that is, well, a lot of people feel really intimidated by new technology. So I made it a point to make super easy tutorials, really as basic as they could get. Because for me, I want to get as many people into VR as possible. So the easier and simpler it is, the less people are going to be intimidated to jump in.
[00:23:13.930] Naysy: Yeah, I think for me, like, I love focusing on, like, immersion. Like, I've been doing lots of VR treadmill content lately, and it's just, like, silly and fun. And, yeah, I think I really like same thing, creating content that people go, oh, you can do that in VR. Like, people who aren't familiar with VR showcasing what's possible. I think, yeah, we all love doing that and, like, feel a responsibility to, like, share the world of VR. So I think whatever makes people go, oh, wow, like, that's the kind of content I like to make.
[00:23:40.839] Kent Bye: Great. And what are you looking forward to coming up here, both with the technology releases or any applications that may be coming out? Or what kind of things that you're really tracking in terms of trends in the larger XR industry?
[00:23:52.320] Jasmine Uniza: I feel like this will make me sound so nerdy, but I am quite excited for being able to work in VR. My team or my company, all of us work remote, right? And we try to have meetings in VR because obviously that's what we should be doing. But it's not as easy if you have to type a lot of stuff or like taking notes or like referring back to different things that you have. So I think as that gets smoother, it'll just make it really nice to be able to work in a remote environment, which I think is becoming more and more common. but still feeling connected to people.
[00:24:24.390] Kent Bye: And maybe you could expand a bit about what's the work that you're doing?
[00:24:27.732] Jasmine Uniza: Oh, yeah. So my company is Impact Reality XR. We focus on doing PR and marketing for VR games, apps, products. One of the more popular games that we work with is Ghost of Tabor. So they've been in App Lab and just did fantastically well. So that was really fun. But I think mostly, what we see in the space is there's a lot of very passionate game developers that make like fantastic apps. And I think that's what I started seeing as a creator is that this is so good. Why doesn't everybody know about it? And what happens is like, you know, they're so good at developing these things, but marketing is a completely separate thing. So we try to help out as much as we can, basically, like all we care about is growing VR to the best that we can. And I think the more that people know about these really amazing hidden gem like apps and games, the better it is for everybody.
[00:25:16.972] Kent Bye: And what are you looking forward to as we move forward?
[00:25:19.414] Naysy: I think I've mentioned a few times, but mixed reality. I really love my mixed reality. So yeah, I think I'd love to see some games I already love, like, do the mixed reality thing, like Beat Saber. I'd love to see mixed reality Beat Saber, because I feel like I could be able to get my mom into it a lot easier. And I think some days, like, I just want to play in a living room and not have, like, that claustrophobia kind of feel. Like, I just want to play it casually. You can have a conversation at the same time. And yeah, so it just makes it a lot accessible.
[00:25:46.085] Kent Bye: Great. And finally, what do you each think is the ultimate potential of virtual reality, and what am I able to enable?
[00:25:53.823] Jasmine Uniza: Oh, that is such a big question to ask at the end. I think, I mean, the ultimate potential of VR for me, like one of the questions I was asked is do I like solo experiences or multiplayer experiences? And for me, I'm all about the multiplayer and being around other people. What I've seen happening is a lot of people that are more shy in person or probably like are more reserved in person, they're able to express themselves really well in VR just because there's a little bit of a anonymity, and they're able to be whatever they want to be, right? You don't have to be a person. You could express yourself in however you want to show up. And what I have seen is some people that, you know, maybe they start wearing nail polish or they start doing something unique with their avatar because they're so used to that in VR, they start doing these things that they've always wanted to do in real life. So I think using VR is a way to get over some fears or be able to be really yourself. I think that's probably the biggest thing and also being able to connect with people.
[00:26:50.391] Naysy: Yeah, I think for me, like, the physicality of VR, like, that you're physically kind of, like, moving or grabbing something in the game, I think, yeah, I think that stereotype of a gamer on the couch is, like, or on the computer is, like, yeah, will hopefully start to shift, because, yeah, like, I think you see, like, guerrilla tag players, and, like, that's a workout, and there's, like, so many active games in VR, so, yeah, hopefully that stereotype of the gamer will change a bit to, like, yeah, being considered VR gamers as well, yeah.
[00:27:19.822] Kent Bye: Anything else that's left unsaid that you'd like to say to the broader immersive community?
[00:27:24.786] Jasmine Uniza: We're all in this together, and I think we'll get there. So let's just keep on going.
[00:27:30.510] Naysy: Yeah, I'm just excited to see what games people come up with, or even apps. Yeah, there's a whole world of non-gaming stuff out there. So yeah, if you've got cool stuff, I think always send it our way, because we love checking it out. And yeah.
[00:27:42.638] Kent Bye: And where can people find you online?
[00:27:45.020] Jasmine Uniza: VRwithJasmine on literally every platform and VRwithJasmine.com.
[00:27:49.853] Naysy: Yeah, I'm at NAZY on everything as well.
[00:27:52.854] Kent Bye: Awesome. Well, Jasmine and NAZY, thanks for taking the time to help unpack some of the announcements that we had today and to look at the future of where things are going here in the realm of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. So thanks for joining me today.
[00:28:05.060] Naysy: Thank you. Thanks for having us.
[00:28:07.575] Kent Bye: So thanks again for tuning in to one of my dozen episodes about MetaConnect. There's lots that I've been unpacking throughout the course of the series, and I'm going to invite folks over to patreon.com to be able to join in to support my work that I've been doing here as an independent journalist trying to sustain this work. Realistically, I need to be at around $4,000 a month to be at a level of financial stability. I'm at around 30% of that goal. So I'd love for folks to be able to join in, and I'm hoping to expand out different offerings and events over the next year, starting with more unpacking of my coverage from Venice Immersive, where I've just posted 34 different interviews from over 30 hours of coverage. And I've already given a talk this week unpacking a little bit more my ideas about experiential design and immersive storytelling. And yeah, I feel like there's a need for independent journalism and independent research and just the type of coverage that i'm able to do and if you're able to join in on the patreon five dollars a month it's a great level to be able to help support and sustain it but if you can afford more than 10 20 50 or even 100 a month are all great levels as well and will help me to continue to bring not only you this coverage but also the broader XR industry. I now have transcripts on all the different interviews on the podcast on Voices of VR and in the process of adding categories as well into 1,317 interviews now that have been published after this series has concluded. So yeah, join me over on Patreon and we can start to explore the many different potentialities of virtual and augmented and mixed reality at patreon.com slash Voices of VR. Thanks for listening.
