The metaverse is alive and kicking.
April Fools Day is once again upon us, which means a whole bunch of fake products from VR hardware manufacturers and developers. This year we saw a ridiculous-looking haptic suit complete with 1,333,337 integrated haptic sensors, from computer peripheral manufacturer Razer to a gorgeous VR role-playing game from developer SmileGate.
That said, my favorite fake announcement of the day has to go to New Technology Walkers’ leg-based VR metaverse, appropriately entitled Legverse. Whereas a majority of social VR platforms shy away from full-body avatars, instead of focusing on the waste up, Legverse embraces our lower halves to provide a one-of-a-kind metaverse experience.
As part of the fake announcement, Antony Vitillo, cofounder of NTW and owner of Skarredghost, released a tongue-in-cheek video highlighting the many “advancements” the team has made in leg-based VR technology. The gameplay shown is pretty hilarious and made even funnier by Vitillo’s stone-cold delivery.
Using a pair of Oculus Rift controllers, users would be able to do everything from jump and run to a Chuck Norris round-house kick and Sharon Stone’s “leg cross.” Players would also be able to summon Satan, twerk, step on a virtual LEGO brick, toggle a cheese smell; truly a new level of immersion. For the few minutes of the video, I was fairly convinced this might be a real project. By the end, however, I found myself wishing that it was.
As previously mentioned, popular VR social platforms such as Rec Room and Horizon Worlds do away with full-body avatars, instead choosing to focus on the torso, arms, and head. This makes sense, seeing as most commercially-available VR technology is unable to track the lower half of a user’s body, at least not without the help of additional trackers. That said, a leg-based VR social platform would be a refreshing change of pace for the industry, albeit a little bizarre.
For more information on the Legverse visit here.
Image Credit: New Technology Walkers
