Don’t worry, I won’t be spamming my followers by writing daily about my resolutions. 😉

Rather, since it is the beginning of the new year, I thought it time to touch on some of those goals as they pertain to my social media and, in theory, to my followers.

 

Schedule

I haven’t yet worked out an actual scheduling plan as of yet, though for the purpose of my “resolutions” I hope to start recording video for my gaming channel (both of the fitness themed playlist and games in general) on Jan 4, and to post that footage as early as Jan 6. Though I might be able to increase that to two days’ worth of content per week later on, if and when I get through the backlog for my other two channels.

Why those days? Or why only two days? Two reasons, and both are to do with my work schedule. I get distracted enough on social media as it is, but I simply don’t play video games on days I work–not before getting ready for work, not after getting home, not at all–not unless you count checking in for some daily bonus and then immediately logging out again. And since my job has me on my feet all day, I won’t bother with any fitness-centric games on those days. So even getting footage in the first place will have to wait until my next day off (barring the aforementioned distractions), after which there will be the matter of editing and uploading. Not only that, but there is the matter of needing decent lighting (I understand natural to be the preferred option) and a suitable outfit for the before-and-after photos; neither my usual hours nor work clothes will be conducive to those criteria so I wouldn’t even try it any time except on a day off.

 

Video Duration

Expect videos to be short, plain and simple. Especially those recorded in VR. No hour-long gaming sessions to be had here, whether it’s a fitness game or not; instead you’ll see things like one song in Beat Saber, one night in FNAF (assuming I survive an entire night), things like that.

On the fitness side of things, the reason is that I’m simply not in shape enough to go out of my way to make long videos. Some day, maybe, before the year is out if I’m very lucky, but it will be a while yet.

And the problem with doing long videos in VR specifically is that I get migraines. I’ve had them most of my life, and while I take treatments for them (a daily dose of feverfew or the smell of peppermint are the best things for me so far, and of course there is the occasional need for a headache strength OTC painkiller), nothing is perfect. Even if I manage to get my VR legs quickly, the weight of the headset is something I cannot deal with for long periods of time. I imagine the headsets for PCVR won’t be as heavy as my Quest, and I might be able to invest in one down the line when I have more floorspace and a better computer, but for now… short sessions it is.

Neither of these problems mean that I won’t have a lot of content for a given day or week–it remains to be seen how many videos I’ll manage with breaks in between–I just don’t expect to play for more than a few minutes at a time. On the plus side, this gives me more time to play a variety of games in a single day instead of focusing on one title.

 

Non-fitness games and SideQuest for Oculus Quest

The first two points above relate to my followers mostly in the sense of what those followers can expect of my videos, and when they can expect to see new content. It also relates, though not as strongly, to fellow fitness seekers who might like to follow my progress and get some ideas on whether fitness games will work for them.

This next point, however, relates almost entirely to those who wish to try the same thing… not just in the pursuit of fitness, but playing VR games–in particular, using a Quest to play non-Quest games–with a focus on entertainment.

Since I mentioned it the previous section, a certain fellow gamer has been trying to convince me to play FNAF since the very first game came out. Personally I’m not interested in horror games–I can watch other people play them just fine but can’t really see myself getting into the gameplay–so I don’t care for the idea of paying out $30 for FNAF VR. $10 like Dreadhalls and similar cost, sure, but $30 is too much just to try out a game that someone else wants me to play. (Perhaps if the Quest had a gifting function; hint to FaceBook?)

$20 for Virtual Desktop, on the other hand, combined with I-don’t-remember-what-but-there-was-a-sale for one year’s subscription to Vive Infinty, is something else entirely. Price-wise it probably works out to about the same, but this combination, in theory, would allow me to play a variety of PCVR games on my Oculus Quest, provided they are games that my PC itself can handle.

But there is the matter of getting that combination to work. I don’t know what VD’s developers had in mind for the app, but for me the whole point of it is to play PCVR games on the Quest, so I was a tiny bit miffed when I finally got around to loading it to learn that such a function requires sideloading a patch via SideQuest (nothing against SideQuest itself, I just lean towards the “the app that does a task best is the one that supports that task natively” mentality). Getting that patch required installing a few extra programs on my computer, switching the Quest to Developer Mode (which requires a few extra steps of its own), installing the SideQuest patch to the Quest, and of course switching off Developer Mode again if I want to retain any hope of sharing in-game video and screenshots.

There were some glitchy moments along the way, things that had to be installed, and reinstalled, and reinstalled again before they cooperated. But I think I finally have it working. Sort of. There is the small matter of figuring out if the lack of sound I’m experiencing is a problem on the Quest’s end or on my computer’s, or even a basic setting that I just need to find and change, as well as locating the two games that I sideloaded directly from SideQuest. But I was able to install and play, among other things, a motorcycle racing game that surprisingly did not trigger any feelings of vertigo, and the entire system works well enough to let me try out a few games I would never have bought otherwise.

Games like FNAF, where, before I even found the game menu so I could start playing, I was almost immediately met by Foxy.

And with that, my gaming session for the day was at an end.