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?
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 Try and see what observations you pick up on that you never even thought about while reading it.
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?