Ever wanted to plop on your VR headset, connect with your friends and walk around with them in a virtual world? No, me neither, though it appears Oculus has taken a major step towards allowing you to play virtual reality games with your Gran, your neighbour, and that overly friendly security guard at work who gives you the eye.
Take a look at the best VR games on PC.
A new update to Oculus Rift’s software for PC users sports a fresh Facebook login feature. Though not yet mandatory, players who make use of it will find their username is instantly (and irreversibly) switched to their real name, lifted from Facebook.
The advantage (some suggest) is that Oculus will instantly connect you to any Facebook friends who pick up an Oculus unit and link it to Zuckerberg’s empire, either now or any time in the future. In short, that means anyone on your Facebook with an Oculus will be able to see what you’re playing, whenever you’re playing it.
Similarly, the disadvantage is Oculus won’t ask you for permission to make such connections and, at the moment, there appears to be no mechanism for removing or blocking individual Oculus-equipped Facebook users from seeing what you’re up to.
As such, if you have any randoms on your Facebook you’ve added out of pure social awkwardness who look likely to buy a VR headset, best remove them now.
As things stand, Oculus will still work perfectly normally if you choose to opt out of Facebook integration. What’s more, according to a statement given to Ars Technica, Oculus has “no plans” to force players to log in to Facebook in the future, simply adding “it will be optional.”
Nevertheless, users scared Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus would lead to players being forced to connect with the social network in play are unlikely to have had their fears calmed by the update. Who wants all their friends and family knowing when they’re sat in their living room, twitching and dribbling with a VR unit on their head? Not me.