VRChat's Traveling Tales
These three videos were my entry point into VRChat!
Soon after watching them, I began a “strategy guide” to help others avoid the rough first-time player experience I had as a Visitor. I’d originally expected to improve it here, but… I’m no longer that new player who struggles to find where they belong in this space. 😅
So I decided to let that v1.0 remain what it is, as written by a week-one VRChat player. It's freed me to now be more like these videos that first hooked me – through what you’re reading here! I invite you to see what I’ve seen on these virtual travels. I'm insatiably drawn to how it houses a seemingly limitless parade of subcultures and creations – a planet-sized convention that never ends! 🎉
While I'm no interviewer, I am a bit extra when it comes to taking notes. 💦 And also wired to drift and roam between groups, unable to settle as I'm driven by a deep appreciation for all the things we can create and learn across our analog + digital reality.
The "Tales" section hops over to a more detailed write-up for a more anecdotal record of my experiences! Helps me keep the more resource-oriented "Journeys" distinct from my more anecdotal feelings. (+ not require you to load all the images at once. 💻💥) I’m very open to feedback on these blog-style posts in particular, as my approach pivots with every writeup! That's because a lot of this is just my evolving journey as I’m moving around this creative space: half travel-guide for others, half travel-er for my own sense of fulfillment.
I’m simply enamored with how normalized exploring is in VR -- the pursuit of what's personally unfamiliar to each of us. And I'm eternally thankful for what it did in my life as I crawled out of an isolated pandemic silo.
In closing, it all reminds me of another game I love dearly:
It had this saying, and when I see the way that even veteran players express their excitement for VRChat's ever evolving user-generated content I can't help but draw similar parallels:
- Explorers find inspirations for creators and places for sharers to gather and make friends
- Creators make discoveries for explorers and content for sharers to bond with others over
- Sharers bring friends to creators’ places and relay other explorers’ findings, in addition to providing a welcome and home for whatever kind of player they vibe most with – things you can’t do alone!
At its core then, I think VRChat is an even stronger nexus of all three – Creating Shared Experiences ❤
VRChat's Public Worlds
That first week I mentioned that had such high highs and low lows, enough to drive me to create Knomad out of conflicted love-hate for VRChat? … Yeah, this was pretty much the reason for both those highs and those lows. Simply put, the more I learn about it to this very day, the more ways I'm appreciating that:
Social VR = the essence of "it varies wildly" -- and that's no more true than when visiting popular hangouts in public mode.
Rule #1 for me: take any hangout at your own pace. Interact as much or as little as you want, inside a comfort zone or not.
- From the mic and block buttons to the newer chatbox and earmuff abilities, I am always in control of when and how I react to others.
- I’ve blocked too slowly, and have listened to how others can have it far, far worse.
- I’ve also blocked too quickly, having since been shown how some “only in VRChat” magic lives or dies on not closing yourself off from all strangers.
That conflicting dynamic definitely leaves me in tension, but concluding:
- This complexity likely reflects VRChat’s user diversity in how people decide to interact. So then, I only see one ultimate “solution” to these struggles: know my limits. Be patient with myself as those limits will change hour to hour. Appreciate that if an experience sours for me, other options exist. There will always be another instance, another world, person, or community out there in such a vast and creative space as this platform has.
- So then… yeah! If you’re feeling stressed please do take that break from the game. Talk it through with someone you trust. Exit the instance to not give jerks the attention they’re after. To date, I’ve never met the same name twice between the big public hangout worlds’ instances. Asking around, it seems true for others in 2022. I find safety in knowing I can always re-roll my chances like that if I opt to brave a public instance because then you never need to think “I have to get along with this person / group / club / community!” Reducing that neediness helps me relax and open up to things outside my comfort zone.
So ends the things I wish someone would've let me know before I entered those above portals... 🥳
VRChat's Ultimate Advice
I was told this as a VRC newbie, and I think it bears repeating even for the game’s oldest player:
There is no “right” community/world/avatar to join/make/pick.
It’s just what works for you, and you can learn that as you:
(1) Join in on available opportunities,
(2) that don’t have deal-breakers for you!
Paired with how vast VRChat is, I find this idea genuinely freeing.
If something ever fails to vibe for me, I'll advance until I find what does!
All it requires is patience to stick around and use what resources you can find. The "old" internet is not so old, maybe? 🙃
