Over the past fifty years, developers have endlessly striven to enhance the realism and immersitivty of digital gaming; the industry's collective achievements to that end are one of the best displays of the sparks that fly when technology and culture magically come together.

In today's world where players pass commercial driver's license exams by practicing on Euro Truck Simulator 2, even the most old-fashioned of laymen are forced to at least acknowledge the brilliance and verisimilitude of our electronic fakes.

With the Next Big Thing to hit gaming - Virtual Reality - now knocking at our door, some hopefuls are going as far as to say humanity's quest to recreate the real is finally nearing its end, even if expert opinions are quite a bit more divided.

While it is dubious that the advent of VR will instantly unleash a hellfire of Cartesian doubt upon our daily lives, the question remains: will a game indistinguishable from reality still be "only a game"? The speed in which modern technology shatters supposedly insurmountable obstacles has been consistent enough for us to believe that VR will eventually catch up with the real world in all relevant aspects.

By rendering irrelevant the distinction between direct and indirect experience, and destroying the very confines of time and space through the possibility of alternate continuums, the endgame for VR is all but guaranteed to shatter not just gaming but humanity's worldview itself.

Are we truly ready for VR, and will we be adequately prepared for the inevitable revolution?