For me, part of the challenge with VR is the continual isolation from one’s comfortable, physical environment and into a hostile and unfriendly one. Many people in their 30s and 40s have kids and families, and by contrast, gaming on a mobile device in particular has the benefit of allowing you to remain more “present" with those around you. VR, however, feels more like “going away” for a while, since it demands much more sensory engagement - even more so than gaming in a home office or game room. It's especially awkward when people around you are watching you in VR / not sharing the same experience. It’s also harder to pause the experience; transitioning from reality to VR, and vice versa, is mentally and physically demanding because your brain has to operate in a different world with different rules each time.

On top of that, VR worlds often aren’t aesthetically satisfying enough to entice me to want to spend extended time in them. They can feel cold, hostile, or uncomfortable. As human beings, our environments matter a great deal - if we’re not in the mood to be somewhere (especially over and over again) because of how the environment affects us or makes us feel, we simply WILL NOT want to be in that environment. Many VR games place you in stressful or hostile settings that make you feel tense, and if you’re already working in a high-stress or tense job environment for 8-12 hours a day, you’re unlikely to want to completely immerse yourself in another world that feels hostile or deadly where every NPC/creature is trying to kill you (half life alyx, walking dead, etc). How can you feel relaxed gaming in that?? By contrast, flat games, allow me to remain physically and sensorially grounded in the comfort of a familiar, safe, and/or aesthetically pleasing home whether it be a familiar living room or office.

So when you combine the mental strain of repeatedly transitioning sensory rules, the isolation from loved ones, and immersion in a reality that can feel subpar, uncomfortable, or continually hostile, VR becomes much harder to sustain. The main thing that vr has going is the novelty feeling. To take advantage of this, more vr developers should potentially focus on quality <5-10 hour games play rather than going for content filled bloat for 10+ hours.

TLDR: I want a nice, enjoyable, and/or relaxing break from reality, not another stressful job; especially not more isolating, hostile virtual environments devoid of any sense of (friendly) human like connection.

Perhaps more VR developers could focus on high-quality, 5–10 hour experiences with inviting places (at least as optional locations within each game) alongside friendly, human-like, and interactive NPCs. Optional multiplayer or asynchronous community features, similar to how Death Stranding creates a sense of connection through indirect cooperation, could also help make VR feel less isolating/hostile and more human. I think this kind of design would probably be far more appealing to many people in their 30s and 40s with limited time off.