Users get to see Avonlea through the eyes of their own version of an Anne Shirley avatar.
A new VR technology-based Anne of Green Gables experience as described in the New Yorker has been resurrected after years of delay, allowing users to experience Avonlea, Prince Edward Island through the eyes of a red-headed avatar.
The experience doesn’t turn the user into Anne Shirley, but their own version of the character instead.
The VR technology experience provides the user with the option to create their own version of the Anne of Green Gables orphan. There are four possible skin tones from which to choose, though the red hair is mandatory. Throughout the thirty minutes of the virtual reality experience, the hair is parted in the middle and is worn in the classic two braids for which the character is known.
Users wear a headset that shares the visual and auditory experience, and sensors are placed on the hands and feet to help enhance the feeling of reality. The entire thing happens within a room with a metal railing that restrains the user from walking out of bounds. Staff members are also present to keep the user from accidentally falling over the railing.
The VR technology experience starts with a carriage ride down the main road through Avonlea.
The project was under development a few years ago by EA Games but was put on hold in 2017 when the virtual reality experience proved too intense for a real-life person due to tech limitations at the time. The sensation the user underwent back at that time was primarily associated with vertigo, loss of balance, dizziness and nausea.
“Our development team was so occupied with what we could achieve in this exciting new medium,” said Frank Gibeau, EA Games company president at the time while addressing investors, “that we didn’t stop to think if we should.” He went on to add that “Perhaps accidentally getting your best bosom friend drunk on Marilla’s home-made wine, being innocently doted upon by quiet old Matthew, and getting lost in the dreamy eyes of that incorrigible Gilbert Blythe are sensations better left to the imagination.”
That said, it appears that the VR technology improvements since that time have improved enough that the Anne of Green Gables experience has been brought back to life, including interactions with Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, Diana Barry, and Gilbert Blythe.
