system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is there a massive interest in virtual reality lately, isn't VR around for decades already?
gpt
It's been around, but it's been lacking in the "reality" in a very significant way.  For example, VRML from the late 90s was interesting in that it was easy to create a 3d world and navigate it, it wasn't going to be a compelling experience for entertainment, and wasn't going to be immersive as a user experience. There is _some_ sense that we've reached a critical mass of hardware and software capabilities to make the vision of VR something that can be compelling to everyday folk.