Stepping into the game
Visitors play “Survival Mortal Blitz” at VR Space at Lotte World Adventure, Seoul./Courtesy of Lotte World Adventure
VR magically combines physical and digital reality together
By Jung Min-ho
A cool ride to a fantasy world
It may not look like much at first glance. Seen from outside, people clumsily swing their white toy gun in a small open space.
But everything changes as soon as you put on a virtual reality (VR) headset, which brings you right inside “Survival Mortal Blitz,” a newly released game at Lotte World Adventure in southern Seoul.
Your toy gun turns into a cool-looking machine gun and the background completely changes. During the 15-minute adventure, monsters come after you and ceiling tiles fall on your head as buildings collapse.
Players may feel they are right there fighting for survival because everything feels insanely real.
Through VR magic, Lotte World is trying to evolve into the amusement park of the future.
VR games put players in an empty space and make them feel like they are scurrying through a maze, running away from zombies or walking on the edge of a skyscraper.
It’s a new generation of entertainment, which draws a digital world onto the canvas of the real world. There, players can experience physical and digital reality together.
It’s a new concept that may change how people enjoy their free time, and amusement parks around the world are competing to lead the trend.
At Lotte World VR Space, which is next to the ice rink on the third basement floor, visitors can choose from many options.
Jumping around a jungle on the swing
“Jungle Jump” is one of those games that anyone would like. A player can enjoy the beautiful view of nature from a monkey’s perspective while jumping around a jungle. Those who love sports can try baseball and ping pong games.
Most of the games were developed by Korean companies, according to Lotte World.
From a business viewpoint, VR games are attractive in many ways; they are far cheaper to install, operate and maintain in comparison with traditional rides. So there is no reason for theme park operators to resist the trend as long as visitors like them.
“We are glad we now have VR technologies that can excite visitors like never before,” a Lotte World official said. “We took advantage of the technologies for our Halloween festival, and many loved it.”
Lotte World plans to apply VR technologies to different seasons and concepts, for example, from a spooky autumn season to a magical winter season.
Last year, Lott World established a research department dedicated to VR technologies after being selected as a partner company for the government’s Virtual Reality Flagship Project.
Over the past few months, the amusement park has applied VR technologies to also make its traditional rides more appealing.
A new thrill from the same Gyro Drop
Gyro Drop, a famous attraction that lifts people to about 70 meters high and drops them in about one second, now can make them feel like they are falling from a far higher level.
With VR goggles, passengers see an image of a futuristic city as they go up. Then with a boom, they fall from high up in the sky, but a robot rescues them before they hit the ground.
Those who do not want to experience the special effect can enjoy the ride as usual without wearing the goggles.
French Revolution, Lotte World’s flagship rollercoaster, has also evolved. With a VR headset, the passengers cannot see where the track is going or what’s coming next. But they explore a fantasy world with 360-degree views that synchronize to the coaster’s moves. Unlike Gyro Drop, VR images make the ride less frightening.
“With VR technologies, the two rides have become the most popular ones at Lotte World,” the official said. “It is a new way to enjoy the same ride.”
But there are challenges ahead for the future of VR games. Perhaps the biggest one is the fact that they cause motion sickness in players. Because of the dizziness, some cannot play VR games at all, and many try it only one or two times.
Motion sickness, also known as kinetosis, occurs because a disagreement exists between visually perceived movement and the vestibular system’s sense of movement.
In other words, how well perceived movement syncs with the player’s movement in the real world determines the degree of motion sickness, which VR game developers have long been trying to resolve.
Lotte World has also introduced an augmented reality (AR) game application, which can be played around the theme park, offering special gifts and discounts for those who have the app in their mobile phones.
AR is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated data. “Pokemon Go” is an example of AR.
Though similar in some ways, AR and VR are different concepts. While AR supplements the real world by laying useful or entertaining data over it, while VR aims to drop users into a wholly artificial world.