We've tried that and a few other things — nothing being all that successful, but I do think we've gotten somewhere at least. Just not somewhere useful, yet.
[ Talking and blunt force are both tactics he personally hasn't dealt with because the success rate is kind of painfully obvious and although there are no bad ideas there's no point in wasting time testing a theory that won't work when you can leave it to every single hotheaded newbie to ever come through here to test it for you. ]
The virtual reality part is new. There were some indications before they came out and explicitly stated it as such but nothing big enough to confirm or deny the theories that floated around at the time.