Oculus, one of the undisputed leaders of virtual reality technology today, plans to turn what is generally a solitary gaming experience to a socially interactive one. The company unveiled this plan as it released VR movie shorts like "Lost."

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Max Planck, the supervising technical director of Oculus Story Studio, highlights the virtual reality tech's isolationistic features in a statement posted in Engadget, where he said: "VR is very isolationist: You put it on and you forget your surroundings; you forget the people around you [...]We wanna tell stories that people can come out of it together and have water-cooler moments."

He further adds that the VR experience the company wants people to enjoy feels somewhat like someone telling a gripping campfire story, where everyone involved can relish the story as they absorb it in real-time.

In contrast, VR experiences today are rather one-sided and personal. Instead of the theater scene where hundreds of people could simultaneously see, hear, and even feel events unfold, VR headsets cut their users off from everybody else in the room. It is basically a personal 3D glasses that comes with the movie itself.

Ever since its inception, virtual reality has already made significant leaps and bounds in tech. Far from being just another sci-fi plot point, this technology has already helped countless industries, from football to flight simulation. The ripple effect that virtual reality started already surpassed the gaming industry, and should oculus successfully integrate social functions into their Rift headsets, it has the potential to reach even more.

It is said that virtual dating sites like IMVU have begun setting up their VR rooms to embrace social VR. VR consoles and headsets are still a long way from being mass produced and the Oculus Rift itself probably will not be out until late 2016. Nevertheless, many online gaming and social sites are already setting up the underlying technology to prepare themselves for what will most likely be an overwhelming demand for social VR when the tech finally comes into stores.

While the social aspects of virtual reality may finally be within reach, it is still important to consider the countless other avenues that the technology could take the common man, both literally and figuratively. Virtual reality could take a person anywhere in the world, or help him see it in the perspective of another being. This is the magic of VR that is slowly coming to life, thanks to companies like Oculus.

TagsOculus, Virtual Reality, rift, imvu, social experiment