You're right but the big question is - how much money spend on this game vr players vs nonvr players. If someone buys dedicated hardware like VR setup and hotas he's a dedicated player willing to play the game for hundreds or thousands of hours, buy futher DLCs and ARX points.
Without going into the whole willy waving "my expenditure is bigger than yours" the following snip shows that I as a customer support this hypothesis that VR players, who by their nature spend more on gaming, are more likely to spend money on microtransactions.
Granted, a small amount of those orders are for things like E/Audio books, but most of it is cosmetics, mainly bought as me showing my support for the game.
Most of nonvrs are people who catch this game on some promotion or giving away then try it and forget. Just until now I've bought two copies of the game for me and my son (not promotion but regular price on Steam) and two times arx points.
Only one of my alt's has any paid for cosmetics, but were VR on foot a thing, I'd most likely playing my alts and thus start from scratch and that would result in me buying ARX for the alts.
ED is very specific game for specific players. Sorry to say that but until Fdevs state clearly their intentions about VR future in ED it is safe to assume that this "flat screen in hmd" solution is made because Frontier probably realized that VR players just won't buy EDO if there is no VR support but they want money from VR users so minimal effort approach was taken. When this approach proves to be effective there will be no need to implement VR for people that already paid for the game.
I was conflicted by this very paradox, in the end I decided to buy alpha access for my main so I could legitimately make noise, however, I'm not buying any ARX, nor any Odyssey updrades for my alts, so that's one heavy hitting paint purchasing customer locking his wallet.
To support this statement I can say that if Frontier seriously considered implementing VR in space legs they would do it from the beginning and there would by no subject as "proper vr experience in spacelegs" now. What does it mean? They designed the game in one way and now they are going to redesign it for VR compatibility? This makes no sense, games are designed from scratch to be VR compatible. This is true reason of their "we'll see" approach - they just don't want to state it clearly beause it would make VR users really really mad.
One thing I don't understand about this situation, from what I can see from paying the alpha and studying footage of others using the vanitycam "hack", the work that went into making the ViRtual flatscreen would have made it an actual VR-Headlook-on-foot game?
It's better to let them hope that "everything will be ok". Now we have situation where ED VR community literelly BEGS Fdevs to leave them unauthorized way (by editing xml files) to enable some broken VR support in this new DLC. Doesn't it sound crazy?
Do you know what's even crazier, we are considering turning off all native VR support and hacking in VorpX, really, like what the???
In many critics statements I often hear - "never buy preorders, never buy games on premiere etc" and looks like it is finally time to start listen to people that know what they are saying. There were times when developers released free shareware/demo versions for players to check if they are happy with the game. Today we pay money to get access to incomplete game. We are all guilty of that because we want to pay money to get game earlier even before it's ready. Sorry but it's just stupid. EDO is completly new DLC and VR users are getting literally NOTHING and are told to be happy because game will not be stripped down from it's former functionality. This is ridiculous. I seriously think that VR ED community should state it clearly - "We'll see when Fdevs will see". It's pity but the only language every developer understands today is "I'm not buying" language so gamers should learn it.
The No-VR-No-Buy campaign worked well enough to get Frontier to the negotiating table, at which they presented the ViRtual flatscreen, and that split the VR community, a segment, primarily explorers and space truckers, that had previously stated they only wanted to be able to "fly under the new skies in VR" and had "no interest in FPS gameplay" were duly appeased and shut up, and haven't been involved in this second wave of VR campaigning.
Personally I think they were cutting off their nose to spite their face, as we play in VR for the immersion and depth, if you are an explorer, surely you'd want immerse yourself in the ViRtual experience when you decide to take a sunrise / sunset walk amongst the new flaura, hike on the new terrains etc? OR to be able virtually walk into go to a seedy outpost's bar and find the gangster in the corner looking for someone to smuggle something for them, or the more reputable mission iver looking for a hotshot urgent delivery? Surely those would be much more immersive than effectively being a virtual paraplegic stuck in the pilots seat of a ship / SRV interacting with things only through menus and cockpit windows?
Remember my words - buy EDO on preorder/premiere and we'll not see VR support for spacelegs probably ever. IMHO for now EDO alpha doesn't show anything that is worth paying for in situation where Frontier ignore VR users. What is in this DLC that took so much effort to justify ignoring VR users? Simple fps or maybe this plant scanner? OK now it's only the alpha stage. Time will show what will be Frontier's final approach to this subject on official EDO launch.
I toyed with the idea of not buying Alpha access, and not buying Odyssey at all, but in the end I figured Alpha, and possible Beta feedback would be the last battleground for VR, as, realistically, if we don't get VR on foot by launch, we are, as you so rightly say, unlikely to EVER get it, and I decided that I want to be more than a "forum undead", I want to be on the front line of that battle. Hell, I even started another thread on the topic today in the Alpha section:
A lot of VR players dislike the ViRtual flatscreen, and this spoils alpha for us, many have taken to hacking together something approximating VR headlook on foot using the vanity cam, either playing the game in VR third person, or putting the vanity cam as close to their CMDR's visor as is...
forums.frontier.co.uk
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![[VR] zodd](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/163/163942.jpg?1625205201){kind=avatar}