via Brandon Wenerd
What’s going on, BroBible fam. It’s Brandon Wenerd here with a dose of the future—well, the future we thought we’d be living in as kids, and how it’s finally starting to materialize.
This week on the Mostly Occasionally podcast, I’m joined by BroBible’s Editor-in-Chief, Cass Anderson, who flew out to Menlo Park, California to see Mark Zuckerberg present at Meta’s Horizon event back in September. What he saw there? It’s exactly what we imagined “the future” would look like back in the day.
For Cass, Meta’s VR wasn’t just impressive tech—it was a window into the future we used to daydream about, from flying around like Batman to sitting in on live sports in a completely new way.
If you grew up on sci-fi movies and cartoons where tech shaped reality in crazy ways, this episode is for you.
Listen to the podcast in the Apple Podcast player on your phone or on Spotify. Or in the player below.
Meta’s VR: Living Out Childhood Dreams in a Headset
One of the standout moments?
Playing as Batman in Batman: Arkham Shadow, designed specifically for Meta’s new Quest 3S headset, is a whole new level of immersive. “Flying around as Batman in VR,” Cass told me, “you take off the headset, and reality just can’t keep up.” I got to try it out myself at the launch event in LA. It takes some finesse to master the gestures, but once you get the hang of it, you feel like you’re really roaming Arkham in a Batsuit, right down to gliding with bat wings. You’re not just playing—you’re suiting up, exploring Gotham, and feeling like a superhero. Check out my video on Instagram to see it in action.
Then there’s the VR theater setup: imagine watching Thursday Night Football on a massive screen that fills your entire view, or catching a WNBA game that actually feels courtside. And with those curved screens, you can pinch and zoom, making it feel like your own private IMAX—minus the popcorn lines.
Is the Future Already Here?
For all the excitement, VR’s immersive tech has a strange after-effect—like coming out of a dream and back to reality. Cass put it best:
“It’s like coming down from hallucinogens,” he Cass says in the epiosode, laughing. “You feel like your brain’s been rewired. I’ve caught myself trying to ‘pinch-zoom’ things in real life.”You cannot shut your brain off after you step into a fully immersive VR world… you were just tripping balls in the ether. It is beyond insane. Then I take it off, and I’m just like, what did I just go through?”
In a way, it’s that disorienting experience that makes VR feel like the future we envisioned. Meta’s tech is bridging that gap between what’s real and what’s possible. But the real techno wizardry with the Meta Quest 3s is how it taps into that childhood fantasy of a world where anything was possible—a world where you could soar through Gotham one minute and watch the big game in a private theater the next while chilling in a big comfy shair.
“The curved screen in that theater view was really cool… it’s like having a full movie theater directly in front of your face,” Cass says.
Where virtual reality alters your consciousness and almost becomes a sort of reality in itself. The older you are, the trippier this future seems to be.
Is It All Just a Novelty?
Even with the wow factor, Cass and I aren’t convinced VR is ready to dethrone traditional sports broadcasts. I mean, do we need to experience a football game from the coach’s POV, especially when the standard TV broadcast has basically reached peak perfection? I just don’t need to see what Jim Harbaugh sees from the sidelines. Sometimes, reality doesn’t need that much suspending. We’re overstimulated enough across all our devices and existing out there, in a techno-forward real world. And let’s be blunt—wearing a headset kills the social vibe of watching the game with friends. We’re still social animals, not lone astronauts.
“It’s a cool novelty, but nothing beats the broadcast view for watching football,” I tell Cass in the episode. Still, there’s a thrill in seeing where VR goes next—even if it’s a little disorienting. It’s obviously a part of our new normal when it comes to home entertainment.
“We’re finally catching up to the future we thought we’d be living in as kids,” Cass said, “and it’s amazing, but also a bit surreal. Like, do we actually want this?”
Check out the full conversation on Mostly Occasionally. And if these future-focused deep dives are your thing, hit subscribe and drop a review. I’d be so grateful! There’s a lot more to unpack as we look to 2025 and beyond.
