Listening to the general hubbub of commentators and contradictors of XR we consistently hear three complaints: we do not know how to tell stories this way, the technology isn’t good enough, and XR is not yet mainstream. The truth of the matter is that none of these present an obstacle to progress. In fact, if taken as a starting point from which to set out on a journey rather than an end point we wish to reach, they can be used to push XR into the next stage of its evolution. The good news is that we have guidance along the way: a roadmap, tried and tested by immersive theatre, that creators can follow. We have everything we need, so it’s time to set off.

Can we tell stories this way?

Let us begin with the presumption that we do not know how to use XR for storytelling. This fear is predicated on the idea that everything we know about creating fiction is suddenly useless. This is fundamentally not the case. It’s as if we saw this new media, spilt our tea all over our laps and in a sweaty flurry abandoned the lessons that we have learned from a lifetime of viewing art, reading novels, listening to the radio, and watching TV. We don’t have to forget what we know about fiction just because we are faced with a new way of delivering it.

Does the technology make the grade?

Another objection that often rears its head amidst the chatter is the chant that the technology is simply not good enough; so, when we talk about what’s possible in this ecology, we often talk about what will be possible two or three years from now. This preoccupation with the technology’s future is the real problem: people are afraid to take risks using current tools in case their work is made redundant by a new development (this is a genuine concern for studios who must carefully allocate their resources). However, if we throw our hat in the ring now, when XR is in its relative infancy, then we can affect the path of the technology as it matures into adulthood. Even if this does risk failure, failing today is better than planning to fail in two years’ time.

Is XR just too niche right now?

Finally, we reach what seems to be everyone’s main hang up: XR is not mainstream. My response to this is a frank, who cares? Sure, the sales of hardware and software are constantly disappointing, but what if we decide to live in a world in which ‘becoming mainstream’ is not a given? What if we live in a world in which we make work for the audience we have, not the audience we think we deserve? What if we took a balanced and thought out approach when making use of the technology that we have access to now? We would undoubtedly hear fewer horror stories about major layoffs from industrial pivoting or catastrophic studio losses.

There is a part of me that longs for that major crash. The equivalent of the dot com bubble burst. If this happened on Monday, then by Tuesday you’d find the artists, the students, the bedroom developers and the curious hobbyists sifting through the rubble. Commercial level equipment would be selling on eBay for peanuts. A torrent of content would appear overnight. Unpredictable creative forms and genres would begin to emerge, not unlike the lets-plays, unboxing or ASMR videos that came about as a result of the democratisation of video media made possible by YouTube; the work that resonates with people would rise to the top.

We need not wish for catastrophe to start enacting this form of mass content creation. Tools are available for people with transferable skills to start picking up a personal copy of Unity, and jumping on YouTube to start following VR tutorials. Already there stands a group of people who possess an extraordinary skillset suited to start working this way: immersive theatre makers. We can all go on this journey together and when we do, only we get to determine the destination.

Authored by Roderick D. Morgan, Director and Producer Trajectory Theatre