The Snow App
I was sitting at home, bored as usual, with nothing much to do. I opened the window to my bedroom to look out and check out the weather. It was gray and dismal and definitely cold. I hate winter, though, on afterthought, winter is a lot of fun, especially in this new virtual reality app I just got. It was called “Winter Playland 2022”. So that’s what I decided to do. I put on my VR goggles, turned on my iPhone 13 Pro Max, sat back in my chair, and started up the app.
I was immediately placed in a winter snow scene. It was snowing lightly and there were all sorts of choices to make. I could go skiing or sledding on any of an assortment of hills. There was a group of kids having a snowball fight that I could join or build an awesome snow sculpture. It was perfect. I decided to start with the snow sculpture.
It was incredibly realistic. The first part was to create the base for your construction. As I moved my hands I was rolling up snow for the base. This continued for the other parts of my creation. Next came the sculpting part. I was provided tools to design whatever snow creature I wanted. I decided to go for a unicorn, though my end result looked more like a miss-shapen alien unicow. All the while, the snow continued to fall. At one point, I was tempted to see if this simulation created two snowflakes that were identical. That required more work than I was willing to take on so I went on to my next event.
I went over to the ski slope. I have never skied before in real life, so I of course took the advanced slope. I may have fallen a few times going down the slope but it was exhilarating. I could feel the wind and snow whipping across my face as sped down the hill. This new game was incredibly realistic.
I then joined in on the snowball fight. I must have been hit dozens of times for my face was getting really cold. I could even feel the simulated snow going down the back of my neck.
I don’t know how long I ended up playing the game. Maybe a couple of hours. My whole body ended up feeling wet and frozen. I could believe how real this all felt. I mean, my legs felt like they were stuck in deep snow and my hands were numb. I thought, next time I play this game I should make sure I pay for the App Add-ons which include warmer snow attire.
I turned off the iPhone, took off my VR goggles, and at that moment I learned 4 very valuable lessons about playing “Winter Playland 2022”.
- 1 – When you play a VR game, be aware of how much time you are actually in the simulation. In my case, it was close to 3 hours
- 2 – Don’t assume that all the sensations you are feeling are coming from the App.
- 3 – If it’s cold outside in the real world, make sure you close the window that you opened prior to playing the game so that the cold air doesn’t enter your room.
- 4 – Pay attention to the real weather forecast for the day you are playing. Spending 3 hours playing a game, in the winter, with the window open, during a forecasted blizzard, is not a good idea.
If you’re sitting at home, bored, and have nothing to do, you are welcome to come over to my house and play an awesome VR game. Just note, you might have to shovel away some of the 2 feet of snow from my bedroom before we get to play.
