Playing VR for the first time is magical. After Christmas, a huge number of new players flocked to VR games, which means a lot of people are being introduced to VR for the first time. It’s got me thinking about my first experience in VR.

My first VR headset was the Oculus Rift CV-1 which was the affordable headset at the time. The CV-1 is a very comfortable, lightweight headset and is one of my favorite headsets I have ever owned. It felt nice to wear, the controls were comfortable and intuitive, and it was simple to set up. My first Rift worked all the time. Like I rarely ever had any issues with it. I couldn’t say the same about the Vive.

I put that headset on during the summer of 2018 and I was thrown into the Oculus intro game called First Contact. In First Contact, a small robot walks you through the controls and lets you interact with objects around you. Its a simple game, but it blew my mind. Immediately I fell in love. I had no idea that VR was actually that immersive. I wasn’t expecting things to just be right there, but it really was just right there! Needless to say I got addicted and decided to change career paths. Literally that first experience made me decide to work in VR full time.

About a year later the new Oculus Rift S came out along with the first version of the Quest. I got rid of my CV-1 and bought both the Rift S and Quest models. I’ve never missed my CV-1 so much. The Rift S was a broken headset that Facebook quickly stopped supporting. Trying VR for the first time is something I wish I could do again. It really was magical.