It’s Friday morning, 10/9/2015. I wake up, check my phone. Email from Yahoo news, Barnes and Nobles coupons, and … what?! The Void has a public beta available for $10?

For those of you who don’t know, Virtual Reality is about to hit the market hard. Next year there will be at least three commercial goggles you’ll be able to purchase for less than most TV’s. For $200 dollars, you will be able to enter a totally different reality giving you a depth of emotional experience beyond any previous medium. There are film makers working on projects that put you in the heart of real world locations, where the actors are beside you, whispering in your ear, and game makers who’s projects can both scare the goggles off your head and give you relationships as close as family.

But The Void is what I’m the most excited about. Inside The Void, game makers, set builders, and illusionists have been working together to create the ultimate gaming experience. It promises to take the best parts of Kinect, Playstation Move, laser tag, Dungeons and Dragons, and a David Copperfield act and create true magic: presence. That’s the sense that you are … present.

After I shower, making sure I’m really awake, I check the website. Availability is slipping away like sand in an hour glass. But I get 4 tickets before they’re all gone. Unfortunately I’ve got a week before I can take my turn down their alluring rabbit hole, so on a whim my wife and I head to The Void anyways.

The Void’s current base of operations is hidden away in an industrial warehouse complex just a few minutes off the freeway. The entrance is modest but a few details (massive concept art prints, a modern cube art piece, sleek furniture, and a wall mounted iPad) give it a deliberate, futuristic feel. When we arrive, the two attendants usher a group through a door and into the darkened warehouse interior where I assume the infinite possibilities are stored.

The guides working that night turn out to be a couple of great people. At first I’m a little disappointed they wont take us in when two whole groups don’t show for their assigned times, but it’s understandable when I imagine expectant walk in lines forming every night with people hoping for no-shows.

I met some new friends and soaked in the hype and came away with a fun video of our conversations and even more expectation for my turn!