
9/11 with oculus rift - gnocchi
http://www.08h46.com/
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DanAndersen
I think it's interesting and strange that people are thinking that this is
tasteless or offensive. A lot of that is probably coming from a mental picture
of the Rift or VR as inherently like an amusement park ride or "fun
entertainment," as if the medium was incapable of being anything more.

This probably happens every generation of new narrative mediums.

Can a videogame portray a tragic event in a tasteful way, or must it always
end up as a trivialization of it? Can a movie portray a tragic event in a
tasteful way, or must it always end up as an exploitative popcorn flick? Can a
novel portray a tragic event in a tasteful way, or must it always end up as a
cheap pulpy page-turner?

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Mithaldu
I see these things as valuable in preserving history, even if artificial
history based on reenactments and research. It is one thing for a person to
hear or read about an event, and one much more likely to engender empathy to
experience the event viscerally.

Specifically, it engenders empathy and reflection of a much higher degree.

Back before world war 1, many young soldiers went to the front with an
eagerness and starry-eyed-ness born from insufficient knowledge about how war
really looked like. In this day and age only the most uneducated, or most
strong-willed would happily go into battle, because we have plenty of media
informing us of the reality of it.

Yes, this kind of thing may creep you out and make you feel really
uncomfortable, but that is exactly the point.

If you don't have an Oculus, just watch the thing on youtube:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2-yQfiyzSo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2-yQfiyzSo)
Try and see what observations you pick up on that you never even thought about
while reading it.

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mathgeek
I'm very interested to see if this type of "narrative learning entertainment"
catches on in any meaningful way. I could certainly see a market for "see the
events of history through the eyes of someone who was there" as the next big
edutainment trend.

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thehoff
I vaguely remember a show/movie where people were traveling back in time to be
at major events/tragedies similar to this.

In any case interesting and (to me) a little creepy at the same time. I'm sure
(at least for me) with time the creepiness will wear off. Definitely an
interesting take on this tech.

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techterrier
Well this is pretty tasteless.

Up next, drown aboard the Kursk.

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skorecky
That was kinda my knee jerk reaction too, but thinking about it more it's
kinda a neat idea since stuff like this could be used in training and
education. Maybe it didn't have to be 9/11 itself but not really sure how I
feel about it yet.

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jgrahamc
My immediate reaction on seeing this is "You know, 9/11 actually happened and
real people died". The Oculus here is giving the possibility of a sort of
Disneyland ride experience for 9/11\. And that's utterly tasteless.

Of course, this sort of thing is bound to happen as television has already led
the way into a decent into utter tastelessness.

The team linked to their LinkedIn profiles and you can see that they roughly
seem to have gone to universities in around 2010. Assuming they were 18 when
they did that it means they were 9 years old when 9/11 happen IRL. It's
probably just another historical event to them.

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catshirt
surely then, you found Titanic (DiCaprio) & Pearl Harbor (Affleck) tasteless
as well?

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Toenex
Isn't the equation tragedy + time = comedy?

