Can virtual reality move beyond immersive experiences to tell stories?

Game designer Jack de Quidt asks Oculus whether its VR headset - and Touch controllers - will really deliver new narrative experiences

The very first thing I saw in virtual reality was Wevr's theBlu demo, back in the early days of the HTC Vive headset. It's the thing a lot of people mention when they're asked about the most compelling VR experiences, and with good reason: the demo transports you to the helm of a sunken ship, the whole ocean above your head; it allows you to take in the beauty of the scene for a few minutes before, out of the depths, a vast blue whale slowly emerges, dwarfing you.

I took the headset off and walked away across the busy floor of the game conference, but I could still feel the water around me. I told my friends. They joined the long queues. They told their friends. And that was the entire story that was told: there is a whale and it is beautiful. Since then, I've flown spaceships and climbed buildings and repaired robots in VR. I've shot a variety of floating objects. I've sat cross-legged in the middle of Venice's Piazza San Marco and looked down on the people in the flooded square.