Living Virtual - What Is This?

At the onset of Virtual Reality, so many game companies and people alike, wanted it to work. Why? It made sense that it was the next step in the evolutionary chain of gaming.

Problem was, virtual headsets had a way to go before becoming affordable for the common household. Even then, the niche of VR needed a steady supply of games to appeal to the community. Games, period. It's not like anyone had a ton of choices in the true infancy of virtual reality.

Visiting back to Second Life from my first story, this intuitive dive into virtual living space had a natural path that was basically the vision of its creator. Take the 2D screen interaction, and make it a true virtual experience. I can even recall for a few years in Second Life, when the viewer had a 'VR' button. I never had the opportunity to try it out because back then, a VR headset cost was upwards of $800 USD—and cumbersome to boot. Eventually, Linden Lab removed the ‘VR’ button from Second Life and took to another idea, which we can cover later. Their virtual social space would remain in that 2D screen interaction.

So what do people do in 'social' VR?

Though many introductory VR headsets had their beginnings as early as 1991, no one really bought into the market. 2012 ended up being a pivotal year when the Oculus was born through crowdfunding sources. It was however, expensive, in parts that you had to build or compile, and there were not really any games for it. VR really didn't get a big kick-off until around 2016—only three short years ago from today. Social hubs like Second Life relied heavily on the 2D interaction of a portal (viewer) and monitor. That is, until VRChat...

When VRChat made its debut in 2017, the general population—both gaming and non-gaming—had probably heard of that social experience before they had heard of the now long time veteran of web socialization, Second Life. Thanks to viral videos and memes, pretty much everyone "Knew da way." Owning a VR headset was thrust into the spotlight as was the social aspect of the gaming world. Truthfully, VR is just at its baby stages in so far that now, a headset is easily acquirable for most common gamers (Oculus Rift S coming in at a cool $399 USD) and can be used with a plethora of VR-created games online. You can purchase games from both the headset maker, as well as various games from online sources such as Steam. Depending on which headset you purchase, you might even be able to utilize games that are meant for other headsets.

I digress, the social aspect of it remains to be very popular, and I can attest—that visiting a social space, utilizing a VR headset, takes on a new life. What do people do in VR? Especially when it comes to being social?

You can find out in experiences and games such as Rec Room, VRChat, Oculus Home, and Linden Lab's answer for social VR, Sansar, to name a few. There really is no limitation to what you can do as there are many opportunities for artists and people in general. Games and social spaces like Rec Room, allow you to participate in a multi-player space, joining experiences that involve basic sports you already know (Ping pong, basketball, archery, paintball, laser tag, etc.) and then experiences that are player built, like one PVP experience called "Heaven & Hell." You can even spend time at speed dating experiences, romantic getaways, and the like. There really are no limitations to what kind of space can be built unless it is something that goes against the Terms of Service when playing.

Next, we will take a look at some of these mini universes just to see what it's all about.