Love virtual reality? Whether you want to learn from developers, read up on the latest trends, or check out new games and releases, there’s a blog for you. Here’s some of the best virtual reality blogs around in mostly alphabetical order.
Road to VR
THE VR. Blog
This is pretty often considered the cream of the VR blog crop. It’s a bit more of a fully developed website, but who’s complaining? They bill themselves as the world’s largest independent news publication dedicated to consumer VR. Their repertoire includes podcasts, videos, daily roundups, and articles. Topics cover both industry developments and fun viral tidbits. There’s even gameplay videos. Whatever your itch, Road to VR is the first place to try scratching it.
Augmentl
Intellectual Editorials
Augmental makes their readers happy with their “No advertising. Non profit. No noise,” attitude. The site combines original content with a hand-picked news feed by industry insiders. They also try to focus only important and meaningful updates, but there’s still feature plenty of fun content to go around. Topics span from reviews to news to opinions and editorials, so there’s plenty to love. Augmentl is neither too scientific nor too casual but rather inhabits a nice journalistic space between the two.
DNA News
Real-World Usages
DNA or the “Digital Out-of-Home Interactive Entertainment Association” is another solid and professional source for fans. For those working in the field or looking to integrate VR technology into their business, DNA news covers use cases and more specific topics. From amusement parks to coffee shops, virtual reality is making its way into the real world, and that’s what businesses want to read about. DNA posts articles on real world applications as well as business purchases and developments. This means readers can stay in the loop and get inspired at the same time. Overall, it’s a fun but distinctly realistic look at the how VR technology is slowly being integrated into consumers’ lives.
Doc-Ok
A Developer’s Perspective
Here, readers can get developers’ perspectives on the changing VR landscape. Much more technical and in-depth than generalist blogs, this should satisfy those who love the science behind the tech. They describe today’s common tools. To a lesser extent, there are topical news updates often relating specifically to companies and developers. This is a good starting point for those who want to know what developers are thinking.
MTBS3D
Personable and Long-Form
If you want respectable, MTBS3D (Meant To Be Seen 3D) is a great place to start. They aren’t just VR enthusiasts, but activists. The world’s first stereoscopic* 3D certification and advocacy group has six major goals, the first being to educate consumers and developers. Posts aren’t exactly constant, but there’s a lot of existent content already on the site. Long interviews with developers and experts don’t stop at news and releases but include personal stories and impressions. There’s even a MTBS Members Blog section. MTBS does an interesting job combining business level knowledge and thoughts with a personable community feeling.
*Stereography is about creating the illusion of depth in a 2D medium.
Super Reality
Up Close and Personal
This smaller-sized blog has a much more personal feel than the larger sites. They tend to have deeper looks into specific topics and events, especially conferences. Reports on major expos and summits could greatly help those who simply can’t get out there themselves, and editorials offer some interesting opinions on new developments.
Upload VR
Looks like Buzzfeed
If you take your VR with a heavy dose of popular names and viral articles, Upload VR is full of them. Big and trendy, the site talks hardware and news but also “experiences,” which look at games, both existent and upcoming in a more hands-on and in-depth way than just specs. Those looking for hard facts and developments may not find too much here, but Upload VR is good for an upbeat and accessible look at the industry.
Virtual Reality Reviewer
All the Reviews
Love VR games? Trailers? Reviews? Software? Hardware? It’s all here. The focus is, as the name implies, reviews. Whether it’s a game, demo, or tool, they’ve broken it down into pros, cons, and easy-to-skim star ratings. And they’re not afraid to be tough, either. They also have a 20 Questions series where they ask industry developers and personalities 20 questions. There’s not too much personality or color across the site, but there’s a whole lot of information.
VR Bites
News, Reviews, and Hardware
Bites is a major buffet of news, reviews, and gampeplay. Their stories tend to be a bit different from the usual daily updates that go through all the other VR new sources. They also realize that cameras, controllers, and headsets are important to both industry insiders and outsiders. The VR sphere isn’t just cool software and machine learning technology but also solid hardware. To this end, VR Bites goes into incredible detail on their hardware reviews which should prove valuable for gamers and developers alike.
VR Focus
Tip, Tricks, and Brand-Love
This place is rife with reviews, insights, and up-to-date news developments. There’s also occasional “tips and tricks” including game cheats and real world money savers. Their previews and focus on games and technology for all the major systems are particularly noteworthy. Focus also divides content up by major developers, most importantly Rift, Vive, Playstation, Cardboard, and Samsung. This isn’t done just to help fanboys and girls, but to hook readers up with the right information. Google fans will find platform-specific comparison guides and development kits; Vive fans will find relevant gameplay and news; everyone wins!
Don’t forget, developers also often have blogs of their own! Check Unity, Occulus, Unreal, Nvidia, and other industry favorites for more options.
image credit: re:publica
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