We've heard a lot about virtual reality in recent days, but with the coming of the Super Bowl is a whole new concept in gaming: actual virtual reality. And it's a concept being expressed by one of the simplest games of all: Pac-Man.

The idea is comparatively simple: out in the Fashion District of Los Angeles, a complete Pac-Man maze built in human scale was established specifically for an upcoming Super Bowl advertisement to promote Bud Light. The advertisement known only as "Coin" will start with a man who discovers a message in a beer bottle encouraging him to go outside. When he does, he finds a giant coin that can be used in a huge game of Pac-Man.

It by itself doesn't mean so much; after all, it's not like anyone can head out and take a walk in said maze. But there are some hopes that it will make an appearance at the upcoming E3 event set to arrive in June. Yet while this doesn't have a great deal of application, it may well prove an altogether different and potent idea.

One thing we've been able to note about the development of virtual reality is that it will greatly reduce the need to actually leave the house. That's going to do absolutely terrible things to tourism and other concepts; why drop several thousand dollars on a flight to Rome when Rome can come to a living room? But that does terrible things to Rome's budget; without tourism, several businesses are affected, and that means potential layoffs. Without that income, other businesses may suffer as a result, kicking off a domino effect of layoffs and business closures. While granted, there would be a gain in terms of not only new tourist attractions designed to be filmed for use with various virtual reality hardware, but also in terms of distribution of said content, the question is: will there be a sufficient net gain to virtual reality tourism to fend off the losses involved with such tools? It helps that there are multiple kinds of experiences that can be brought into play, and this might be one of the best.

While there's a certain value in seeing this in real time, it too can be brought into service as a virtual reality attraction. Consider the idea of a giant real-time Pac Man maze, that can be viewed and wandered via virtual reality. It's getting so that there is no experience that can be had in real time that can't also be had in virtual reality. This could represent the start in a whole new frontier of tourism.

It's a crazy notion, but it's one that bears considering. Are we looking at a time in which there are no specifically real-time experiences? Only real time will tell, of course, but it's getting to look like even the strangest of real world experiences could readily be adapted to virtual.