The mechanics of the virtual world really bothers me

You haven't experienced immersion in a book, D&D game, play, movie or video game yet? Dude, even a story that is merely TOLD can totally suck you in. I find it very realistic.

U do not know de wae.

You should really read the book. It is a very easy read and sucks you in from the beginning.

In the book it describes the vr headset as not a display. It draws the images directly onto your retinas so you are fully immersed. The kid also wears gloves in the beginning that allow feeling and manipulation of the virtual world. Later on, once he acquires some money, he has full haptic gear that allows every sensory input that we experience not in vr. He is also suspended so it can create the feeling of free fall and movement. The book explains it really well.

I recently tried a VR set-up. I experienced very real vertigo and dizziness from visuals alone.

Weirder still: for a couple of seconds, the real world looked fake to me, after 30 minutes with the headset on.

Never underestimate the ability of the mind to fool the body.

While it isn't Matrix-level plugged-directly-into-your-brain immersion, the book and film show different levels of integration. Some people use only a headset and gloves, but most wear skintight, full body suits with nothing underneath, allowing every touch to be felt, along with, say, a kick in the balls. In the book, Wade even goes so far as to shaving himself from head to toe to allow for fuller sensational accuracy. Even the headset isn't a screen, as with current VR units, but a low-power laser that draws the images onto the user's retinas. All this while the user is running in place on an omni-directional teadmill, or seated in a chair that flips you around as need be.

So yes, it isn't at the level of an electrical signal wired into your nervous system, but it seems believable that people would buy into the level of realism it offers.

Why is THIS sci-fi compared to the Matrix at all? Completely different times frames. Technically, completely different universes. RPO is a few years down the road with some advanced VR, and the matrix is many hundreds of years AFTER machines built things that plug in to our brains.

It's like saying why did the Flintstones drive cars with rock wheels when they could have invented rockets for flying cars?

Why didn't Luke blow up the Deathstar while he was running around in it??

Why do people try to rewrite other's stories?? I just don't get it.

I don't find it a problem at all... especially considering how attached people are to their video game personas and lives as well as the social media aspects... and this is with todays technology, you already have milllons of people around the world retreating from society into their video game ghettos...

This is the kind of thing that probably doesn’t matter to most people now, but will really date the movie in a generation or two. Just as a really simple example, a lot of big budget blockbusters from the 70s had loud blaring jazz music. I don’t think that resonates with people today, and I don’t think it even evokes any sense of the time period either. Do we associate the 70’s with jazz? Some people even complain about quintessential elements like bell bottom pants, which are certainly more immersive than what will soon be outdated technology like VR goggles for a video game. Kids who don’t grow up with that won’t be able to understand that people at the time were able to their suspend disbelief in part by viewing the tech as futuristic. But because of that, even a basic Nintendo controller will hold up better due to straightforward presentation.

By the way I think Spielberg movies are generally disposable, not really art, more like an arms race. He always does this, just seizes on marketing opportunities with little thought about anything beyond outside agendas.