Welcome Wolfpack to Weekly Media Share #1 for STS 302 (601) with Professor Higginbotham. Please press “read more” below and let me know your thoughts in the comments, per assignment guidelines.
Hey all,
Given that we’ve been learning about interaction through avatars for the purposes of education and inclusion, one relevant, albeit more comprehensive piece of media comes to mind – VRChat.
VRChat Inc./Medium
On February 1st, 2017, VRChat was released via the Steam client as a virtual reality world-building experience, where your opportunities are innumerable. The software, most accurately described as a video game, took off in late 2017 as Twitch streamers and YouTubers took to the game to experience the interactive virtual reality hangout.
“Like Habbo Hotel and Second Life, the reason virtual reality aficionados and players looking for an ever expanding, engaging world flocked to VRChat was because of its opportunities to transform it into something more.” – Julia Alexander, Polygon
VRChat consists of not only one component, but rather is what you make of it. Want to play mini-games like capture the flag in VR? You’ve got it. Do you want to meet people to sing karaoke or share jokes/memes? You’ve got it. Do you want to learn more about Blender and Unity (graphics software and video game engine, respectively)? You’ve got it. Do you want to go to class for a lecture? If you insist…
As a whole, VRChat is a rare occurrence of a video game ascending from an obsession to an industry changing occurrence. One of the reasons the game has attracted so many players is its Unity engine and development kit, allowing players to create their own avatars, emotes and special effects. If you’re competent at using Blender, you can create and import anything you could possibly imagine (with restrictions towards overtly offensive and lewd content). If you’re not tech savvy, there are dozens of websites housing thousands of user creations. Any given player is guaranteed to find something to suit themselves for their next excursion into the virtual cosplay world.
Works Cited
Alexander, Julia. “VRChat Is a Bizarre Phenomenon That Has Twitch, YouTube Obsessed.”
Polygon, Polygon, 22 Dec. 2017, www.polygon.com/2017/12/22/16805452/vrchat-steam-vive-oculus-twitch-youtube.