I can't speak to the use-case for this amount of time, but as someone who has used it plenty I can attest to pretty much everything the author has stated. The experiences that have blown me away the most have ironically been the ones that are the most "boring", or like essentially being a close analogue to the real world. When I tried online poker in VR, it was mind-blowing. It wasn't like reality... it was objectively better.
Whenever I have friends over, the hands take some time, the game can be slow and boring, etc. In VR, we're in an amazing scene, folks not in the hand can play all sorts of games in parallel, the game is much more dynamic since you have an expert dealer, etc. It made me realize that if I did have 5 people over in my house, I'd rather us all plug into the VR environment than playing in real life.
Oh come on, im not an experienced poker player but even i know that reading the facial expression and body language of your opponent is a core element of the actual game.
Facial expressions and body language is not a core part of modern poker. Many pros play online.
Online poker among friends gained a lot of popularity during Covid. With the computer dealing, its much easier to play for 1-2 hours. Given our stage in life, we can play once a week online instead of once or twice a year in person.
But since PokerStars VR is only with fake money, most are there just to have fun, at least in the lower stakes tables, so people make (and call) a lot of silly bets.
Whenever I have friends over, the hands take some time, the game can be slow and boring, etc. In VR, we're in an amazing scene, folks not in the hand can play all sorts of games in parallel, the game is much more dynamic since you have an expert dealer, etc. It made me realize that if I did have 5 people over in my house, I'd rather us all plug into the VR environment than playing in real life.