I've played lots of videogames, lots of run-and-gun shooters in which I happily charge down a corridor into certain death. Not this time. I've got my back pressed against the wall of an abandoned spaceship, and I'm inching down a hallway, my head darting left and right, looking for danger everywhere.

And I wonder, is this the one? Is this the Oculus Rift demo where I rip the headset off my face and bolt, terrified, out of the room?

I don't get scared by horror movies or horror videogames. Sure, you can startle the hiccups out of me with a well-timed jump scare, but that only proves my lizard brain is firing on all cylinders. For the most part, I feel a pronounced disconnect between the frightening scenario onscreen and the safety of my living room. I don't understand how some of my friends cannot bear to even pick up the controller and walk down a hallway in Resident Evil.