BattleTechies test new-style VR theme park in California

Virtual World Entertainment (VWE), creator of the virtual reality theme ride BattleTech, recently started expanding its horizons beyond shoot ‘em ups and opened Virtual World, the first in a planned worldwide chain of VR emporiums centered around the idea of creating stories and fantasy settings for virtual reality rides.

The first two rides featured at Virtual World’s Walnut Creek, CA, storefront site — BattleTech and Red Planet — are action-driven and relatively content free, as one might expect from this genre. But the company has created a complex fantasy environment for Virtual World — a kind of a stage set that extends beyond the boundaries of the rides themselves — that it hopes will provide a launching point for less clichéd styles of VR-based entertainment.

ENVIRONMENT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

Virtual World is the creation of entertainment entrepreneurs Andrew Messing and Tim Disney, a great-nephew of Walt Disney, who acquired the majority ownership of VWE last year. Messing and Disney, CEO and chairman, respectively, paid an estimated $20 million for the company with the idea of expanding VWE’s successful BattleTech sites into multiplex centers that would appeal to a broader audience.

Although still early in the game — Virtual World opened in July — the company’s plan to create family theme parks built around VR appears to be on track. While most VR attractions draw a predominately male audience, VWE wanted to make Virtual World somewhere “where women would want to go too,” says Messing. “At BattleTech couples would go and get into arguments because he would want to go [play] and she wouldn’t.” Roughly 92 percent of the players at BattleTech, which features a dark, war-like environment, are male. At Virtual World, 40 to 50 percent of attendees are women, according to Messing.

So far the site is “successful beyond our dreams,” he says. More than 1,200 tickets were sold on opening day and the sales continue to be solid, according to Messing.

Building a mythology. For Disney and Messing, the key to creating a broader appeal for location-based entertainment was to develop an innovative story and fantasy setting around VWE’s existing software. To that end, the company is rumored to have spent more than $6 million in research and development to select and create the setting for Virtual World.

As the fantasy goes, Virtual World is home to the Virtual Geographic League, a secret society founded by Alexander Graham Bell and Nikola Tesla in 1895 to explore unimagined worlds. In 1990, the League board voted to open it to the public in order to raise funds for future explorations. Messing describes Virtual World as “Jules Verne meets Blade Runner.”

A league of their own. The history of the League surrounds participants in the Victorian era-style lobby. While waiting for a ride to begin or relaxing after the experience, attendees can peruse artifacts and photos on display. “We don’t force the history on anybody, but we have a complex history there for those that want to explore it,” says Messing.

The lobby area includes a bar serving “smart drinks” (don’t ask) and calzones, and a gift shop selling $250 leather jackets, souvenir pins and history books on the League. Tickets range in price between $7 and $9, depending on which day you attend the park.

The lobby is designed for comfort, which is a good thing considering on its opening week the wait was often between one and two hours.

The VR experience itself, which lasts about half an hour, includes an eight-minute introductory video starring Judge Reinhold and Joan Severance, 10 minutes of game playing and a review of the game. A blow-by-blow account of the game is printed out for players to take with them.

FLYING AND SHOOTING STILL AT THE CORE

There are two different rides to choose from at Virtual World: BattleTech, which is a war game in which players pilot a 30-foot robot-like machine over the dangerous terrain of a virtual planet and shoot it out with other players, and Red Planet, a racing game in which players pilot hovercraft-like vehicles over the surface of Mars.

Each ride can hold eight players at a time. In both games, players control the action from an encapsulated pod that has more than 100 controls (two are necessary for basic play), stereo speakers, an intercom to talk to other players and a high-resolution screen for displaying the action.

The singles bar of the future? Interestingly enough, the games are set up so that by the time new players are just able to grok how to play the game, their first experience is over. Thus, the temptation for these players to get back in line is great. VWE claims that some customers have played BattleTech more than 2,000 times.

BattleTech players also often hang out after games to talk about the experience even though the sites don’t provide a seating area. At the new Virtual World site — complete with seating areas — Messing envisions a social scene developing. “This could be the singles bar of the future,” he says. “It is an interactive experience where you play against seven other people. By the time you come out of the game to watch the recap, you have this kind of electronic bonding.”

SHOOT ‘EM UP TODAY, ‘WHIMSY’ TOMORROW?

According to Messing, the launch of Virtual World is just the first part of a long-term plan to fundamentally change the way VWE creates location-based entertainment content.

He says VWE plans to move away from developing adrenaline-pumping shoot ‘em up and racing action games in favor of more “whimsical” fare. The company is developing an underwater exploration adventure, which might allow players to begin a game where their last game left off, as well as a handful of other projects that are in the design phase.

Wide appeal. Among these is a “date” game, which Messing says is “very whimsical.” It may not attract the repeat play of BattleTech, but he believes it will be fun to play. “It’s really important to us as a company to develop software that appeals to many people,” says Messing. The company plans to release at least one new software package a year.

VWE’s plans to entertain fun seekers extends well beyond the suburbs of northern California. According to Messing, the company is waiting for real-estate deals to go through to open up seven more Virtual World sites. Centers in San Diego and Hong Kong will probably open by year’s end, with others in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Toronto and Tel Aviv opening by fall 1994.

BattleTech goes to the movies? In addition, you can expect to see VWE’s content move from VR multiplexes to print and film. The company is committed to reversing the trend of using movie properties as the basis for VR experiences and video games.

Although he won’t disclose any details, Messing says VWE is very close to closing a movie deal — with an unnamed film company, though certainly Buena Vista comes to mind — based on the Virtual Geographic League story. The company is also in discussions with “two of the largest U.S. comic book distributors,” he says, who are interested in bringing the story of the League to comic book fans.

At this point, VWE’s plans are based on an unproven concept of developing detailed storylines and characters for VR. It will be interesting to watch how far the company is willing to pursue this vision beyond its extremely popular and profitable development VR war games. In addition, it will be interesting to see whether the broadened concept will continue to attract the repeat business that VWE has witnessed with BattleTech.

Amy Johns