On the hazards of drinking and driving the Oculus Rift
"You know, it's funny. People, when they are intoxicated, don't enjoy the Rift nearly as much."
Oculus Rift inventor and co-founder Palmer Luckey shared a cautionary tale of sorts when we asked for anecdotes on the VR rig's testing procedures. After a short pause, Luckey dropped some sage advice for future Rift owners and developers alike.
The Rift, which has been known to cause motion sickness in some users (Joystiq staff included) due to the disarming intensity of the experience, apparently has the ability to exacerbate one's inclination toward intense nausea after a night of partying.
"What happens is, when you get severely intoxicated, you end up throwing up," Luckey said. "One of the reasons for that is that your body knows something is wrong; your reaction time is slow, things seem to blur. And if it gets bad enough, it says 'Wow, I'm screwed up, I need to get whatever it is out of my stomach that's causing this.' The Rift doesn't do that much, but when you stack it on top of someone already being intoxicated, they tend to not enjoy it nearly as much."
Under normal, non-intoxicated testing conditions, the disconnection between what a Rift user sees and what their body experiences – the cerebral disparity that can cause nausea - wasn't much of an issue.
"So, use the Rift sober."
