Sword Art Online is built around a relatively simple premise: a whole bunch of gamers try out an incredibly advanced and entirely immersive virtual reality headset, only to discover that the machine could actually kill them. Oculus co-founder and self-avowed Sword Art Online super fan Palmer Luckey seems to have been enraptured by this idea — not the incredibly advanced and entirely immersive virtual reality headset, but the machine that can kill people.
In a Nov. 6 blog post commemorating the in-universe release date of Sword Art Online’s eponymous and deadly game, Luckey claims to have created something akin to the series’ NerveGear. He says that he’s “halfway to making a true NerveGear.” The only issue is the “half” Luckey claims he’s perfected is just the part that can kill the player.
Oculus’ Take on SAO’s Killer VR
Luckey’s take on the headset isn’t quite the same as that of Sword Art Online creator Reki Kawahara. Where the headset in SAO’s anime, manga, light novels and video games kills its user by frying their brain with an incredibly powerful microwave emitter, Luckey reportedly took a slightly more analog approach to player-killing. As he puts it, “I used three of the explosive charge modules I usually use for a different project.”
That “different project” may have something to do with Luckey’s military-contracted defense technology company, Anduril Industries, which he founded after leaving Oculus in 2017. That means that, assuming Luckey’s blog post is sincere, any player unlucky enough to “die in the game,” as it were, would “die in real life” by taking three military-grade explosive charges straight to the head.
It’s not entirely clear whether or not Luckey is joking. He claims to have built the machine as a tribute to a series that changed his life. According to Luckey, Sword Art Online was a major boon for Oculus in its pre-Facebook days. He says, “The popularity of [Sword Art Online] led to massive otaku enthusiasm for Oculus, especially in Japan, which quickly became our 2nd largest market.”
Luckey’s supposed player-killing headset remains a work in progress and seemingly not intended for public use. It’s also never been used as, in Luckey’s words, “I have not worked up the balls to actually use it myself.” Luckey further explained the VR’s current status, saying, “At this point, it is just a piece of office art, a thought-provoking reminder of unexplored avenues in game design. It is also, as far as I know, the first non-fiction example of a VR device that can actually kill the user. It won’t be the last.”
Source: The Blog of Palmer Luckey
