He's clearly using a Quest (he mentioned Horizon Worlds). I've tried VR Chat on Oculus Quest. It's usable, but only barely.

I often joined rooms that would cause VR Chat to crash on the Quest and if I stuck to the default rooms VR Chat recommends, I've mostly just get accosted by children (they sound like they're 10 years old at the oldest) or assholes "Hey, I'm talking to you, why didn't you answer me right away (I'm in a menu). I'm going to kill you!" (and other nasty things until I just left the room)... as one example that happened to me.

I personally would rather stick with Horizon Worlds (as boring and sterile as it is) than deal with that garbage. The people there have been older and more pleasant, on average (but it's also mostly empty, that might change if it actually became popular).

I hear on PC VR Chat is quite nice, though. In particular the raves look like a lot of fun, judging by the documentaries on Youtube. I haven't been able to access those places from the Quest (or at least, not easily or without crashing).

Quest users in VRChat are second-class citizens, it's true. The only way to experience that game is to play it on PC. Can I ask if you've tried Link to play the PC version with your Quest?

This. Vrchat is nearly unusable without a Link. Not only are you able to explore graphic intensive worlds and see graphic intensive avatars, you don’t have to deal with the onslaught of 7 year old kids. (tbh my biggest gripe with vrchat is that there isn’t a way to have 18+ worlds like Horizon)

I had a stint where I played VRChat every day for 6+ hours during peak covid. I never had a problem finding groups that self-selected for adults. Sure, you would have annoying little kids but if you were just in your corner doing your thing, they would quickly get bored.

This sounds horrible. I don't like children being around in my space, and I really really really don't like unsupervised children being in my space. The quickest way to get me to leave a room is to let a child run around screaming in it, which I understand is about 70% of VRchat.

VRChat has a concept of “friends plus” worlds. You can make a world where the only people who are allowed to enter are your friends or the friends of anyone who joins.

The good version of VRChat socialization is looking at your friends list and seeing who’s online and joining off them. You’ll meet your transitive friends of friends and expand your social circle over time. As long as you don’t befriend children or assholes you should have a pretty good time.

The hard part is how do you get the first VRChat friends. Probably you need someone who already knows you to be the first node in your social network.

If you think 70% of VRchat is screaming kids, it doesn't surprise me that your take is so negative. I was friends with a few teenagers, and didn't have much problem with them.

If you ever desire a more private space, it’s just two taps away. One other thing I should mention is that you can very easily block someone black mirror style, they just disappear, and the problem goes away.

No, not yet. It's a bit of a pain for me to use the Link (in part because the most open space to use VR is in my living room and my gaming PC is upstairs in my office where it's more cramped), so I've only really used the Link cable to play Half-Life Alyx and Lone Echo and try out a few other games. Maybe I will at some point.

That NYTimes article recently did the same thing. Anyone that is serious about understanding the state of VR, but has no experience with VRChat is a huge red flag to me. You don't have to like the culture on VRC(I don't love it), but it is where most of the content and players are. In a way it could a good sign that VR is becoming more accessible, but it's still a bit annoying.

> but it is where most of the content and players are

Is this true? I have VR but I don't enjoy it as a social hangout space for example. Why do you think that most players are interested in that type of content?

I don’t enjoy VRChat myself. It’s essentially VR Roblox but not for kids, or an eventual evolution of Second Life for anyone that remembers it. Furries and anime aside, it is just not my thing.

That said, VRChat is probably the closest thing to being what people think of as the metaverse, and that’s why it’s useful to get familiar with it even if it’s not for you

I don't do VR, and VRChat is pretty much the only thing I've heard of people actually using from multiple friends and co-workers.

There is an obvious bias of more social people being more likely to play more social games as well as more likely to talk about playing them.

VRChat is a favorite of mine. Feels like VR geocities. If you're a fan of Stargate check out the Stargate Atlantis world as well as the Original Stargate Command which comes complete with a working Stargate and ring device into a Mothership on the other side.

Well, you just convinced me.

I don’t know why more IPs aren’t hopping on the VR immersion bus. People would pay decent money just to roam around their favorite locales from TV shows/movies.

I doubt it. It’s not that different from looking at photos

At least until Fiji Water Man lures you into an adventure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU6VmTlRO0Q

While I’m glad people can run around as giant titty furry avatars if they want to, I would say this looks pretty terrible.

It's also worth noting that VRChat is incredibly janky and buggy in a ton of ways, but has pretty deep accommodations for play style (a sitting/standing toggle is one of the options that's been around for a long time, for example) and self-expression with avatars.

Last I heard, it shot itself in the head a few months ago by banning mods.