[imagesource: Palmer Luckey]

Games these days are outrageously realistic.

Titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator are so good that they’re being used by real-life pilots as part of their training, for example, and strapping on a virtual reality headset to play Resident Evil looks like a genuinely harrowing experience.

Nobody died, though, so what’s the harm in being scared shitless to escape the terrifying ordeal of everyday life?

Enter the new VR headset (above) designed by Palmer Luckey, the founder of the gaming company Oculus and often referred to as the father of modern VR, with this from Men’s Health:

Inspired by the “NerveGear” from the fictional world of Sword Art Online, Luckey claims to have developed hardware which mirrors the sci-fi staple where a failure in a virtual setting has grave real-world consequences…

Luckey explained that he has devised headgear which is fitted with three explosive charges, tied to a sensor which can detect flashes of red in the game and will trigger the charges when a “Game Over” screen appears.

In summary, he’s put together the first-ever virtual reality headset that will kill the user if they die in the game.

There’s even an “anti-tampering mechanism” being worked on which makes it impossible for the person wearing the headset to take it off without the explosives going bang.

Is everything okay at home, Palmer? He sold Oculus to Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion so he clearly has both time and money at his disposal.

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg seems determined to use that Oculus technology to sink Facebook with his Metaverse dreams, so we do owe Palmer a debt of gratitude on that front.

There’s still a lot of work to be done before the headset hits the open market, if ever. Below via VICE:

Luckey’s killer headset looks like a Meta Quest Pro hooked up with three explosive charge modules that sit above the screen. The charges are aimed directly at the user’s forebrain and, should they go off, would obliterate the head of the user…

“The good news is that we are halfway to making a true NerveGear. The bad news is that so far, I have only figured out the half that kills you,” Luckey said.

He went on to say that at this stage, “it is just a piece of office art [and] a thought-provoking reminder of unexplored avenues in game design”.

Ominously, he has promised to keep tinkering and is certain this will not be the last VR device designed that can kill the user.

I reckon it’s time to spice up Wordle with a similar headset. The rules are the same but if you don’t succeed after using all of your guesses, off with your head.

[sources:menshealth&vice]