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The Almighty Buck Businesses Technology

VR Is the Fastest-Growing Skill for Online Freelancers (bloomberg.com) 105

Posted by msmash from the market-demand dept.
Workers with skills in virtual reality were the hottest thing on the U.S. job market in the last quarter, even though the technology has yet to break into mainstream use. From a report, shared by a reader: Demand for online freelancers with VR expertise grew far faster than for people with any other skill last quarter. Billings on VR projects grew more than 30-fold from the same period a year earlier, according to U.S. data provided by Upwork Inc's website that connects freelancers with employers. VR has so far struggled to break into the mainstream, with the technology largely confined to high-end video gaming. Facebook, which bought VR headset maker Oculus in 2014 for $2 billion, has already been lowering prices for the Oculus headset and is working on a more consumer-friendly version to be sold next year. Other companies that make VR goggles include Samsung, Google and Sony.
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VR Is the Fastest-Growing Skill for Online Freelancers More

VR Is the Fastest-Growing Skill for Online Freelancers

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  • look at me I did a gaem in unity (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "For example, there are just over 2,500 freelancers on Upwork’s site now who list VR as one of their skills, compared with 106 individuals at this point last year. "

    translated: I can export a UE4 / unity game with the vr flag enabled. Also I put a RPG maker game I did once with naked japanese cartoon ladies on steam and so I am a published game maker.

    • That has nothing to do with actual demand.

      To be sure, the market for many of these kinds of workers is still small, growing from a pool that was basically nonexistent just a year ago. For example, there are just over 2,500 freelancers on Upwork’s site now who list VR as one of their skills, compared with 106 individuals at this point last year.

      What counts is how many of them are actually working at any time. Basically, the stat says that there are 2,500 unemployed freelancers who list VR skills, because if they had full-time vr jobs, they wouldn't be looking for (and their employment contract wouldn't allow) freelance work.

      So basically this is an ad for a jobs board.

    • And here I was assuming they were counting the time spent *playing* VR games...

  • Remember kids... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Wednesday August 02, 2017 @10:24AM (#54925827)
    You need five years of VR experience before applying for a job. Never mind that decent VR headsets recently came out in the last few years.

  • Of course, anything that starts from almost zero can experience what looks like a huge growth in terms of percentages, but in actual numbers still be insignificant. Same as VR is still insignificant. Sae as 3d TV is still insignificant.

  • The money being thrown at this technology (and jobs) will go crazy after the Spielberg movie Ready Player One comes out early next year....whether totally unjustified, its going to be a match to gasoline. JMHO...

    • ....whether totally unjustified, its going to be a match to gasoline. JMHO...

      Indeed. A brief flare of light and heat, and then a lingering smell. And then nothing.

  • VR games suffer from two problems (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Wednesday August 02, 2017 @10:47AM (#54926067)

    First, the equipment costs about as much as a cheap gaming computer and you need it ON TOP of a cutting edge gaming computer. In other words, if you don't have a computer to plug your VR kit into, 2500-3000 is the price tag you're looking at. If you do have a top notch gaming rig, it's still another 500-800 bucks.

    And there is very, very little support from AAA studios (read: ZERO). This in turn means that there are very, very few high quality games available for VR and an unimaginably huge mountain of gimmicky Flashgame knock-offs that some Indie Dev slapped together. They're not really bad per se, but it means that certain genres are overrepresented to the extreme. In other words, what idle-clicker games are to mobiles and zombie shooters are to PC gaming, tower defense is to VR.

    There is also very, very little experience what works and what doesn't work in VR. And even less experience with what can only be done sensibly in VR. So far most games mimic what has been done on computer and console gaming for years, and usually they rely on the "shiny" effect of the new, because the games are by no means as polished, user friendly and graphically impressive as their Non-VR computer/console counterparts.

    The studios that dared to venture into VR usually treat it as an afterthought rather than a focus, adapting their old games to VR to give them a sales boost, especially on the PS4 with the various racing games that try to gain a new following with the added VR gimmick.

    Is it really the "fastest growing skill"? Or, as I'd read it, the highest in-demand skill? I can only say I wish it weren't. At least not yet. AAA studios are not buying into it yet and will probably treat it rather as a quick-buck deal rather than something they want to jump onto and ride as the new platform now that PC and console gaming has pretty much gone stale, with endless streams of essentially identical games being pumped out left and right. There simply is no "VR genre" born yet, we don't know yet what games do and which don't work on VR. There is simply not enough data available so far.

    Jumping onto it now will probably lead to VR failing miserably, because the ROI simply isn't there yet for AAA titles (the market size just isn't big enough yet, and the willingness to spend upwards of 100 bucks for a game certainly is not there, not even with people who paid 800 for the VR kit) and large studios tend to shy away from venues that burned them. Even if later it could prove promising.

    On the other hand, with VR being basically the playground of mediocre Indie-Games, with the once-in-a-blue-moon gem surfacing, there isn't much incentive to buy the hardware either. Let's be honest, why buy a 800 bucks VR kit so I can play a point-and-click get-out-of-the-room Flash game, with the "awesome new" gimmick of being IN the room instead of seeing it on the screen?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by OzPeter ( 195038 )

      And there is very, very little support from AAA studios (read: ZERO). This in turn means that there are very, very few high quality games available for VR and an unimaginably huge mountain of gimmicky Flashgame knock-offs that some Indie Dev slapped together. They're not really bad per se, but it means that certain genres are overrepresented to the extreme. In other words, what idle-clicker games are to mobiles and zombie shooters are to PC gaming, tower defense is to VR.

      Your whole reply is limited to VR in games. I work in heavy industry applications and having access to VR based simulations/walk throughs would be fantastic for what I do.

      VR is a tool and not just limited to playing games.

      • VR as a tool would be great, but I doubt there would be many companies that have the resources (and the willingness to spend them) to develop such a tool. I could see some usability in travel agencies ("see your vacation location right here!") and furniture stores ("see what our table and couch would look like in your living room!"), but the cost of developing something like this would be beyond what they would willingly spend on it.

        Funny enough IKEA actually has such a tool. It's available on Steam for fre

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ck_808 ( 1302625 )

      The price has dropped quite a bit.

      $1,318.45 for PC + oculus + touch controllers -
      https://www.amazon.com/A80CJ-D... [amazon.com]

      The oculus headset and touch package is currently $399 on the summer of rift sale - https://www.oculus.com/blog/ri... [oculus.com]

      The problem with content is being addressed -
      Current higher budget games e.g.
      Robo Recall - https://youtu.be/shiKcsjZnH0 [youtu.be]
      Lone Echo - https://youtu.be/2pmV2mwAV9k [youtu.be]
      The Mages Tale - https://youtu.be/MKIr9-zrkI8 [youtu.be]

      Upcoming examples -
      Arktika.1 - https://youtu.be/KLkvbAFIOJc [youtu.be]
      Killing Floor: Inc

    • The equipment costs part I definitely agree with. It's just too expensive right now to find anything but a niche market. But I did want to speak to the idea of AAA developer support.

      Personally, I can't imagine AAA gaming studios ever being leaders in defining VR gaming experiences. As you mentioned, it's just too risky to invest in. In many cases, these are studios who offer the same game for consoles and PCs but dumb down the PC inputs so that it can just be a port of the console experience with graphi

    • if you don't have a computer to plug your VR kit into, 2500-3000 is the price tag you're looking at

      Prices dropped since the last time you looked. Oculus Rift is now $399.

      I was a skeptic like you. Surely it's just a fad like the 3DS and 3D TV. But after checking out the demo at Best Buy, I changed my mind. It's a fundamentally different experience from any of its 3D predecessors. It's just WAY better. The technology is finally here that delivers the real goods.

      I think we might be at the iPad phase of VR. Tablets have been around for a long time before that (Newton, Palm etc) but they were all lame. So whe

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kjella ( 173770 )

      There simply is no "VR genre" born yet, we don't know yet what games do and which don't work on VR. There is simply not enough data available so far.

      If you could make some kind of omni-directional treadmill for VR, it would be really cool. Even if you have a rather big room it's extremely limited in terms of a virtual world so they all have to break the immersion by teleporting you around. Those that work best and that you can do for the longest are those where you're "restricted" to your seat. You're piloting a spaceship. Driving a car. Riding a roller coaster. Being on the tower in tower defense.

      And these games also mostly hide the entirely virtual na

      • What I noticed is that games work best where the restricted room you have works in the game world. For example, there is a submarine sim that works well with the spacial restrictions because, hey, it's a submarine and supposed to be a few small rooms. They solved the transition from room to room by having you step through bulkheads, which they manage to creatively make your character model shift around enough that you hardly notice that you're essentially going "back" instead of forwards, you essentially wa

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 0123456 ( 636235 )

      "And there is very, very little support from AAA studios (read: ZERO)."

      If you don't count, say, Fallout 4 and Skyrim, which are supposed to be out in VR next year.

      • Seeing is believing. Especially how that VR part is going to unfold, and whether there is some commitment to it or whether it's tacked on as a gimmick.

  • I have completed Portal 2, does that count as VR experience?

  • Do we have an idea of the wonderful VR applications coming ahead?

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