For better or worse, the vast majority of people think in terms of local communities, not a global one, so this is still a massive ask. UTC already exists for the industries that need it (and people chronically online enough to have more global than local social connections).

I don’t want to sound like too much of a fanboy, but I’ve owned every first-party device of theirs so far, even the old physical Steam Link, the OG Controller, and the Vive which I count as theirs, and they’ve consistently hit the sweet spot of what I want out of hardware:

No hostility to the user; very tinkerer friendly; a good balance of build quality, ergonomics, and features without going into diminishing returns; long-lasting software support (even the market failure of the Steam Link has recent firmware updates); forwarding wider Linux and gaming software ecosystems; etc.

At this point, I’m just grabbing them if I have even an occasional use case for them, and I don’t regret it one bit. My Frame comes in tomorrow, and I’m very excited.

Yep. Just stay away from the Meta headsets. They are cheaper than the competition for a reason.

Yes, that looks to be the case. I seem to remember needing to be deliberate about seeking them out to play them, but I guess my brain made that up. Lol.

Oh, if you’re not caught up on the previous games, I do think you’ll be losing out quite a bit playing Alyx first. Trying to avoid spoiling too much, Alyx’s story connects back to them in a way that feels pretty huge if you’ve played them and a way that I think might feel a bit nonsensical and emotionally empty if you haven’t. Then again, I seem to care more about story, world-building, etc. than most, so others might disagree.

When Alyx originally came out for the Index, I was in a similar position having played no Half Life games, so I decided to play them first to get up to speed. I don’t regret setting aside all that time since they’re all fantastic games in their own right and made the Alyx experience even better.

In case you want to follow along, I played just enough Half Life 1 to get a feel for it in light of its historical significance, but then I continued with the very good, more modern fan remake, Black Mesa. Then came Half Life 2 (non-VR), then Half Life 2 Episode 1, and Half Life 2 Episode 2. These last two are continuations of the main story, so don’t skip them. I mention that because I remember thinking something else originally due to their names.

I actually haven’t played the VR version of HL2 yet, but I would save that for a later replay. VR naturally makes things more intense, so Alyx slowed its pacing to compensate, and HL2 dialing it back up makes it a natural followup gameplay-wise.

I think you’ll be fine as long as you know going in that Alyx is a bit of a rarity. Have you ever played a really good AAA game and still found a simpler, older, indie title fun afterward? It’s like that. Even after playing Alyx myself, there’s a lot of much simpler VR experiences I still enjoy, even some of the jankier mods and such.

Fair enough, and you’re welcome.

I will add that I have a Steam Machine I only occasionally use because I have a much better desktop already connected to my living room TV. However, I don’t regret getting it, because it’s genuinely a joy to use every time I have a good excuse to, and it’s a nice refuge from a tech industry that largely feels hostile to its users.

I know you asked for the opposite, but it actually sounds like you’re a good fit for the Steam Machine. You didn’t mention the price being a deal breaker. You will appreciate the form factor and quietness. You want performance, but you’re apparently not a stickler for it, and the Steam Machine should be enough performance for a long while, especially with the market stagnating. You already like Linux. You mentioned a busy life, and the Steam Machine doesn’t require you to build it, makes getting in and out of games as fast as it’s possible to be on PC, and is popular enough that you will have the most possible reference material for quickly setting unique things up (like emulation) or doing troubleshooting.

Now, it does have less modularity and upgradability than your typical desktop PC, including small form factor builds (usually still at least twice the size and noisier), but how big of a negative that is is up to you.

You mentioned the Steam Deck being too heavy. Have you tried using it, or is that an assumption based on its listed weight? I personally find it so well balanced that it feels lighter than it actually is, and that’s apparently a common opinion, but I’m always interested in seeing other opinions. It’s probably the best backlog killer available now (including over the Steam Machine) if you can work with its compromises.

Those links aren’t smoking guns.

The first details troubled rollout of software upgrades, “upgrades” being the key word. That’s really just the nature of complicated software development in general. The previous complete package of software is already up-to-task and running it longer than desired isn’t a huge issue.

The second says they can’t fix multiple problems simultaneously, which is again another common software development reality and a very different statement than not being able to fix things.

The third flat out says the opposite in that many fixes actually have been completed, just not all of them yet. It’s an adjacent issue, but the headline also frames the secret keeping as a bad thing when that’s just a sensible thing to do.

Technically, they’re both supersonic, not hypersonic, but yeah, that’s just semantics. The actual important detail is that the SR-71 is twice as fast (or more) as the F-35. There’s a lot of testing you can do with the former that’s just not possible with the latter.

The F-35 has nothing to do with this, but just to correct anyone’s misconceptions, F-35 loss and readiness rates only sound bad because that kind of coverage gets clicks/views. When you add back in the context of comparison to other aircraft and the total number of airframes produced and hours flown, the F-35 is actually performing great.

In case this saves anyone else the trouble, I got my purchase email for the Frame (256G) yesterday too. I went through the purchase process a bit too excitedly, and after completing it, I realized I never selected any accessories. I assumed I missed this step on one of the pages I didn’t scroll down on.

Stupidly, I never checked the Internet to learn the accessories are sold out, which apparently has been news for about a week now. Even more stupidly, I looked at Steam Support options for the purchase, and made the closest selection I could make to what I wanted, a refund request with a comment about actually wanting the purchase just with accessories.

It turns out the request was either automatically approved or approved by someone who didn’t bother with my comment. I had to make another Steam Support ticket to which they told me to get on the wait list again after which they would make a one-time exception and send me the purchase email again, which I’m currently waiting for.

So, not a big setback overall and definitely in the territory of first world problems, but I am getting the Frame at least a couple days later than I otherwise would have. Don’t rush through purchases, kids.

Edit: Repurchase complete.

Yep, you got it.

Interestingly enough, the focal length of the lenses and perceived distance due to stereoscopic parallax are completely unrelated.

The lenses can’t reshape themselves, so the screens have to always sit at a constant perceived distance from your eyes, typically set around the middle of where the eyes are used to focusing, about 2 meters away. This isn’t a problem, because the effect of the brain taking depth cues from parallax is much stronger, so the focal length detail just fades into the background.

What this all means though is that whether or not you need glasses in a VR headset is entirely dependent on whether you need glasses to see objects 2 meters away outside VR. This remains true even when objects in VR are much closer or farther as perceived by stereoscopic vision.

Not even that. “Abuse of genAI” is what ruined it. The tech itself is great.

I’m a big VR nerd as well, but I always saw it as a medium adjacent to flat gaming, not a substitute or upgrade, so I’ve pretty much always bounced between the two since the Vive. I am excited for the Frame’s potential as a portable desktop, but I don’t hold any illusions of that being something I’ll regularly use beyond traveling and hotel stays, lazy days in bed, etc. I imagine most people will land in that area once the newness wears off.

Then again, I’m privileged to have lots of tech and no family members competing for it. I could see someone in different circumstances making the Frame their main gaming device for both flat and VR games, even though that feels as weird to me as the idea of people using the Steam Deck as their main AAA game device, which also definitely happens.

The lenses actually have your eyes focusing on a spot about 6 feet or 2 meters away, about the median distance your eyes should be used to anyway. I’ve seen nearsighted people be surprised they still need glasses in VR.

In case you’re interested in more of Valve’s history with the tech, look into the original HTC Vive. It’s basically a Valve product in all but name. Valve developed most of the Vive’s core technologies in-house but wasn’t really set up to manufacture a lot of first-party devices yet, so they partnered with HTC for that part. The Index is in many ways a Vive 2.

Also, a lot of people are interested in the Frame specifically BECAUSE the Index exists and they want what’s next.

You should probably also know that motion sickness should only be triggered if your brain detects a difference in the motion you feel (mostly via the inner ear) and the motion you see.

A VR environment that isn’t actively moving versus the real would ideally never trigger motion sickness in even the most sensitive people, but if the hardware doesn’t maintain a high enough frame rate (typically 72 to 120 fps depending on your sensitivity) and low enough latency to convince the brain at the subconscious level, you can get motion sickness even if your conscious brain is convinced by the visuals.

The result is that a lot of people think all VR makes them sick when the reality is that they’ve only been exposed to subpar experiences, either due to hardware underbuilt for their needs or due to running experiences too demanding for the hardware they were using (or because they actually were in an experience where the game world was moving).

I don’t know if the Frame is exactly the same, but the lens in previous headsets made it so that the screens are in focus at a perceived distance of about 6 feet or 2 meters. I think the only time you might notice that distance is when the screens are purely black.

Most of the time, you’ll be looking at a virtual environment where your brain is predisposed to determine depth by the parallax effect, both the offset from each eye and how things visually move when you move (faster = closer).

You should never actually feel like the screens are very close outside your brain conceptually knowing that they are. At most, the actual feeling should be closest to looking through goggles, so if you can handle that, you should be fine.

Also, in case it’s related to your fear, the widespread idea of screens permanently damaging your vision is a myth. It came about, because children who needed vision correction would naturally sit closer to televisions to be able to see them. The televisions got blamed for poor vision when the actual cause and effect were swapped. At most, screens can cause some eye strain, but it’s the same idea as holding a muscle in one position too long, uncomfortable but not actually debilitating.