back to article Feel Luckey, punk? Oculus designer builds VR murder headset

Palmer Luckey, originator of the device that evolved into the cornerstone of Mark Zuckerberg's crumbling metaverse empire, has developed a new headset with a twist: It can kill gamers in real life when they die in VR.  Lest the idea of a billionaire being in possession of a murder headset concern you, Luckey said it's still …

  1. EarthDog

    A boon for the death penalty

    Primitive nations with a death penalty would see this as a win.

    1. Snake Silver badge
      Terminator

      Re: A boon for the death penalty

      I'm *sure* there is a Life Imitates Art reference for this, but right now I can't remember one.

      Play a game, die in real life? For some people...it'll be an improvement >:p

      1. Sgt_Oddball

        Re: A boon for the death penalty

        There's a while trove of stuff like this mentioned in Japanese/Korean modern culture (web/light novels, manga etc), so really he's just looking to the far East for ideas.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: A boon for the death penalty

          I can't remember how it went in the book, or when the book was first published, but the "art" bit is currently being broadcast as The Peripteral by William Gibson. (Now that I think if it, it might be quite recent, the book that is)

    2. Paul 195

      Re: A boon for the death penalty

      By "primitive nations with a death penalty", do you mean the United States?

  2. tfewster
    Joke

    Trial by combat

    If you win, then the gods must be on your side and so you're deemed to be innocent?

    1. I could be a dog really

      Re: Trial by combat

      Well according to history lessons from school, which I only vaguely recall from maaany years ago, we used to try witches with a ducking stool. If they didn't drown they must be a witch, so got burned at the stake (IIRC). If they did drown, oh, perhaps they weren't a witch after all.

      1. Potemkine! Silver badge

        Re: Trial by combat

        I think the rule is that if a suspect weighs the same as a duck, she's made of wood , therefore is a witch.

        == Bring us Dabbsy back! ==

  3. Andy Non
    Trollface

    In the interests of quality control

    I trust the inventor will be the first to test it?

    1. 桜沢墨

      Re: In the interests of quality control

      He says in his blog post that he "doesn't have the balls to test it"

      1. DryBones

        Re: In the interests of quality control

        Anybody that says this is a good idea has no actual memory of how often games crash / glitch, get hacked, network connections go bad, bathroom runs, etc.

        I'd challenge the best player to survive a day in this. It does not matter your skill when the premise that the 'die in the game, die in real life' begins from is 'there are no errors in coding and no interruptions of service'.

  4. Nelbert Noggins

    How long before the US DoD starts supplying its current ‘friends’ military hardware which requires a new improved headset operators must use?

    Got to have a plan for the day they unfriend them.

  5. TheRealRoland
    WTF?

    He seems to be in a good head space.

  6. Howard Sway Silver badge

    The metaverse - it's literally mind-blowing!

    Worry #1 is that he devised this idea.

    Worry #2 is that having done so, he thought it would be fun to tell the rest of the world about it.

    I mean, thanks dude for giving the world the impression that tech is full of creepy psychopaths. On the other hand, the argument that the huge capital gains from big tech acquisitions should be taxed more heavily has just got a lot easier.

    1. 桜沢墨

      Re: The metaverse - it's literally mind-blowing!

      To be fair the high ups in the tech world ARE a bunch of creepy psychopaths. A lot of them have been willing to crush the right to privacy to improve business. As for this man, he's just playing a joke.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That idot is a national embarassment

    Just when you thought he had bottomed out cruising along with the other fake "security company" scumbag, this clickbait weeb edgelord decided to jump back in the lime light to show us however much you hated him before, he's still going to find ways to amaze you.

    This idiot's staggering ineptitude has already caused enough dark turns for the world. He personally cock blocked the AR/VR resurgence from happening by hogging the attention from the companies like HTC that actually produced gear that worked as advertised. He then sold the spotlight to the biggest A-holes on the internet, nearly handing control of the next generation of computing to Facebook, who thankfully bought the wrong company if they wanted to succeed(one of the many reasons why they didn't).

    Why all the venom? Besides justifiable anger at what a odious POS this guy is, he seems hell bent on making the world worse than Orewell, Kafka, and Huxley combined. The stink of that is sticking to the industry he left, and now he has given one more reason for people to go full 5-G is evil crazy about a basic computing technology. Worse it what it says about him as a person. A non-sociopathic fan might have just made a cosplay replica of the shows gear that people would actually wear and use without potentially killing anyone. It's like someone showing off their razor-dick collection because they are such huge fans of the movie Seven. The Half-Life team sold FAKE headcrabs as hats, they didn't start trying to breed real ones.

    What this project says about the man is that the police should start checking his property with a cadaver dog and looking for missing sex workers.

    1. that one in the corner Silver badge

      Re: That idot is a national embarassment

      > hell bent on making the world worse than Orewell, Kafka, and Huxley combined

      So, another one who didn't realise those authors were writing warnings, not instruction manuals?

    2. 桜沢墨

      Re: That idot is a national embarassment

      I don't know about the man's VR business ventures, but calling them a 'dark turn for the world' is very silly. VR not taking off isn't a disaster. In fact, we've been warned by facebook that it's probably better it doesn't take off. If it got more popular, then the metaverse might actually work, throwing us further into our tech dystopia. Making a vr headset that kills you, like in SAO, will NOT throw us further in. It's clearly a joke, and if it actually does get produced and sold (we're in the realm of fiction now), assuming that the headset is even real, then who's fault is it if you actually buy it and use it.

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: That idot is a national embarassment

        "if it actually does get produced and sold"

        It will not. No government in the civilized world (whatever THAT means!) will allow it. Can you imagine the uproar the first time a kid used it, with the obvious result? And you know they would, in droves.

        But I don't have a drove! —B. Bunny, Esq.

  8. TiredNConfused80

    An area of gaming that has not been ecploelred

    Hmm wonder why!?

  9. fg_swe Bronze badge

    IT Nutters Inc ?

    A combination of mindless brutality combined with dysfunctional physics.

    This guy should join Hans Reiser at Club Fed.

  10. pip25
    FAIL

    What an idiot

    See title.

    The fact that he spent time and money on this speaks volumes about him as a person.

  11. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
    Trollface

    "the charges fire, instantly destroying the brain of the user."

    Yeah... if someone is willingly using Meta's VR, it is a little too late for them to worry about brain damage, frag charges or no frag charges.

  12. jake Silver badge

    Hello.

    You have been trolled.

    Hopes this helps, have a nice day :-)

  13. Diogenes

    New goldrush ?

    Lots of patents that take prior art and say "on a headset" .Goodness this has already been done "on a a phone" (Israelis rigged a handset to blow a bombmakers head off)

  14. Pangasinan Philippines

    Just like the movie

    he opted for three explosive charge modules that he cryptically said he "usually use[s] for another project." Those charges are tied to narrow-band photosensors that can detect when the headset's display flashes red at a certain frequency "making game-over integration on the part of the developer very easy," Luckey said.

    When the right game over screen appears, "the charges fire, instantly destroying the brain of the user."

    No country for old men. Javier Bardem not needed here.

  15. Pangasinan Philippines

    UP or DOWN?

    with the only escape being to reach the 100th floor of the game's primary dungeon.

    from ground level

    is that looking up or down?

    1. 桜沢墨

      Re: UP or DOWN?

      looking up. Aincrad is a castle floating in the sky. The 100th floor is the highest one.

  16. Paul 195
    WTF?

    Play the game

    He seems nice.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Play the game

      The only way to win is not to play the game :-)

  17. Jedit Silver badge
    Facepalm

    One year

    That's all it took to get from the tweet about the Torment Nexus to someone actually doing it.

  18. MJI Silver badge

    My lot are safe

    Their collection includes HTC Vive, Steam VR, and PSVR.

    No Oculus head blower uppers.

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