An absolutely serious study of broad types of VR games.

[Ganerumo]

So let's have a quick look at what's the most done with VR games, in an absolutely scientific way.

The Eyeful
Perhaps one of the most frequently criticized types of VR titles, the eyeful is a game which doesn't actually have any "game" in it. They're less about doing things and more about sitting in an environment of variable quality and look at things happen. The closest equivalent to this would be the sheer amount of 3D films which have come out after AVATAR which were focused primarily on throwing things at the screen to try and impress viewers with the effect. As a result of this, an immediate use for this category of games is for folks wishing to set up a VR business and who have to vary their library and offer less brutal experiences which are less likely to cause discomfort.

Pros
Eyeful games can often be rather great looking, and they can constitute an excellent starting point for newcomers. The lack of interactivity, and very often the static nature of the play space, means that discomfort is highly unlikely, unless of course the point of the experience is to cause discomfort. They are an excellent way to give a quick and simple sense of scale and introduce first time users to the fact VR can be surprisingly effective at reproducing such things as vertigo.

Cons
The pricetag is of course the most obvious problem of this type of VR game. It's difficult to justify any amount of money spent in any given title because the lack of interactivity inherently means the experience can only truly be appreciated once or twice, and an experience which is free will likely suffer a significant drop in quality as a result of its cheapness.

The Pop-up Book
Pop-ups offer more interactivity than Eyefuls, but they are still characterized by their relatively slow pace and limited scope. They're about telling a story, and they utilize VR to tell that story with extra bells and whistles. These games are very similar in many aspects to walking simulators, but are less about walking around a space and more about thrown in it with a bunch of objects that can be moved around and investigated. They are often about solving a series of small puzzles and as such are often seen as a patchwork of small, condensed experiences.

Pros
Pop-ups are calm and cozy, meaning they're ideal for VR users who easily become uncomfortable when more intense action occurs. The story can often be pretty good, and the rapidfire nature of the puzzles and various experiences can be rather entertaining.

Cons
Since they are primarily narrative-driven, these games often offer relatively little to do in terms of more classic gameplay; they are first and foremost interactive toyboxes more than anything.

The Generic
If I say "VR wave shooter with modern guns", your first answer is likely going to be "which one ?". The Generic is a game that doesn't try to set itself apart: they're all the same. You sit down in a small space, you have one, sometimes two guns, and you have a bunch of enemies thrown at you over and over again.

A majority of generic games are designed with store-bought assets, with no genuine attempt to hide this fact. As a result, they are as boring to look at as they are to play. While on occasion a game may come out with something extra special about them, such as actually having properly done models or being in a different theme than a post apocalyptic zombie invasion with AR-15s and Deagles, they are for the most part very difficult to distinguish from each other.

Pros
At its core, the gameplay of a well designed generic game can be fun. In some cases, they can be surprisingly intense and have some legitimately strong moments, when the budget is high enough to warrant such things. They also happen to often be rather cheap.

Cons
They're all the goddamn same. When you've played one, you've essentially played them all, with very little novelty to it - and in the case of Steam, they are in such high numbers that it can be very tough to get around them.

The Gutspinner
Most VR games try their best to offer a comfortable experience for most. This means the most common type of locomotion is teleportation. There are, however, some games that put bluntly do not really give a shit. These games are designed for the exact purpose of absolutely, and thoroughly, twisting your insides by putting you in the most uncomfortable and intense situations they can. They can range from anything to arcade titles about shooting people to deep story-based adventures about exploration and discovery.

Pros
Gutspinners can be legitimately fun when they are designed properly. Games about climbing, being a ninja, parkour, and other such things can be genuinely fun and even challenging, and they are also typically rather unique as they are not afraid to venture in more extreme paths design-wise. Most racing or vehicular titles also happen to fit in that category.

Cons
Well, they're puke-inducing. Only the strongest VR legs can sustain the wrenching atrocity that can be a gutspinner. It also happens that a lot of games can fit in that category unwillingly, by simply being badly designed.