The DeanBeat: Months after the Facebook-Oculus deal, virtual reality meetups have become the new rage

I was sweating inside the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Clang. Clang. Buzz. I held two virtual lightsabers, à la Star Wars, in my hands, and I had to fight off blaster-bolt attacks from a flying drone. Clang. Buzz. Buzz. Clang.

When I took off my mask, the perspiration was running down my face. Amir Rubin, chief executive of Sixense Entertainment, a maker of gesture-controlled handsets for the lightsabers, complimented me on my Jedi skills. His people had turned the demo up nearly all the way on the difficulty setting. Always polite, he didn’t mention that I had dropped one of my lightsabers at one point. In the virtual world, I didn’t know how to pick it up again.