I also wonder if VR 'fits' certain personality types more than others, those that need 100% 'immersion' in the things they do etc? I'm more of a multi-tasking personality type perhaps, so it does not chime with that?
Sure the immersion is a big part of it. Since getting VR I've become rather disinterested in monitor games where the main selling point is immersion. But I still play monitor games that are not about the immersion. Like Overwatch for example. Or Children of a Dead Earth, which, despite attempting to be a realistic simulation, is not really an immersive game and not even trying to be. Or any multitude of the weird 2D indie games I foray into from time to time.
But the other side of it is that it just enables so much uniquely VR gameplay that just wouldn't be possible in a traditional monitor, keyboard and mouse based setting. Some examples of things I've done in just the last few days...
In Sairento VR:
-Dual wielding weapons. Beheading the robo-geisha to the left of you using the swing of a sword while simultaneously spraying bullets at the group of ninjas to the right
-Decoupled headlook. You're flying through the air in slow motion and unleashing a volley of fury at the group of enemies in front of you but you need to check your flank to see there's no one charging at you from behind the corner to the left? No problem, you just sideways glance quickly without interrupting the action
-Using roomscale to dodge - like I'm flying through the air and there's a volley of bullets coming at me, I could of course just use my triple-jump ability to fly in another direction, I could deflect them with my sword - or just bend my knees and duck a little in real space and have the bullets fly over my head. Just like Neo!
-Blocking and deflecting incoming bullets by accurately touching them with your ninja sword (compare to Overwatch's Genji who just presses 'E' and summons a huge invisible hitbox in front of him that does all the work for him)
In GORN:
-Again, dual-wielding weapons. The other day I decided to try the combination of a chained flail in my right hand and a knife in the off-hand. I'd bash the gladiators on the head using the flail angling over their shields, which would make them fall on their backs momentarily stunned and I'd close in and stick the knife in their chest pulling out their still beating heart Mortal Kombat style (lol)
And that's not even going into archery mechanics which is another thing that wouldn't work on a monitor, at all, and has an entire subgenre of VR games built all around them...
For me, there are but two games only that would make me want to try "real VR" today: Elite, and Alien Isolation. While Alien is lightweight, it needs far better PC than what I have, plus I always use the Alias Isolation mod to get rid of the horrible aliasing. So that won't work.
I have to say, Alien: Isolation is probably the only non-roomscale first person VR game, where I've felt almost fully immersed... that's mainly because that game is incredibly good at creating this creepy, oppressive atmosphere, through the use of graphics, audio and pacing. Even on a monitor I couldn't finish it, and I'll have to admit I chickened out of it in VR before I even got to the parts with actual enemies...
