Place Your Bets: ‘PokerVR’ Introduces New Avatars, Gifts, and More
Human players are the heart of any good poker game. That’s why Poker VR is such a treat: it delivers the subtlety and nuance poker players expect from other legitimate poker players. Originally launched on Oculus Go and Gear VR last year, then on Rift this past July, poker pros and casual fans alike have been enjoying the game’s cross-platform multiplayer and authentic card play for months. With the newly released Mutant Update, developer Mega Particle is introducing refinements to the all-important tournament system, as well as added new avatars, player gifts, and more.
To get a better sense of what’s new in Poker VR, we talked with Founder and CEO of Mega Particle Hamza Sidiqqui.
Hamza Sidiqqui: Poker VR on Rift had a few hiccups in the beginning, but it has been received quite well over all. Many daily users spend over an hour in the game, while Poker VR tournaments are seeing more and more players consistently. We’ve also heard players are really getting into the new interactions—the freedom that Touch controllers gives to emulate real hands is amazing.
Our most active users really love the new tournament formats and how they’re becoming genuinely competitive. We have seen a lot of users make more VR friends due to Oculus Go’s popularity and Poker VR being fully cross platform. We’ve also heard positive feedback regarding the avatars. We really went for making the most expressive avatars in a commercially available product and, to be honest, we weren’t sure about how players would receive them, but it turns out most users love them.
HS: This update is dubbed the Mutant Update. The original idea came from the show BoJack Horseman. BoJack Horseman has done an amazing job delivering a serious yet fun narrative with humanoid characters that have animal facial features. We thought we’d like to look like a tiger (or a horse) instead of plain old us, so that was that. I think VR needs to represent more of the impossible than just replicate reality—unrealistic ways of expressing yourself seemed like a fun way to try. If everything goes well, you can expect to have more avatars introduced on a regular basis.
What new social events can players look forward to with this new update?
HS: As this update goes live, we have a special event happening for two days straight in all Poker VR casinos. The reality of the Mega Particle universe is changing with this update and there is a strange UFO that comes into the casino and changes things. I don’t want to spoil too much—play Poker VR anytime on October 17-18 to see for yourself.
HS: Since everything on the table is now interactable, we’ve included five new gifts you can gift to yourself or to others. There is a bubble gun that shoots bubbles, a cigar to smoke with class, a party horn to annoy players, and more. More gifts are on the way, too.
HS: Back in the old days, Poker VR users had to manually switch poker tables as players on their table got eliminated. As you can imagine, this created some confusion. Our discord community was also recommending changes that would make tournaments more transparent and seamless.
Poker VR now has complete auto table balancing. As a user, you just enter the tournament by pressing a single button and the system takes care of assigning you a seat and changing your seat based on how the tournament progresses. We have been fine-tuning this algorithm over the last couple of months with real data. There is now an active notification system that tells you about major play changes like blind level increase and there is an active info center in the middle of the casino that gives you real-time information about the tournament, like your current rank, players left, and average pot size.
HS: Not really an epic win, but certainly a running joke inside the company. The first time Phil Hellmuth (14-time WSOP Champion) played Poker VR he introduced himself to everyone at the table. A player from Ireland at the table only understood Phil was with Me and Marco (my cofounder) at the time. He talked about the game’s bugs and didn’t realize he was playing with the best poker player alive.
HS: This update is letting us run the very first Poker VR championship! This *mega tournament features $5000 in prizes and will be attended by Phil Hellmuth. We have been refining how our tournaments run to make sure the Poker VR championship goes smoothly. Players taking part in the Poker VR championship qualified for positions over two months of qualifier tournaments. This really represents the best of the best in poker.
HS: Poker VR has made us learn a lot about VR and Social VR. Can’t really say too much at this point, but over the next six months, the Mega Particle universe will expand, and Poker VR will keep getting better.
Ready to place your bets? Take a seat in Poker VR today on Rift, Oculus Go, and Gear VR, and get playing.
— The Oculus Team
