Virtual Reality Is Missing Its Moment… Again
VR missed several opportunities, but this is the biggest yet
The first time I put on my headset and walked around in VRChat, the avatar-filled virtual reality multiworld, I accidentally interrupted a small gathering of friends. They were meeting in a small cabin on one of the hundreds of worlds hosted on the platform. As far as I could tell, this particular world only had one cabin surrounded by a flat, low-resolution landscape and bordered by water. As I explored the virtual space, I could hear the voices of the attendees in the cabin stop their conversation and look out the window at me. I was fairly noticeable since I was Diddy Kong and was nearly the size of their little building; I could hear them talking about me through the walls. I was tempted to enter the little cabin and talk to the group, but instead, I tapped at my enormous virtual wristwatch and teleported to another world.
The first-person point of view in VRChat enables an immersive experience and connection to other users. At times, it even feels natural to communicate with other people in the digital environment. When I first used VRChat in 2018, it seemed to me that it…
