Job Simulator: First game for SteamVR virtual reality headset simulates real work

IN THE perfectly automated future when robots control everything, humans will turn to virtual reality to remember what it is ‘to job’.

Virtual reality game simulates work

WHAT would you like to do in virtual reality? Fly a spaceship? Fight monsters? Too bad. A new VR headset tipped to be the next big thing has revealed its first game: performing menial jobs.

Gaming giant Valve and smartphone maker HTC stunned the tech world yesterday with the announcement of what could be their Oculus Rift killer, dubbed the Vive.

Unlike the now Facebook-owned Oculus, the Vive will allow users to move around the room and interact with objects using hand tracking controls. Early reviews describe it as “phenomenal”.

Just experienced HTC and Valve's VR solution at #MWC15. Utterly phenomenal. The controller solution is intuitive and precise.

— Scott Broock (@ScottBroock) March 2, 2015

As PC Gamer reports, Owlchemy Labs is the first game developer to reveal its wares for the new headset: it’s called Job Simulator. It simulates jobs.

The website explains: “The year is 2050. Robots cook, clean, service, and organise the world with precision and speed. Human occupations are now memories of the past; long gone are the blue-collar jobs that ran the old world. Humans raised in our perfect automated society must not forget their useless ancient ancestors and history.

“This is why Job Bot was born. Job Bot created Job Simulator to teach humans what it is ‘to job’. All praise to Job Bot, for he is the keeper of human history.”

The game and the VR headset are currently being demoed at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, Spain. A teaser video gives a hint of what gamers can expect, with a pair of disembodied hands pouring Sriracha hot sauce onto a steak.

Posting on Reddit, Owlchemy Labs’ Alex Schwartz said the Vive was superior to the Oculus Rift’s Crescent Bay prototype. “Comparing my Oculus Connect CB experience to the Valve/HTC headset, the Valve/HTC one is more advanced and more visually stunning,” he wrote.

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