Having seen some of the chip and display technology from the 80s and 90s that never went mainstream: yes, we 100% could've had 'decent' VR back then. We could also very easily have amazing AR, but no one cares enough, or it's actively pushed to the side.
I have an idea for a version of a more modern and radical Reality Hacker group. They believe that this world is a simulation, and like the simulations we have(video games), you can hack it, mod it, and exploit glitches. Sure, they have the same rotes that the other Legions use, but also more. Some examples I thought of include: Running into the corner of a door to glitch through it, collecting 999 pennies at exactly midnight to spawn a gold brick, and to piss someone off so bad that their aggression score reaches beyond max and loops back around to being extremely friendly (think Civilization Gandi glitch but reverse) For them, Ascension is doing something to get the attention of the creator of the simulation, or an admin to be yoinked out and possibly be allowed to leave the simulation
Why does anyone actually play this game? I get why someone would want to GM it, but what draws a person to actually learn to play it? It makes sense that Vampire is so popular, and it makes sense that Mummy is so unpopular; VtM is still actually a roleplay game, and MtC is so niche that maybe six people alive even care that it exists (me being one of them). Mage is a rediculously complicated GAME. There's such a high barrier for entry that by the time you get past it, I don't see how it ends up as anything besides legitimate occult practice, yet it's still seemingly quite popular overall. Which, again makes sense if you're a GM: all the best occultists I know are players and creators of games and basically nothing else. It doesn't make sense for players. Most GMs I know run d&d due to its accessibility for players, contributing to its annoying level of popularity. White Wolf is an enigma.
At it's core, Mage the Ascension is about powerful will workers who want to change reality and deal with the consequences. Enthusiasts of the World of Darkness and the occult can dig deeper into the lore and expand the concepts out, but it's not necessary. I believe that the core concepts (The Spheres, Paradigm, Paradox, Etc.) are enough to make a compelling game, the Storyteller just has to accommodate the scope of the game to their players. Mechanically it's not that difficult, just conceptually.
Because mage is freedom. You and your group aren't bound to specific things. You can tell practically any type of story with any type of game. Most other magic systems aren't as free form nor have as well developed and intriguing magical groups.
I always keep reading that Mage is complicated, then I look at my bookcase and see way more populair games like Pathfinder or Shadowrun. Mage is really simple in comparison to those games. There is pips on your character sheet, each pip is a D10, your ST gives you a difficulty number, every die over that number is a success. Off you go! Mages as characters break all the rules. You don't need any "legit occult practice" because a Mage can show all those wand waving, pentagram drawing, gobbledygook chanting weirdoes they've got nothing on his understanding of occultism, even though those "legit occultists" would consider everything the Mage does as "incorrect." Non of the sciency groups in Mage practice science either. They're mages! Science is just their excuse, you don't need a PHD to portray one, your made up sciency bollocks reason works if you roll enough successes on your magick effect ;-) The game isn't about occultism, science or portraying such practices. It's about humans who's ideas and believes create reality and the horror of actually getting what you asked for.
