Posts by Castle

Quote from blackdog

On 1/14/2022 at 6:05 PM, blackdog said:

@Castle where do you find all that time to spend in VR, I've got a child to feed and educate, I can hardly message family when I'm looking after them. And when I see friends I want to hug them and share food with them... even if I could afford a VR kit, I just wouldn't have time.

Get cripto right once and its cypher punk life for life. Nothing else you can do in life will make the kind of money crypto can make without even breaking a sweat.

The VR existence is basically unlimited social interaction at big parties indefinitely. It spreads past that and leaks into real life eventually where you will be in contact with all kinds of people around the world in cliques that never would have existed before. Networking potential is sick especially if the game industry starts to have a bigger role in the VR space. Threads like this wont even need to exist, you will just go to the right parties and meet the right people and probably get a job doing something within a week. As a metaverse game developer you will likely be a very well known person in the community and gain the kind of treatment you probably expect a celebrity would experience. Nothing combines our job with socializing in the way this medium does. Literally your avatar will be a signifier that you are someone of stature. Your resume can be a place people actually visit. And if you are someone who contributes you get treated like a rockstar.

So this can go dystopian black mirror or it can go sci-fi novel amazing. It comes down to how the tech gets used. At the moment everything is wild west so its a sneak peak into the future might be like. If its decentralized and nobody controls it then its just an extension of humanity. If it get centralized then its going to be heavily controlled and it will suck and probably die as nobody will use it.

Quote from Castle

On 4/25/2019 at 1:59 PM, Castle said: I have been going through a phase where I have had a stronger desire to work in the indie space vs working for larger companies.

This is my life... But after seeing all of the layoffs in the game industry maybes its a good idea to long pajama pants company stock... Sorry about the long post but I kind of needed this for catharsis I think..

Well, I managed to experience a third option on this front at this point. Triple AAA industry to Indie game dev to decentralized finance / web3 / metaverse content creation. Been doing this for awhile now and its a completely different beast. I almost feel like its impossible to really even explain it at this point. I think a defining definition of this space is that its currently out of reach from most people in both concept and practice. Even then I am too frank when I discuss this topic which has a strong tendency to spook people. There are a large number of people in the game industry that have yet to even grasp an NFT at a basic level and the vast majority of the crypto and metaverse space are so extremely cutting edge that its impossible to really predict where things will go next. Overall I know what is going to happen though. We are all going to be in this space eventually and the people who complained, spoke out against it will be railed by online shills who have financial incentives for their crypto and NFTs to hold value. Its a losing battle, don't bother.

I have been living a full blown black mirror episode for about 5 years now.

I am as deep in this as it is humanly possible and I fully see now how its going to change the internet and humanity. There is not really a bullet pointed list I can create like my older post. The post I created before this one was made right before I was fully drawn in. Mind you I was in crypto at around 2014 but had no solitary idea on how this would come together in a "metaverse" scenario. Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and various other corporations are absolutely gung-ho after this space. Most people still have absolutely no idea why, but these companies do and they are fucking serious about it. They are deadset about capturing a chunk of this space and nothing is likely to really stop them. Its remarkable as ultimately speaking web3 is actually a disadvantage for these types of corporations and they will likely end up restructuring as a result to better leverage the space.

Everything is going to change very soon.

Virtual reality by itself is a gimmick that will never gain traction by itself. This is also true for NFTs. Are NFTs a scam? They absolutely are at this time. But that wont matter. Crypto, virtual reality and NFTs are just ingredients, separate pieces of a larger puzzle with many moving parts. Alone they come off extremely pointless and almost like a bad joke. The real magic wont happen until you combine these ideas in a specific package. The brutal and honest truth about this is that unless you experience this for yourself and garner some time in the metaverse and gain some actual lasting relationships with others in the space it will be extremely confusing as to what all of this is even about.

So for this to be on topic regarding getting into the game industry.

The metaverse is going to create an explosion of development similar to what Id software did to multiplayer online gaming in the 1990s. You will experience two types of platforms in this space. The most common is likely to be the standard non-proprietary development environment. Unreal 5 or unity based platforms will likely function this way. These environment will eventually mold themselves into the proprietary development environment. This transition from standard older development environments to fully in engine environments will occur for a host of reasons. Metaverses have a tendency to act like a black hole where the the survival of the platform will be predicated on forcing content creation to utilize proprietary toolsets making it harder to bring content outside of that metaverse. A metaverse is going to include visual scripting / logic systems similar to unreal blueprints and the nodes will be 3d objects. There is going to be an explosion of new metaverse platforms as well. You are going to see a strong push for open source platforms because decentralized finance has extremely strong ties to trustless environments. Most development will be done in virtual reality. But it wont be done the way you might be thinking. The basic idea will be that everything is built on top of these platforms. Everything comes to the metaverse and stays in the metaverse. You have a social environment then on top of that people will build larger projects on top of it. Even single player games will likely be playable while in a social VR environment. The metaverse is the platform and all games and content are built inside and on top of the core platform.

The most important and difficult piece of the puzzle to grasp is that these are going to be hyper social environments. You need to get this otherwise you will not understand the core function of how this all comes together. Mark Zuckerberg describes this as the "feeling of presence". Your experience in virtual reality with other people is almost identical to your experiences in real life. You can know someone only in virtual reality for multiple years and then meet them in real life and the experience is completely organic with literally zero downtime. The feeling of presence is extremely important. The feeling of presence you gain in virtual reality in a social platform is the glue that binds every single facet of the experience as a whole. Without it, none of this stuff will make sense.

Without the feeling of presence then NFTs make literally zero sense. Corporations attempting to push this idea are absolutely flubbing the entire concept by trying to make NFT collectibles. Its a complete waste of time. Nobody is going to care about NFTs unless its part of a popular metaverse. The moment you own something that has real world value and its tied to your online persona in some way in an environment with a true feeling of presence is the moment it all clicks. Konami releasing some Castlevania nfts makes literally zero sense. Most people are absolutely clueless about how or why any of this works. Its tonedeaf as hell for Square to release FFXIV NFT collectibles. It does not make sense! Nobody is going to know or even care about you owning these things if its not part of a highly social environment!

Shoutouts to people who have experienced the following. - Experienced a job interview while at a concert. - Experienced a job interview at a bar or nightclub. - Experienced and landed a job interview while drunk. (The interviewer was also drinking) - developed content entirely in VR and only understand less than half of how it works because everyone who helped were persistent about doing it for you. - People talking about 2nd Life like it was the Roman empire. - Has been to a public pug. - "Is there a mirror I need to calibrate" - Communicate with hundreds of people in a single night and remember who most of them are. - Fell asleep while in VR. - Literally un-phased by partying 5 days a week and it still feels like a job. - Sometimes prefers to sleep in VR. - Your right arm is slightly sore from constantly holding up a 3d camera while streaming or recording videos. - Full body tracking. - Dancing while in full body. - Facial tracking. - Cant properly experience a night without trackstrap plus. - Know or have met ThrillSeeker. - You know who ThrillSeeker even is. - "Maybe I should open up my own night club" - Know someone who became crypto rich off of an absolute shitcoin. - Absolutely un-phased by male voices from female avatars. - Absolutely un-phased by furry avatars. - Absolutely un-phased by some of the weirdest shit on the internet. - "Metaverse is ruined, the real term is Virtual underground or The Nexus" - A large proportion of your friends communicate in a special VR only ASL. - Have said "I might have a drinking problem." while talking about game development. - Refer to some of your friends as "mutes" - "Furniture just clutters up my play space" - "I knocked a wall down in my apartment to increase my play space" - Has ever flexed your play space by walking from one side of it to the other in full body. - Experienced a job interview while inside of your portfolio that is also housing 40+ people. - Modded clients, everyone has one nobody wants to openly admit it. - MOVIE NIGHT WITH FRIENDS! - Movie worlds silently begin dominating your time watching movies. - "X other virtual reality platform is going to take over" (it never does) - More than half your friends are trans. - More than half your friends are DJs. - "There is only 20 people here, where is everyone?" - "Oh shit one of the devs is at the party." - Knows someone or has personally received a full body lap dance. - "CHEERS!" - Has ever suggested someone swig water as a "water shot" - Experienced someone getting upset when you tell them you are only drinking water tonight. - Has ever felt sad when someone is only in "desktop" mode. - A well known streamer or content creator has ever passed out and is snoring in your world. - Has done at least one IRL meetup. - It literally takes a half hour to scroll through your friends list. - Has met the same person multiple times but both of you were blackout drunk at the time. You commence to meet them again while blackout drunk.

Quote from Radu

6 hours ago, Radu said: Meanwhile, my Index box is gathering more dust by the day..

Speaking of VR:

"VRChat closes $80m Series D funding round. Investment will be used to develop "a creator economy where members can earn" and bringing app to more platforms. The free VRChat app has reached millions of users over its lifetime with maximum concurrent users topping 40,000"

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-…d-funding-round

Yep, this is part of why I made the above update. There is a lot of maneuvering right now to get into this space. a lot of people are still not ready for how much this will change everything moving forward. I am currently on the front lines right now. I am convinced this is the main direction VR will be going.

Alright so, I am starting to see a bit further into the future on how all of this will play out.

From what I can tell as the metaverse scene continues to grow we will begin adopting the next generation of tech. Valve is the one pushing things the hardest while facebook is doing good stuff they are the least likely to succeed in this space for various reasons. VRChat development is also getting better at a steady pace. I feel as though we are roughly at about the mid 1990s in terms of the state of virtual reality. VRChat is like MySpace. However with that said, the fact that Valve will be pushing a BCI in the near future speeds things up a lot for us to see something new happen.

If a STEAM OS combines with an affordable not crappy headset that acts as basically a console then the metaverse will greatly increase the usage of Linux. You have to remember that metaverse content creation is a new way to look at the internet and socialize. This fundamentally changes how people see things. It also means that it will become like a second internet where people will no longer make use of old concepts like text based social media as a primary means of consumption.

Due to the fact that metaverses have extremely poor implementation in their early states I am starting to see cryptocurrency begin to appear. A public ledger is really good for a reliable way to manage peoples resources without having to depend on the poorly developed platforms. VRChat is not a safe place to keep your money, but if you have an external system in place to trade crypto then it wont mater anymore. The security will be based on blockchain tech. The singularity for this to take place will be when a viable platform such as VRChat allows for us to utilize external databases. The ability to examine a blockchain and effect in game microtransactions WILL cause a huge amount of incentive for content to be built for the metaverse.

People will continue to create and rebuild all things that we have seen and experienced outside of the metaverse inside of the metaverse. Expect to see popular games be recreated in the metaverse with a slightly different paintjob. Expect to see straight rips of games redone in VR as well. Expect to see all new concepts born as this kind of environment is extremely potent for this to happen. All of it will very likely begin to take foothold on STEAMOS. We may very well be looking at the first time in history for Linux to have a killar app where a lot of people who are sucked into the metaverse may not even own a windows pc anymore. If the development tools for the metaverse are good enough we will still have access to everything we want from a windows pc but it will all be within the game. Its a matter of time before the development tools themselves are also part of the game and thus you wont ever need to leave the metaverse even to develop for the metaverse.

- Ad revenue will be huge for this, anyone who can become a "land baron" is likely to profit greatly from being able to put ads on their content.

- Games with a defined protagonist will likely become a rare concept. (At least in the metaverse)

- The current meta for game design for a metaverse to fully take advantage of the platform will likely involve having some kind of mobile fortress that incentivizes people to stay together to socialize while also still being able to explore an open world. (Spaceship. boat, mobile house, airship)

- Everything will be multiplayer by default. Not just regularly 4 player coop. But basically fully open ended MMO style multiplayer. You have to design everything around the idea that 80 people might randomly show up in an single instance to all play at the same time.

Valve is the most important key player regarding this right now. In the next couple of months its very likely I will be looking to hire people who are interested in helping develop in this space.

Quote from AlexM

1 hour ago, AlexM said: Sounds potentially vomit inducing

lol! Actually for people who never experienced the social thing and had some drinks in VR its insanely good. You wont know how good until you try it. But try not to drink too hard! Vomit inducing might also apply for motion sickness but with experience you can get around that.

As far as the Gamedev drinkup though I should maybe consider making a new thread and show off the venue and explain what the whole thing is about. Later tonight I have an event that will be going all night starting at 8 PM EST. I have another two events tomorrow as well but they are hosted by other people. Bass Castle and Sinister Saturday.

Sinister Saturday is a weekly goth industrial event where a talented DJ NecroNeko spins some old school goth vibes. Its super badass and the last Sinister Saturday had 70+ people in the instance almost the entire night it was crazy! That's more than most goth clubs get in real life! The place was packed.

DJs almost always perform while in full body and once the doors are open it stays that way all night.

There are a dozen or so other events taking place in the same venue at the same time but these are the ones currently directly promoted by the ZDUnderground which is my group. The pictures don't do it justice compared to being there when its packed with people during a show in VR. All officially promoted ZDU events are strictly SFW content.

Stuff like this is definitely the future of VR and its expanding very quickly as the scene is growing exponentially. The entire world is designed and programmed by me and I its the largest most complex venue in VR. I have seen a lot of others out there but this one is the biggest. It can easily hold a maximum number of people and it supports not only DJ events but parties as well.

Quote from FMPONE

5 hours ago, FMPONE said: For the sake of my sanity in particular I think probably enough has been said on that topic. Lol ?

I will send anyone $5 who successfully changes the subject

Ill take this in Ethereum.

So I very much think its a good idea to have a game dev drink up in VR. How would it be possible to try and get something like this going?

There may already be something like this going on but I am not aware of it. But having events where industry vets and beginners can chill out and network would be extremely useful. I am willing to make significant modifications to my world to host such events.

edit : Making it easier for people to share portfolios is one idea.

This might be off topic for VR discussion specifically. maybe a different thread.

edit 2 : I apologize as my English skills horrifying sometimes. ><

Quote from Lizard

1 hour ago, Lizard said: What does the "ERPing" mean ?

RP is means Role Play. Acting in game with back story and never leaving character.

E means Erotic. Which basically means Erotic role play. Basically having sex.

Quote from ThunderKeil

20 minutes ago, ThunderKeil said: I legitimately cannot find a way to reply to this without getting a mod warning

Don't worry, I am exclusively ERPing on the forum. I should be banned.

I don't believe you understand how much that pissed me off. I coordinate with dozens and dozens of community managers, DJs and content creators every week to setup live events shows. Lighting effects world creation programming and all kinds of stuff. I researched and work on tons of content and communicate with people to work within a bustling community. But fuck all that, I exclusively use it to ERP apparently.

anyway, we are even now I think.

Quote from Terri

2 hours ago, Terri said: Full blown games, with a programming language that runs 300,000 times slower than the already offensively bad mono runtime?

The only thing that slows everyone down in a VR social game is the 80 people in the lobby with unoptimized avatars. Or you can check out Just B club with its 1500 concurrent active users at all times. Hey know what, keep making indie VR games that barely get 10 active users even though they have super efficient scripting languages.

edit : Or experience getting your game ripped off and played to death in the VR community AmongUs style. AmongUs in VRC is infinitely superior experience lol.

edit 2 : I remember having a similar debate regarding this in the Unreal 4 engine where blueprints were slammed for not being viable compared to C++. The honest answer is that most gameplay does not require an efficient scripting language and most things that a 3d engine does that will require efficiency is not part of the scripting. Udon# in VRC and Logix in NEOS VR are super slow compared to native language support but in the end they are extremely good for gameplay stuff which usually does not require a hefty amount of computations. People moving in and out of trigger volumes, trigging RPCs or events like shooting a gun or taking damage. These are not calculated every frame in an update loop.

Skyrim has a super slow scripting system as well utilizing a similar structure. Most game engines do.

Quote from Terri

1 hour ago, Terri said: I think it is important to keep in mind VRChat and the likes are nothing more than fun social games.

False because games can be built inside of the social platform. We are at a point now where with the addition of a couple basic things the social platform becomes a gaming platform with full blown monetization. VRChat itself is one or two features away from becoming a virtual STEAM.

edit : Many of these features were recently announced as well. Also I am going to be riding this wave as hard as possible and I will be developing full blown games. If nobody else does it I will be doing it.

Quote from Minos

On 4/19/2021 at 1:52 PM, Minos said: Castle is this you?

Oh by the way I was in that video and I chilled with that guy for awhile actually. One of the live shows he showed was called Slyfest. I am also acquaintances with Sly and contributed to projects he was a part of.

Quote from ThunderKeil

On 4/19/2021 at 5:01 PM, ThunderKeil said: I think I can reasonably assert

"exclusively using the platform for ERP" was a shit thing to say especially in light of the fact that I am in a process now of trying to push things forward. Does that ALSO include sexual content? Does a bear shit in the woods? Like seriously, what was the point of going off like that? So after I read what you said I realized that it was likely that more than a few people were reading what I was saying through some lens like like all I am talking about is porn. That was it, porn is the only thing being talked about nothing else mattered. I just felt like fuck this... I left to cool off for a bit but it I was seriously worried about the prospect of trying to explain this to people on the outside. I was seriously expecting to come back to a bunch of "HAHA point and laugh at the porno person" remarks lol...

The only reason I mentioned that age does not matter is because in my experience people of all ages and everything else tend to interact very well in VR. VR is extremely inclusive, its easily the most progressive thing humanity has by a large margin. It had nothing to do with sex in the context of "age not mattering". I am 42 years old and a damn large chunk of my friends are in early 20s and most of them think I am still 25. The oldest person I ever hung out with was Mark Hamill who I met a couple years ago in a random public lobby where he and another Joker voice actor were just randomly hanging out acting in character. lol... But reading over my post I can easily see someone reading it and thinking it was about having sex with a 68 year old LMAO!!! I just laughed and cried at the same time. Not going to lie this shit was bugging me for a couple days! I was having an existential crises.

"Is this what normies are thinking right now?"

The reason I mentioned 18 is because its usually involves a lot of drinking and being in bars and clubs. People below 18 are too young to be around for that, they dont belong in a bar or club in real life they don't need to be in one in VR. This was not about an exclusively sexual context, its adult content point blank. If you are under 18 go play Roblox.

Quote from ThunderKeil

On 4/19/2021 at 5:01 PM, ThunderKeil said: Are those people living their best life?

No its terrifying and sad point blank. But people have reasons for being this way. Sometimes they caught the L because someone they loved passed away. That can be insanely hard to deal with and VR can help give them a place to morn. This is how a metaverse works and if you don't understand it you wont be able to help them. You will also be blind to that demographic. Barging into their lives and telling them to "git good" wont help.

Quote from ThunderKeil

On 4/19/2021 at 5:01 PM, ThunderKeil said: I'm not here to pretend to be a moral authority

You sound like a boomer complaining about bitcoin. Good now that we are even, since I am apparently exclusively using VR to ERP, lets continue the actual conversation.

------------------------------------------------------

The main thing to talk about here is that VR and metaverse content is a disruptive technology. This being a disruptive technology, take a giant whiff. This is what a disruptive technology looks, feels and smells like. This is highly disruptive to everything. (Yes including but not limited to the porn industry)

The metaverse is a black hole that sucks everyone and everything into it. VR is very disruptive. The entire internet is going to be viewed through a metaverse eventually.

Quote from Minos

On 4/19/2021 at 1:52 PM, Minos said: Castle is this you?

Sadly lol... I am in way deeper than that person. If you stare into the metaverse it will stare back at you. lol I am beyond the existential part and now I am starting to need an outlet to talk to people on the outside.

Quote from Minos

On 4/19/2021 at 1:52 PM, Minos said: The more I think about VR, the more I think that it's a misconception that it's a "replacement" for real life. Just like any other new media, it will have its own applications and uses, and we are barely scratching the surface of what's possible. I really have no interest to play games where you shoot robots or zombies (like 90% of VR games). But visiting the Cologne Cathedral in VR was a great experience.

VR is in a strange space right now, because it's too small to make quality projects financially feasible, so most of the stuff we see is sub-par mobile games trying to make a quick buck. There are some interesting experiences, but they are all very niche. Honestly, it's a very exciting space, kind of like the internet before Facebook ruined it all

Visiting a place in VR and having that experience changes you in a way that is hard to explain. Its not a replacement its merely just an alternate internet. Its a recreation of the internet, in fact, done in a way that is more conducive to humanity in general. Social media is just the first experiment and it had so many problems. Virtual reality allows you to physically be there spending time with others. Experiencing things together. While that may entail a lot of various kinds of activities, if you directly compare it to sharing pictures of food on Instagram its a straight objective upgrade. Pictures of food don't communicate with you. They don't watch movies or play games with you. Facebook is a relic of the past not the future. Virtual reality is the reimagining of everything digital in ways much greater than shooting robots or zombies. You now shoot robots and zombies together while drinking and having fun with friends and its on some random world made by some random person.

Quote from FMPONE

On 4/19/2021 at 6:37 PM, FMPONE said: So, more rated R here as opposed to rated X. That said, I imagine as time goes on with VR (and I guess already, to an extent) it's going to get HARDER and HARDER to discuss without talking about society's collective proclivities.

Exactly. People want cool looking avatars. Those avatars must then also must be attractive. The attention you receive for having an attractive avatar is amazing. The desire for an even more attractive avatar grows. The attention you get is even better. You then begin looking into getting full body. The attention and immersion is increased exponentially. This process seems to be extremely common. Once you compile this pattern with the fact that various games and activities will be directly tied to a metaverse you can bet your ass most people will be very attractive while they are playing other games attached to the metaverse. I agree with you 100% on this.

When people pick their avatars it becomes them. They will want to be that avatar in places even outside of the metaverse.

Quote from FMPONE

On 4/19/2021 at 6:37 PM, FMPONE said: I don't know if I would call that dystopic so much as more of the same for human beings. What concerns me more is how Facebook is obviously looking to extend the present control they have over people on Facebook and Instagram into VR, which they obviously hope to monopolize. It would be nice if Valve made more of a play for the mainstream and competed with Oculus on middle-end devices, because otherwise people will just drift more and more into that monopolized space.

This is an extremely important discussion right now. My take is that MOST people right now are clueless about what VR actually is. Most are still on some wave that it will be like releasing a new console or video game engine. Oh this is way more than that. Facebook seems to kind of have a clue what is going on and thus they are pushing their headsets but they are basically mentally deranged.

Making a headset that is capable of playing a metaverse game like VRChat, Neos, Chillout VR and then having the absolute tone deaf gal to attempt to force people to use a facebook account is beyond hilarity. This is the dumbest fucking thing in recent history. On one hand you have the next step in internet culture poised at disrupting the shit out of everything digital. And then on the other they attempt to get you to make a shitty throw away account for one of the most awful limited and dystopic failing platforms on the internet. LMAO!!! The only immediate comparison I can think of regarding this would be to have filled the Hindenburg with C4 explosives in an attempt to get it off the ground.

So what I am thinking that they are doing is hoping to try and make a metaverse that will be within some kind of walled garden right. The walled garden metaverse will always fail in when compared to a more open and free experience. Better memes more people to hang out with, sexier avatars, better live shows, better events, more indie games, less restriction on avatars. The more disruptive the metaverse is the better it will be for most people.

Quote from FMPONE

On 4/19/2021 at 6:37 PM, FMPONE said: If people are hanging out more and more in VR, but it's just a lifeless extension of Facebook via patent-trolling, lack of competition and oppressive advertising, that *would* be rather dystopian.

A walled garden metaverse is an oxymoron.

I am going to tell you right now, VR is still under the radar for most things that are about to get obliterated by the disruption. Most people have no clue how insanely all encompassing this is going to be. Gabe Newell is the only one on the upper echelons that seems to have an idea of what an "extinction level event for all other media" might look like in regards to his BCI.

We are having WAY too much fun right now. Once people start to realize what is happening it will be too late and it will cause a wave of panic for anyone who has not been paying attention. The metaverse is the killer app.

Ok maybe this was a mistake. I was kinda not expecting this to go like this and I did ask before saying anything. Like I understand the reaction "lol erp" but honestly you gotta be thinking about this in greater depth than that.

Just so you know I developed a VR COOP PVE Zombie shooter similar to left for dead and currently have the most technically advanced live event world in VRC as well as connections with a lot of the biggest streamers and communities in the scene. I also exploring how to monetize in ways nobody is currently doing.

sorry for interrupting the conversation about the future of VR I guess. Ill head out now

Quote from ThunderKeil

26 minutes ago, ThunderKeil said: you do you dude but idk that sounds like a specific usecase for a very specific crowd of people

VRC is now pushing 45k active players every weekend as far as I can tell. The popularity is increasing and so is money making potential. Assuming its all just because of ERP is pretty ignorant.

edit : Its definitely a facet though!

Quote from Lizard

1 hour ago, Lizard said: [Blocked Image: https://i.giphy.com/media/3o7btT1T9qpQZWhNlK/giphy.gif]

I stress the 18+ aspect because anything lower than that gets an instant kick. After that its pretty meaningless.

Quote from Buddy

1 hour ago, Buddy said: Are the girls hot? (my pandemic lay count is depressing)

LOL

The semi famous streamers and youtube content creators to exotic pole dancing cat girls. The variety of different hotness levels will likely bend your brain.

edit : To add more to this, I have rationalized that when your identity is your avatar then its a form of transhumanism thus by default everyone in VR who identifies as their avatar as their chosen appearance is trans by default. Its a gray area but honestly its an entire topic by itself.

Quote from Buddy

8 minutes ago, Buddy said: What kind of age brackets are we talking about? I can't imagine you see a lot of people under 30 considering the hardware requirements?

I have an Index and it never crossed my mind to use it to be social lol

18+ for anything I am involved with. My friends range from literally 18 to 60 years old. Age is just a number for the most part in this kind of social environment. The oldest person I have ever hung out with was 68 if I recall.

Also Quest users have a relatively cheap setup and I try to make sure they are able to hang out in my worlds.

edit : as far as the social thing, I am surprised mapcore does not already have a VR meetup. After you experience it you wont want to go back I am not kidding.

Quote from Radu

10 minutes ago, Radu said: Not gonna lie, this has always been one of the concerns on the back of my mind, but I didn't expect it to happen any time soon. It's a bit scary actually.

But it's interesting to think about what you wrote overall.

Yep, this is a thing and its been this way for a long time.

Alcoholism is also big in VR. I know multiple people who have suffered deteriorated health from over drinking. Its extremely common to have a live show or club event where people pass out in game. Your concerns are easily justified.

Quote from Radu

9 hours ago, Radu said: @Castle please continue, I think everyone here is curious about how VR could develop.

I am in an interesting situation now where I have been active with metaverse content creation for a few years. I noticed that player numbers have been exploding in the VR club scene recently so I decided to genuinely take it seriously and build a new venue of my own and fully apply my game dev experience. Up until recently its been a more casual thing but now its a full time job. I have learned an immense amount of stuff from how to design social worlds to the kinds of communities that exist and what they want. Its very closely linked to Discord right now so most discords have active communities within the metaverse. VRChat is the largest VR metaverse I am aware of but its not the only one. I have been pretty active regarding talking to devs of other metaverses such as Chill out VR and NEOS. I think I have over 3000 hours on VRC alone but I know people personally who basically live in VR and almost never leave, they sleep in VR.

The social experience of VR is insanely good, It feels like you are actually with your friends hanging out. Its the one thing VR provides that nothing else can compete. Social media cannot compete with the visceral feeling of chilling with friends in VR. If you are within any of the social circles around me now you will meet and talk to hundreds if not thousands of people within the first few months of playing, I am not kidding or exaggerating. Its hyper social to a point that I cannot even remember peoples names. My brain is at its limits and its been this way for awhile. I am an extremely social person as well. I have never experienced anything even close to this before.

---------------- Ok so with the above in mind this is why I say VR requires a hyper social metaverse archetype. Its the on thing VR provides that nothing else really can compete with. Games like Second Life were ahead of their time but its no where near the immersive experience of actually feeling like you are really there talking to people. Seeing people in full body and recognizing them because of their avatar in a night club is amazingly cool. And as we begin going down the rabbit hole of face tracking and improved development tools quality will improve at an exponential rate.

There is a lot of money in full body tracking. But it has almost no real application outside of a social environment.

There is a lot of money in facial tracking. But it has no real application outside of a social environment. (Facial tracking in VR with the right people is weaponized cuteness)

There is a lot of money in avatars and accessories. But these kinds of things are out of scope for anything but a social environment.

There is a lot of money in providing tactile senses while in VR. But something like this would barely be a gimmick for something like HLA but for a social platform it would probably disrupt the entire porn industry.

If you bullet point all of the cool advancements that are coming to VR you will quickly realize that its all best used in a highly social environment. People who are confused about VR ever being able to catch on right now or view it as a gimmick are simply missing the boat.

On another note : I was considering the idea of setting up a monthly game dev drink up at my venue. A VR gamedev drink up would pretty awesome I think. I think it would also be a good way to show and explain the stuff I am talking about.

Quote from Radu

11 hours ago, Radu said: I also think VR will play more into the social aspect, having conversations with people, meetings etc with games like HLA being a side dish. Even if they get the cable out of the way, there's still the fact that it gives you motion sickness. It's cool, but it won't beat sitting on your couch with a controller in your hands.

If you have not gone out drinking with your friends while world hopping or chilling in front of a mirror you have not experienced VR. I cannot overstate how good the social aspect is. As far as playing games and such its not that amazing. In fact its kinda meh.

The social aspect is the draw while everything else is just icing. VR requires a hyper social metaverse. The fun thing about this is that I don't believe this is a super well known thing and most of the game industry is completely blind to it. This means that people who know now have a big advantage moving forward while even the biggest AAA giants are still scratching their heads.

Quote from FMPONE

2 hours ago, FMPONE said: Full body VR? you're so far into the future, you're flying to work

Most people I know are full body these days. If you want to see for yourself let me know I can invite you to some events and such. My venue is pretty active. I actually think its a good idea for anyone who discusses the future of VR to check out this scene.