“Ascend the Wall”, a virtual reality trip up the Wall, debuts at GoT exhibit
The press release sent out for this year’s Game of Thrones: The Exhibition promised a new interactive exhibit. It didn’t give any details to what exactly it would entail, however. But now that the exhibit has opened in NYC, we’ve received some first hand reports and it is actually pretty cool.
The interactive exhibit is called “Ascend the Wall” and it is a virtual reality trip up the Wall’s winch elevator, made possible by the VR headset, Oculus Rift. Gizmodo has a good report of what the experience is like:
The overall experience is super immersive, even if there’s not a lot you can really do. I stepped into a cage-shaped booth and strapped on the original Oculus Rift 720p development kit—rather than the new 1080p prototype. An exhibit staffer set a pair of over ear headphones on my head, and almost immediately I was transported to the icy northern border of the seven kingdoms. The gate to the lift carriage slammed shut and a rickety sounding winch started hauling me to the top of the fortification, as howling winds whizzed by.
As you can see in the GIF above, it’s really easy to get lost in this particular VR experience: I was swaying back and forth trying to keep my balance because in virtual reality, I could practically feel the creaky lift swaying back and forth. At several points during the roughly two-minute ride, I couldn’t help but reach out and grab the bars of the cage for security. You can look around in every direction, and as the lift gets further and further off the ground, my fear of heights kicked in, and I had to stop looking down. It felt that real.
When you get to the top of the lift you hear the three horns, which signify that White Walkers are coming. The winch starts to go in reverse, and you go down a lot faster than you came up, and I was suddenly afraid that despite the urgency, we were going too fast, and that the winch would lose its hold and send me plummeting to my death. A nightmare come true.
It was intense.
Business Insider also has a report about the whole thing. And, of course, be sure to check out the latest Game of Owns podcast, where Micah recounts his experience “Ascending the Wall”.
Winter Is Coming: This sounds so cool. I wish I lived close enough to one of these cities to be able to try this out. For now I will have to experience it vicariously through these reports and animated GIFs. Has any one here had a chance to do this? Please share your experience in the comments!
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