I Tried to Chat With My Son in Virtual Reality for Father’s Day

If physical distance and/or a pesky custody arrangement keeps you apart from your father (or your child) this Father’s Day, perhaps a virtual holiday can fill the gap. In the future that many envision, we will all be constantly hanging out, working, and socializing in virtual spaces, much like in the 1996 film Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace . For the preview of Future Father’s Day, I spent some time hanging out with my teenage son in the Meta’s virtual reality version, looking for moments of connection and meaning and generally indulging. (Meta provided me—and several other Lifehacker employees and their fathers—with an Oculus Quest 2 headset and game download codes to test this goal, even though I personally already had one.)

Parents and new technologies: a terrible combination

Any experience with a VR newbie starts with a learning curve, so if you’re going to go virtual with your dad, schedule at least 45 minutes for “Did you get an invite? Now click “Accept” and “No, click the icon. Icon !

How troublesome the setup will be depends, of course, on the dad. Pop Lifehacker Food editor Claire Lower has settled into the virtual world with ease. “He remembered his Wi-Fi password, which is remarkable considering it’s a bunch of random numbers and letters,” Lower said. “In fact, I think he found using the headset more intuitive than I did.”

However, deputy editor’s father Joel Cunningham was unable to overcome the technical hurdle. “It’s not exactly an easy rig to handle at 3,000 miles,” Cunningham said. “If your dad is the type to call you in a panic because hackers deleted all of his emails (they didn’t), I can assure you that you won’t spend Father’s Day or any other day with him. in virtual reality.

Luckily, my dad passed away a long time ago and my Father’s Day partner is a tech teen, so we were able to connect virtually with a few hiccups.

First Father-Son Virtual Bonding Experience: Horror Movies at Meta Horizon Worlds

Launched nearly two years ago, Meta Horizon Worlds is Meta’s flagship app, so it seems like a good place to start. My kid and I both love horror movies so we decided to check out Eli Roth’s haunted house “Trick-VR-Treat”.

Critics haven’t been kind to Horizon Worlds, and I don’t quite agree with the general consensus, but Eli Roth’s haunted house is an island of terrifying kindness in a sea of ​​glistening nonsense. After some initial problems with the age gate (you must be over 18 and my son is not or wasn’t until we changed his profile settings) we were able to access the “attraction”.

The environment surrounding the VR movie is the same as everything in Horizon Worlds : it’s like Roblox and full of kids. The cartoonish visuals just don’t contribute to creepiness, so there was no “daring each other in” fun of a real haunted house. But the movie itself is great . It uses virtual reality immersion to transform you into a bloody, fast-paced shocking story that mimics the thrill of a real-life haunted house in amazing ways. This is especially good because of how different it is from the atmosphere of forced happiness in the rest of the Worlds . It has the visceral vibe so often lacking in virtual spaces. Highly recommended for fans of dark rides and horror stories.

Dexter’s reaction : “I think we became friends a bit. We were able to laugh together about how much money [Meta] spent making this place.”

Father-Son Compatibility Rating: 7 out of 10. We had a good conversation, changing the date of birth on Dexter’s meta account to thwart age restrictions, which gave me the opportunity to share some paternal wisdom about when it’s okay to pretend to be 18 on a computer.

The second experience of virtual communication between father and son: real fishing in virtual reality

There’s nothing better than Father’s Day than taking dad/baby on a good old-fashioned fishing trip! So we went to Real VR Fishing to cast our lines on the virtual Crater Lake in Oregon.

The realistic graphics of VR Fishing are a welcome change of pace from the cartoony look of most VR. The cast is smooth and feels real, as does the retrieval of the fish. Anyway, there are too many fish to catch; you need to set the difficulty to high if you want to sit and wait like real fishing.

The best thing about this game is that my son and I were fishing together . At least our avatars were fishing together. Like real father and son fishing, the relationship between us even became emotional on the shores of this serene (fake) lake. My avatar turned to him and I said, “Son, your mom and I are getting a divorce.”

Claire’s father also fished. “After a few minutes, he was throwing and reeling, and saying things like “Come here” and “Aha! Gotcha,” she said. “When I asked him what he was catching, he said, ‘It’s a fantastic fish, but it looks a bit like a brim.’

Dexter’s reaction: “The best thing is to try to hit each other with rods.”

Father-son closeness rating: 6 out of 10. While real VR fishing is a good game, father-son fishing trips are a time-honored tradition because it’s a way to teach your child something – to show him, how to hook and wait quietly to enjoy privacy and nature. You won’t get any of this in VR.

Third Father-Son Virtual Bonding Experience: Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale

A father-son relationship is more than just watching horror movies and carp fishing—sometimes you have to work . To simulate family work together, we’ve launched Cook-Out, a virtual cooking experience in which up to four players work together in a cartoon kitchen to serve hastily prepared sandwiches to an eager customer base of rats, rabbits, cats, and werewolves.

The game is great – a frantic, fast-paced experience that encourages collaboration, screaming and splashing virtual ketchup at each other. Our first failed attempts resulted in many finicky cats leaving our restaurant unsatisfied, but we eventually developed a system of collaboration and communication that allowed us to complete one order after another. If I ever move to Bob’s Burgers and open a family restaurant, it’s probably going to be something like this.

Dexter’s reaction: “It was the most stressful experience of my life. I’ve spent countless hours playing competitive video games and nothing is more intense than Cook-Out .”

Father-Son Affinity Level: 9 out of 10. There is said to be a special bond between soldiers in combat, but it pales in comparison to the morale of trying to make a werewolf egg sandwich before time runs out.

How to spend time with family in virtual reality compared to real time spent together?

My son and I live in the same house and spend a lot of time together, so virtual reality seems to increase the distance, rather than shorten it. It was a lot of fun, but an intermediary appeared between us – in this case, Meta. If I were physically away from him (as I will soon be when he goes off to college or prison), I could see that it brings us closer.

If we were emotionally distant from each other, that might help too: the VR experience gives you a chance to focus, so if your relationship with Pops is marked by awkward pause phone calls, working together at a fake sandwich shop with a rat clientele might give you a way to be together without actually being together, and all the talking and listening that that entails.