Fire Barry: Talespin creates unusual VR app

Barry is a digital character that needs to be ‘fired’ by the player. The app is meant to develop the user’s communication skills and teach them to get out of tricky situations. 

The unusual VR app will become a great training tool for users in client-facing jobs. In the app, you will talk to Barry - a fictional employee whom you need to fire. He can imitate a wide range of emotions, demonstrate different types of behavior, and is equipped with hundreds of replies and phrases. The user needs to fire Barry without emotionally traumatizing him.

At first, developers wanted to make Barry look exactly like a real person, but then they decided to go a different way. However, the program can replicate basic emotions in an extremely realistic way, so when you look into Barry’s eyes you can always tell what’s on his digital mind.

VR is quickly shifting from a source of entertainment to a real business instrument that can be used to train or evaluate office workers. The service sector is at the core of the post-industrial economy, and almost any company is based on employees’ interactions with clients and team members.