The article was originally published at VR focus
Okay, let’s build a complete guide to virtual reality (VR) for a newcomer. First of all, let’s put aside any kind of home use. If you’re a newcomer, you want to try it, nothing more at this point, right? Then, you need a place to go. And there are VR parks, VR arcades, VR centres and VR rooms for you to choose. So where should you go?
Ask yourself these questions.
If yes, hopefully, it wasn’t some low-quality rollercoaster at the mall.
If no, all the experiences in the market are accessible enough for a first-timer so keep calm about that.
You should know that it may happen when you’re in VR, especially if you have already experienced it before. Staff in good locations know what to do if it happens and will help you.
If yes, ask for challenges because the entry-level experience may look too simple for you.
If no, it’s not a problem. Stick to attraction-like VR. Go to a VR escape room centre or VR theme park with a bunch of VR simulators.
If you like shooters then go warehouse-scale VR to shoot some zombies. If you’re into Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero, then try a rhythm-based title like Beat Saber. If you are fond of adventures then go to a VR escape room centre.
If you don’t know just ask yourself what do you like to do, what movies are your favourite? And that would be the clue.
Do you want to go it alone? Then head to a VR arcade or VR park. Most will have a varied selection of videogames to suit most tastes and skill level.
If you want to go with company then choose VR escape centres, warehouse-scale VR or check if VR arcade or VR park does have a title that your group would like.
This is the most important question on the list. Do you want to go with your friends? Will you bring the kids? Or your parents? Or co-workers?
If it’s a kids party, they will love theme parks and will easily adapt to VR in arcades. If you don’t want them to play anything violent then choose wisely. VR escape is a convenient solution since it’s a complete event and you can choose a theme in advance.
If you bring elders with you, choose the most accessible VR escape experience, the one which is more of an attraction than a videogame. Try VR park to see how your old folks will manage a VR swing or a flying simulator.
With colleagues, decide do you want to compete or to cooperate. VR escape is the perfect fit for team building. Some VR arcade games or warehouse-scale VR are good competition. Look at your group. Do your teammates have different videogame experience?
If you’re all experienced in videogames, then go to a VR arcade, and figure it out in the process. And if everyone likes to shoot then just go to warehouse-scale VR. If the diversity is high, either choose a VR park with a lot of attractions or universal experience for everyone which is VR escape game.
If all of you like the same movie may be The VOID will satisfy your needs with its experiences based on famous franchises.
Also, use this scale of action. It’s not universal, and there are exceptions. Start with this lense, try things and then create your own lenses.
0 – A visual experience, less interaction | VR Cinema |
1 | VR rollercoasters, swings, bungee |
2 | Short VR experiences like The Void and Dreamscape |
3 – Well-balanced | Seated VR escape rooms, VR flying simulators |
4 | Free-roam VR escape rooms, VR arcades, VR racing |
5 – Plenty of interaction, less to experience | VR free-roam shooters |
This is list doesn’t pretend to be full in any way. Here are some examples of perfect client management, diversity of content and unique audience appeal.
Torch VR in Prague, the Czech Republic is the best VR attraction in Prague according to TripAdvisor. The rating is 5 out of 5. You can play both seated and free-roam VR escape games there. If you’re looking for hand-tracking VR it’s the best place in Europe to try.
DNA VR in the first VR arcade in London, UK and it keeps the highest ratings on TripAdvisor. It’s a good choice if you want to try different experiences all in one place. Likewise, Vertigo VR in Milton Keynes, UK is another noteworthy arcade but it has VR escape games onboard. The location has 5 of 5 on TripAdvisor.
Virtual Room has high TripAdvisor ratings in a few VR escape room locations across the globe. One of them is in Paris. If you want to go to time-travelling with your team, it’s a perfect choice.
VR Games Zone in Oslo, Norway is the best VR centre in the country. You can play both seated and free-roam VR escapes there as well as warehouse-scale shooters.
VR Gamehouse is a VR arcade in Amsterdam with the highest TripAdvisor rating, offering VR racing simulators.
Zero Latency is the synonym for warehouse-scale VR, and its Madrid location has an enormous number of reviews. If you’re looking for zombies to shoot, it’s the place.
VR Star Park in China is the largest Virtual Reality theme park in the world recently featured at VRFocus. Check out Nathie’s video about it. You’ll find all kinds of VR experiences from rollercoasters to bumper cars, from swings to warehouse-scale VR shooters. Go there with teenager kids and elders, friends and colleagues.
Looking for VR escape rooms, check Virtual Room in Singapore.
Before getting $68 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Sandbox VR started its way as Glostation in Hong Kong. The location keeps its ratings high. The experience is a mix of free-roam VR, escape room and hyper-reality. The Singapore location has five stars as well.
Virtual Reality Rooms in Sydney, Australia is the first centre in the country dedicated to seated VR escape games. This one was the proof of concept for Entermission opening its locations across the USA right now. Also on the recommendation list is Sydney’s Virtual Room owns one of its best centers in Sydney.
Australia is also a homeland of Zero Latency, so go check its Melbourne location to know if there are any zombies left to be shot.
The biggest arcade in America is VR World, New York. It has all kinds of VR arcade games, plus some VR escapes and free-roam shooting titles. Virtual Room’s third-best VR escape centre is located in Los Angeles.
Avengers: Damage Control, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, Ghostbusters: Dimension, Ralph Breaks the Internet and Jumanji: Reverse the Curse. These are the franchises you can visit at The VOID facilities. Their locations are well spread across the USA. Visit them if you want a short experience in a well-known universe. And in Dreamscape, you can visit an alien zoo with exotic animals for 15 minutes. There are locations in Los Angeles and Dallas.
There is no point listing all the Hologate locations here. Plus it’s hard to understand what locations are actually good since there are no reviews at TripAdvisor or Yelp. But if you want to shoot with your pals at each other, try Tower Tag at one of those. There are accessible across the globe.
Thank you for your interest!
Our managers will call you as soon as possible.
Effective Date: 14th May, 2018
This Privacy Policy describes:
This Privacy Policy applies to Avatarico's games, websites and related services, which we here collectively call the Service. We may periodically update this Privacy Policy by posting a new version on Avatarico.com. If we make any material changes, we will notify you by posting a notice in the Service prior to the change becoming effective. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date will be subject to the new Privacy Policy.
If you have questions about data protection, or if you have any requests for resolving issues with your personal data, we encourage you to primarily contact us through the game so we can reply to you more quickly.
Name of the controller: Avatarico LLC
email: support@avatarico.com
When you request a callback on Avatarico.com, we collect data from you. We use these data to contact you and to make offers more suitable for you.
Filling up the form on our website you provide us the following information:
We use these data to contact you, to make offers more suitable for you and for analytics purposes.
Apart from Avatarico, your data can be accessed by others in the following situations:
We may provide this information to our partners only with your consent. These partners process your data only at and according to Avatarico´s instructions.
These partners may access your data and operate under their own privacy policies. We encourage you to check their privacy policies to learn more about their data processing practices.
The following are the links to the advertising and analytics partners’ privacy policies:
In order to combat fraud and illegal activity, we may exchange data with other companies and organizations and provide it to public authorities in response to lawful requests.
We may also disclose your data based on your consent, to comply with the law or to protect the rights, property or safety of us, our clients or others.
Our emails are run on an opt-out basis, and we never send unsolicited emails. If you do not want to receive emails from us, you can unsubscribe from them at any time using the clear instructions found in every email we send.
If you provide your phone number requesting a callback we will call you as many times as we believe will be useful to reach you.
In most cases, we also create a Avatarico-specific ID for you when you use the Service.
To perform the contract, we process data necessary to
To provide a great Service to our players, we have a legitimate interest to collect and process necessary data to
To show you personalized advertisements in the Service as well as in other websites and services (including email) we have a legitimate interest to process necessary data to
For information on how to opt-out from personalized advertisements, see section 'Your rights and options' below.
Ensuring a level playing field in the Service is a top priority for us. In order to keep the Service and its social features safe and fair, to fight fraud and ensure acceptable use otherwise, we have a legitimate interest to process necessary data to
In all of the above cases and purposes, we may analyze, profile and segment all collected data.
With your consent, we may process your data for additional purposes, such as using your GPS location to show you local events.
Apart from Avatarico, your data can be accessed by others in the following situations:
Social features are a core component of our games. Other players and users may, for example, see your profile data, in-game activities and read the messages you have posted.
Avatarico has partners to perform services for us. These partners process your data only at and according to Avatarico´s instructions to provide the Service, such as hosting, player support, advertising, analytics and fraud prevention.
In order to combat fraud and illegal activity, we may exchange data with other companies and organizations and provide it to public authorities in response to lawful requests.
We may also disclose your data based on your consent, to comply with the law or to protect the rights, property or safety of us, our players or others.
The Service includes features from our partners, such as social media interaction tools and in-game advertising.
These partners may access your data and operate under their own privacy policies. We encourage you to check their privacy policies to learn more about their data processing practices.
Our Service is global by nature and your data can therefore be transferred to anywhere in the world. Because different countries may have different data protection laws than your own country, we take steps to ensure adequate safeguards are in place to protect your data as explained in this Policy. Adequate safeguards that our partners may use include standard contractual clauses approved by EU Commission and the Privacy Shield certification in case of transfers to the USA.
You may opt-out of receiving promotional communications, such as marketing emails from us by following the instructions in such communications.
You can opt-out of interest-based advertising on mobile applications by checking the privacy settings of your Android or iOS device and selecting "limit ad tracking" (Apple iOS) or "opt-out of interest based ads" (Android).
For personalized in-game offers opt-out, you can use the options provided in the game settings.
If you request, we will provide you a copy of your personal data in an electronic format.
You also have the right to correct your data, have your data deleted, object how we use or share your data, and restrict how we use or share your data. You can always withdraw your consent, for example by turning off GPS location sharing in your mobile device settings.
We will respond to all requests within a reasonable timeframe. If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily, please contact your local data protection authority for unresolved complaints.
Like most online services, we and our partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide and personalize the Service, analyse use, target advertisements and prevent fraud. You can disable cookies in your browser settings, but some parts of the Service may then not function properly.
In order to help ensure a secure and safe player experience, we are continuously developing and implementing administrative, technical and physical security measures to protect your data from unauthorized access or against loss, misuse or alteration.
We retain your data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you the Service. We will for example periodically de-identify unused game accounts and we regularly review and de-identify unnecessary data.
Note that if you ask us to remove your personal data, we will retain your data as necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
We do not knowingly collect or solicit personal data about or direct or target interest based advertising to anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to use our Services. If you are under 13, please do not send any data about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under the age of 13 may provide any personal data. If we learn that we have collected personal data about a child under age 13, we will delete that data as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any data from or about a child under the age of 13, please contact us.
Cookies are tiny text files that are stored on your computer, tablet or mobile phone when you visit a website. They mean that the website will remember you and how you've used the site every time you come back.
If you want to know more about cookies, head to aboutcookies.org
We use cookies to keep track of what you've bought from us and what you've done on the site. Cookies also mean you can use services such as tracking your order, checking your account or topping up.
Our cookies don't hold personal information such as your name or bank details - they simply let us find that information once you're logged in. We take looking after your details seriously – we're always monitoring and improving how we protect your personal information.
To have a successful browsing experience, you must have cookies enabled on your internet browser. The more popular ones are:
You can still see the website if you choose not to enable cookies. If cookies aren't enabled, your browsing experience will be limited to just browsing our site.
You can control how you use cookies in your browser. If you don't know what browser you're using, find out by:
If you'd like to find out how to stop websites using cookies to remember what sites you visit, choose your browser from the list. This will take you to the browser's respective page where you can manage your cookies and site data: