Review-UploadVR E3 Party
What can I say about the UploadVR party? Well not only was it the E3 party VR needed but also deserved. I have been attending E3 since 2011 and in 2013 I had my first experience with Rift DK 1. That seems like forever and a day looking at how important VR was to E3 2016.
As VR grew in the past few years, so has UploadVR. UploadVR has helped create an awareness of VR in the San Francisco Bay Area and is now helping to evangelize globally.
This real care about the growth of VR was very present at the party. Though they had Morgan Page as the musical headliner, this party was first and foremost about spreading the importance of Virtual Reality.
Before the main festivities of the party started the UploadVR founders got on stage for a moment of silence for the recent Orlando tragedy. This followed up by them saying that ticket sales of the event would be going to help that cause.
This in reality is a reflection of how I view the UploadVR E3 party. Yes VR is now the hot girl at the dance that everyone wants to talk to. That does not mean she does not also have a great personality and still aware of her Kickstarter roots. For a party sponsored by Nokia and Hulu that represented the hottest thing, there was still an indie charm that felt real.
My favorite example of this was UploadVR Co-founder & EIC Will Mason legitimately coming across awestruck when introducing Co-creator of the Myst franchise, Rand Miller.
Miller seemed to be really enjoying himself while also spreading the word about his new game Obduction. Obduction, which garnered several E3 Best Of Show nominations was available to be played in VR at the party. This was a perfect opportunity to showcase the game to people that may have missed it on the floor and showcased why this party was different than your general free drinks and swag E3 event.
In fact several demos were available to play including one of my favorite VR games, Time Machine VR. This was also a great opportunity to showcase something that may have flew under the radar for people that were bombarded by all the E3 VR announcements.
Of course what is a party without the party aspect and UploadVR delivered. A variable who's who of the industry attended and one minute I found myself discussing 360° filmmaking with the award winning filmmaker Ando Shah to discussing Space VR with Ryan Holmes.
On the music side, the event was headlined by Morgan Page but also featured the first ever live in real world venue use of The Wave VR. Bay Area DJ Grimecraft put on a fantastic performance using HTC Vive. This is yet another example of why the VR was the most important aspect of this party.
To be honest I really wanted to spend my entire evening at the UploadVR party but I had to head out to catch up with some old friends old school VIP style at the Twitch Event.
The only thing left to say is that I truly loved every minute I was at the UploadVR E3 party and told people about it at the next event I went to. I do hope that CatsAndVR.com will be around to be able to attend another UploadVR E3 party in the future. Nothing but respect for an excellent E3 event put on by an excellent collective that made sure to show that VR is not a gimmick and worth every minute of celebration.
