UPDATE (1/27/2024): I don't get in VRChat these days due to my current living situation, but that's okay. Having experienced VRChat for a considerable number of hours already, I think I've seen and done most everything there is to do. That being said, it's been very interesting to see how people I once considered my friends handled my absence. Unless you maintain a consistent level of activity, you pretty much don't exist to people outside of VRChat, and once you kinda separate yourself from the community, the issues that plague a lot of users become overwhelmingly obvious. Things such as an extreme lack of commitment, complete obsessions with alcohol and/or sexually explicit activities, a host of manipulative and/or narcissistic behaviors, etc. It's really not good. Use VRChat to meme and sh*tpost around or explore beautiful worlds and sights, but try to avoid getting too close to people or you'll be extremely disappointed, or worse, find yourself surrounded by highly toxic, and in some cases, dangerous people.

=========================

It's finally time, and what better way to celebrate breaking 6969.0 hours played of this mortifying, hellish time sink than by writing a totally serious, no BS review while munching on a $7 Chalupa Cravings Box from Taco Bell. Seriously, after putting in so many hours, I've seen it all; it's safe to say that VRChat is probably one of the best worst platforms I've had the pleasurable displeasure of committing more of my time to than I'd probably like to admit. Yet here we are.

So, let's start at the beginning...

Like most people, my VRChat journey started as a Desktop cripple. I did have VR equipment at the time of my birth into VRChat, but it's not a real VRChat experience unless you've been on Desktop at least once in your life. I say that because there's something rather gratifying about being able to move, talk, and interact more carelessly on Desktop. Plus, being able to conveniently swap between windows, getting up if necessary without taking off VR equipment, and not having to worry about the plethora of issues that exist between cross-play (using Oculus and SteamVR simultaneously is the equivalent to trying to stack a pyramid of cards with one of your hands constantly flailing around in a figure-8 shape. If you know, you know) make Desktop VRChat more of a convenience than anything else.

It wasn't long after I came kicking and screaming into VRChat back in 2017 before I realized something about the platform: I need to either embrace this new experience and be ready to dedicate a lot of time to it, or escape while I still have most of my brain cells. It's pretty obvious which one I ultimately sided with. I would spend most of my weekends on VRChat roleplaying with a group of friends, exploring worlds, and watching movies (often times with complete strangers) while slowly developing this understanding that VRChat isn't like other games I played. In fact, it's not a game at all, it's a platform. A social platform. A way to engage with friends and strangers from around the world while doing a variety of activities. VRChat is completely driven by its social aspect, which is why I refer to it as a social platform first and as a game second. This is critical to remember, as I think many people treat it too much as a game where they can forget that other users are still real people and treat them how they want without fear of consequence.

Speaking of people treating you how they want, I took a break from VRChat in 2018 due to the onslaught of a very particular meme, one everybody knows and loves as Ugandan Knuckles. Being a girl in VRChat during the rise of Ugandan Knuckles introduced a number of situations where I'd have a literal swarm of users in Knuckles avatars ranging from tiny, squishable Knuckles to towering, chonky Knuckles forming crowds around me and demanding I be their queen, spitting, and clicking their tongues in unison towards me. It was funny at first, but after a while it got really, really old. I still have flashbacks to 2018 VRChat experiences including one where a tall, scrawny Knuckles stood over me and in a scuffed fashion repeatedly attempted to thrust his hips at me while screaming some mantra I didn't understand, broken up by occasional spit flying through the air. The meme culture within VRChat is still very much alive and well and at this point is an integral part of what makes VRChat, well, VRChat.

Fast-forward to 2019, and I eventually return to VRChat without my previous friend group. By this time, I had started using VR with my Oculus Quest CV1 more. I explored more public worlds and wasn't surprised to see the usual chaos that still graces public lobbies even to this day: people being loud, using obnoxious avatars, and being straight up offensive sometimes, but that's the internet for you. However, I eventually started meeting new people who, like me, were in it to find friends and make memories doing things we enjoy together. We'd hang out almost daily, avoiding the real world as it got ravaged by a virus, and we got to know each other very well. Eventually, we became a tight-knit group of friends that always looked forward to seeing and spending time with each other at the end of every day.

It was also around this time that I knew I was in trouble. I started seeking out new experiences, dating (sigh...), going to clubs, buying avatars, and falling ever-deeper into the pits of degeneracy while my IRL family could do nothing but watch helplessly as I put my VR on every night around 1AM. The lines between virtual reality and reality-reality slowly became more blurred as I began to use VRChat as a sort of way to more easily socialize with others and indulge myself in experiences I wouldn't normally be able to find in the real world. I'm stubbornly convinced that once you break through the initial sh*tstorm of trolls, cyberterrorists, and kids (the game is 13+, and as a college student I always stick with people my age; kids are terrifying, anyway), there are plenty of wonderfully interesting experiences to be had and to be enjoyed in VRChat, for better or for worse.

Like most social platforms, VRChat also exists as a way to bridge the gaps between a number of different communities and groups of people. It has an extremely large presence of LGBTQ+ individuals (including myself) and lends itself to being a space for people to freely express themselves exactly as they see fit, or in whichever way they feel most comfortable. "Mutes", users who don't use mics and often communicate using sign language and more exaggerated body expressions, have a noticeably large presence within VRChat as well, with some worlds even being dedicated towards teaching people how to sign effectively in VRChat. Furries, anime enthusiasts, party animals, aviation geeks and motorheads, sh*tposters and cringe connoisseurs all have a place within VRChat, as well as people from all corners of the globe are able to come under one roof (or in one lobby) and meet together while engaging in a number of activities from playing mini-games, partying, roleplaying, sight-seeing, movie watching, sleeping, and just chatting. This blending of different identities, cultures, ideologies, and characters is part of what makes VRChat so interesting to me; you'll never know what you find walking into a new lobby, and as long as you're looking in the right spots, you can find good people to surround yourself and make friends with.

[b]UPDATE (1/27/2024)[/b]: I don't get in VRChat these days due to my current living situation, but that's okay. Having experienced VRChat for a considerable number of hours already, I think I've seen and done most everything there is to do. That being said, it's been very interesting to see how people I once considered my friends handled my absence. Unless you maintain a consistent level of activity, you pretty much don't exist to people outside of VRChat, and once you kinda separate yourself from the community, the issues that plague a lot of users become overwhelmingly obvious. Things such as an extreme lack of commitment, [b]complete[/b] obsessions with alcohol and/or sexually explicit activities, a host of manipulative and/or narcissistic behaviors, etc. It's really not good. Use VRChat to meme and sh*tpost around or explore beautiful worlds and sights, but try to avoid getting too close to people or you'll be extremely disappointed, or worse, find yourself surrounded by highly toxic, and in some cases, dangerous people. ========================= It's finally time, and what better way to celebrate breaking 6969.0 hours played of this mortifying, hellish time sink than by writing a totally serious, no BS review while munching on a $7 Chalupa Cravings Box from Taco Bell. Seriously, after putting in so many hours, I've seen it all; it's safe to say that VRChat is probably one of the best worst platforms I've had the pleasurable displeasure of committing more of my time to than I'd probably like to admit. Yet here we are. So, let's start at the beginning... Like most people, my VRChat journey started as a Desktop cripple. I did have VR equipment at the time of my birth into VRChat, but it's not a real VRChat experience unless you've been on Desktop at least once in your life. I say that because there's something rather gratifying about being able to move, talk, and interact more carelessly on Desktop. Plus, being able to conveniently swap between windows, getting up if necessary without taking off VR equipment, and not having to worry about the plethora of issues that exist between cross-play (using Oculus and SteamVR simultaneously is the equivalent to trying to stack a pyramid of cards with one of your hands constantly flailing around in a figure-8 shape. If you know, you know) make Desktop VRChat more of a convenience than anything else. It wasn't long after I came kicking and screaming into VRChat back in 2017 before I realized something about the platform: I need to either embrace this new experience and be ready to dedicate a lot of time to it, or escape while I still have most of my brain cells. It's pretty obvious which one I ultimately sided with. I would spend most of my weekends on VRChat roleplaying with a group of friends, exploring worlds, and watching movies (often times with complete strangers) while slowly developing this understanding that VRChat isn't like other games I played. In fact, it's not a game at all, it's a [i]platform[/i]. A social platform. A way to engage with friends and strangers from around the world while doing a variety of activities. VRChat is completely driven by its social aspect, which is why I refer to it as a social platform first and as a game second. This is critical to remember, as I think many people treat it too much as a game where they can forget that other users are still real people and treat them how they want without fear of consequence. Speaking of people treating you how they want, I took a break from VRChat in 2018 due to the onslaught of a very particular meme, one everybody knows and loves as Ugandan Knuckles. Being a girl in VRChat during the rise of Ugandan Knuckles introduced a number of situations where I'd have a literal swarm of users in Knuckles avatars ranging from tiny, squishable Knuckles to towering, chonky Knuckles forming crowds around me and demanding I be their queen, spitting, and clicking their tongues in unison towards me. It was funny at first, but after a while it got really, really old. I still have flashbacks to 2018 VRChat experiences including one where a tall, scrawny Knuckles stood over me and in a scuffed fashion repeatedly attempted to thrust his hips at me while screaming some mantra I didn't understand, broken up by occasional spit flying through the air. The meme culture within VRChat is still very much alive and well and at this point is an integral part of what makes VRChat, well, VRChat. Fast-forward to 2019, and I eventually return to VRChat without my previous friend group. By this time, I had started using VR with my Oculus Quest CV1 more. I explored more public worlds and wasn't surprised to see the usual chaos that still graces public lobbies even to this day: people being loud, using obnoxious avatars, and being straight up offensive sometimes, but that's the internet for you. However, I eventually started meeting new people who, like me, were in it to find friends and make memories doing things we enjoy together. We'd hang out almost daily, avoiding the real world as it got ravaged by a virus, and we got to know each other very well. Eventually, we became a tight-knit group of friends that always looked forward to seeing and spending time with each other at the end of every day. It was also around this time that I knew I was in trouble. I started seeking out new experiences, dating ([i]sigh[/i]...), going to clubs, buying avatars, and falling ever-deeper into the pits of degeneracy while my IRL family could do nothing but watch helplessly as I put my VR on every night around 1AM. The lines between virtual reality and reality-reality slowly became more blurred as I began to use VRChat as a sort of way to more easily socialize with others and indulge myself in experiences I wouldn't normally be able to find in the real world. I'm stubbornly convinced that once you break through the initial sh*tstorm of trolls, cyberterrorists, and kids (the game is 13+, and as a college student I always stick with people my age; kids are terrifying, anyway), there are plenty of wonderfully interesting experiences to be had and to be enjoyed in VRChat, for better or for worse. Like most social platforms, VRChat also exists as a way to bridge the gaps between a number of different communities and groups of people. It has an extremely large presence of LGBTQ+ individuals (including myself) and lends itself to being a space for people to freely express themselves exactly as they see fit, or in whichever way they feel most comfortable. "Mutes", users who don't use mics and often communicate using sign language and more exaggerated body expressions, have a noticeably large presence within VRChat as well, with some worlds even being dedicated towards teaching people how to sign effectively in VRChat. Furries, anime enthusiasts, party animals, aviation geeks and motorheads, sh*tposters and cringe connoisseurs all have a place within VRChat, as well as people from all corners of the globe are able to come under one roof (or in one lobby) and meet together while engaging in a number of activities from playing mini-games, partying, roleplaying, sight-seeing, movie watching, sleeping, and just chatting. This blending of different identities, cultures, ideologies, and characters is part of what makes VRChat so interesting to me; you'll never know what you find walking into a new lobby, and as long as you're looking in the right spots, you can find good people to surround yourself and make friends with.