If you’ve already got a VR headset and you’re happy with it, I’m envious. But for the rest of us, it’s worth asking the question: just what is it going to take to get on board?

Speaking for myself, if I can use a headset about as well as I do a regular display, that’ll do it for me. I’m less-interested in a gaming-specific peripheral, though that’d be nice frosting on the cake. If I can just carry a headset in a case and a display-less laptop, that’d probably be sufficient.

There are real benefits to that:

• Privacy. My screen isn’t visible to anyone nearby.

• Wider field of view possible.

• No glare issues.

• Potentially less power use, since one isn’t blasting light everywhere just to get it into one’s eye.

• Able to use in any orientation easily, like lying down.

My experience so far has not led me to believe that this is near. I’ve found HMDs to be twitchy about the location relative to the eye, prone to blurriness if nudged a bit off. Blurriness around the edges. On my Royole Moon, fogging up is an issue, due to shields to eliminate light from bleeding in. Limited resolution. For some, inability to easily see the surrounding world. Limited refresh rates.

I don’t personally really care all that much about price, if the thing can serve as a competitive monitor replacement, since then it’s not just a toy.

I’d also add that I think that there are some genres, like flight sims, where VR has legitimately succeeded. Like, compared to multiple-monitor rigs that some serious flight sim fans have set up, VR is pretty much better in all ways.

I’m sure that there are probably some AR applications where you can find an AR headset making sense. Maybe stargazing or something.

But what the article author seems to want is a transition to a world where basically all or a large chunk of new video games are VR-based. And yeah, that hasn’t happened.