I don't understand the reaction to the cover. Aren't you just being the typical overly attached fanboy that can't handle their "thing" not being represented the way they want it ? I mean, if this new VR is actually good who cares about a magazine cover, the proof is in the pudding.
I keep seeing this posted, and it is and isn't from the article. They took a bit of the actual article that is behind a paywall and used it for a different article.
The part cut preceding this:
Palmer Luckey isn’t like other Silicon Valley nerds.
He’s a nerd all right, but not the kind who went to a top-ranked university, wrote brilliant code or studied business plans.
Normal sentences as in not laced with technical jargon that could be confusing - have you ever read some of John Carmack's tweets.
Typical outrage culture where everyone overreacts based on as little information as possible. I'm glad Jenn Frank did the investigative footwork that most game "journalists" didn't bother with and paid to read the rest of the article. Her opinion:
"Outrage culture"
Typical outrage culture, getting angry that people care about something you don't care about.
In the age of candy colored sunglasses and crocs, superheroes and neo-70's pop hits topping the charts, this cover's aesthetic is the mainstream. It is we in the grimdark attitude nerd counterculture who are repulsed by this image, not the mainstream folks who likely look at this cover with hope and joy.
I'll just be cold for a bit here. This not a flattering picture of Palmer Luckey. The profile shot, the clothes, the lack of shoes all culminate to make him look like a fat unhealthy nerd unlike any other picture I've seen of him. Look at his cover photo of Popular Mechanics. He looks so cool on that cover. Or Forbes where he looks requisitely evil. This cover is just demeaning.
"People have said, 'Oh, this is going to set virtual reality back so far.' I'm like, are you guys really giving that much importance to an old-media cover?" he said. "It's insignificant in the scheme of this massive explosion in virtual reality's popularity. I love the cover; I think it's great."
I keep seeing this posted, and it is and isn't from the article. They took a bit of the actual article that is behind a paywall and used it for a different article.
The part cut preceding this:
Palmer Luckey isn’t like other Silicon Valley nerds.
He’s a nerd all right, but not the kind who went to a top-ranked university, wrote brilliant code or studied business plans.
Normal sentences as in not laced with technical jargon that could be confusing - have you ever read some of John Carmack's tweets.
Typical outrage culture where everyone overreacts based on as little information as possible. I'm glad Jenn Frank did the investigative footwork that most game "journalists" didn't bother with and paid to read the rest of the article. Her opinion:
"Outrage culture"
Typical outrage culture, getting angry that people care about something you don't care about.
I saw the thumbnail for this article as I scrolled by and thought ah that's a funny mock up! Something the GB guys would gin up. Finally clicked on the article in passing. Oh no. It's real.
I'll just be cold for a bit here. This not a flattering picture of Palmer Luckey. The profile shot, the clothes, the lack of shoes all culminate to make him look like a fat unhealthy nerd unlike any other picture I've seen of him. Look at his cover photo of Popular Mechanics. He looks so cool on that cover. Or Forbes where he looks requisitely evil. This cover is just demeaning.
Man, you're not wrong, that popular mechanics cover is pretty great.
VR is something that never really interested me. Being shut off from the real world to that degree is something that scares me, to be honest. Frankly, I've kind of been rooting for it to fail a little bit because I'm envisioning this future where all games are VR. (I know that's a irrational, silly thing to worry about and there's always gonna be games without VR, even if the technology takes off.) But even I can recognize that this is a disaster. Any normal person that looks at this cover is gonna laugh at it and think it's some nerd bullshit, especially with the common perception that already exists that people are just gonna use this technology to fuck cartoon characters.
I don't think VR is doomed or anything but it's such a hard sell to most people who never get the chance to have a hands-on experience and this will definitely not help.
Remember when 3D TV's were a thing? I think we'll just be piling VR on to the same heap. I can think of some interesting aspects to it (pilot a drone equipped with VR friendly cameras, etc.) but for the most part I could less about VR.
"People have said, 'Oh, this is going to set virtual reality back so far.' I'm like, are you guys really giving that much importance to an old-media cover?" he said. "It's insignificant in the scheme of this massive explosion in virtual reality's popularity. I love the cover; I think it's great."
I'm not saying he's wrong, but remember that Palmer has a very very vested interest in maintaining the line of "everything is going to be fine and VR will be a huge success", no matter what happens.
what the fuck is this shit. Is the article as bad as the cover? I'm going to float off and continue tuning out of cable television and "mainstream" bs as I have been for the past decade.
Why is he not floating in the ocean or space or something where that ridiculous pose wouldn't look so awkward? Just replace that damn cheap background with a deep sea motif and bam, fixed.
I read the full article, and I was surprised it actually does come away displaying a pretty positive and well-informed opinion of the VR experience overall - though you can sense the author almost reminding himself to sound cynical throughout, mostly due to his obvious disdain for video games.
An evenhanded article, overall... but that evenhandedness is pretty hard to appreciate when you have a cover that makes Palmer Luckey, one of the most brilliant people in technology, look like the Star Wars Kid going on a hopscotch quest through manbaby land.
VR is something that never really interested me. Being shut off from the real world to that degree is something that scares me, to be honest. Frankly, I've kind of been rooting for it to fail a little bit because I'm envisioning this future where all games are VR. (I know that's a irrational, silly thing to worry about and there's always gonna be games without VR, even if the technology takes off.) But even I can recognize that this is a disaster. Any normal person that looks at this cover is gonna laugh at it and think it's some nerd bullshit, especially with the common perception that already exists that people are just gonna use this technology to fuck cartoon characters.
I don't think VR is doomed or anything but it's such a hard sell to most people who never get the chance to have a hands-on experience and this will definitely not help.
Remember when 3D TV's were a thing? I think we'll just be piling VR on to the same heap. I can think of some interesting aspects to it (pilot a drone equipped with VR friendly cameras, etc.) but for the most part I could less about VR.
That's the big difference. Good, low latency stereoscopic HMDs has a ton of different use cases. 3D TVs are just more expensive TVs with awful motion smoothing you have to wear dumb glasses for.
- "Why are they using a kid for the cover? They could have used a picture of Will Smith, like all of the internet."
- "That's Palmer Luckey? Huh..."
- "Stupid cover, but a perfect pose for stupid memes."
The cover was so stupid, it never made me think of VR. For as far as we know, Palmer could have been looking at his Facebook page while getting that photo taken.
what the fuck is this shit. Is the article as bad as the cover? I'm going to float off and continue tuning out of cable television and "mainstream" bs as I have been for the past decade.
@divergence: Man you're so crazy if you think VR is in the same boat as 3D TV's. Nobody liked 3D TVs from the beginning as it was being SHOVED down everyone's throats - VR has obtained a following on it's own and if you look at the two products for more that 5 seconds you should realize that the care and craftsmanship going into VR stuff is just leagues ahead of where the 3D TV fad was. VR engineers are sharing their design process and the prices are consumer friendly. Suuuuch a different situation. You don't have to care about VR but come on man; don't exaggerate.
I'm a little miffed by this cover but I'm trying not to take it too hard. It probably is just a blip on the radar (I mean a couple of weeks later now and I barely remembered it). Still, It's severely out of touch, but let's hope that's still for a reason when it comes to Time.
I absolutely hate when all these guys with all their money look like crap in their public appearances. Just go watch Palmer Lucky at any E3 interviews, and he's wearing f**kin flip-flops... Even if you think comfort, I think you can easily buy a $30 pair!!
He deserves all the ridicule imo
ps. Looking like crap is much different than like the time you choose to drive a Prius rather than a sports car
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along
with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely
increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.
Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other
Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll
send you an email once approved.
Log in to comment