Being an introverted person, I’ve never truly enjoyed social gatherings and talking to strangers. However, AltspaceVR seems to make everything easier and spark the fun of connecting with strangers in a fascinating way that I start to become addicted to.
Avatar Customization
So here’s what happened: when AltspaceVR finally finished rendering the main room environment (Which took quite a while thanks to the laggy internet connection), the first thing that caught my eyes is the avatar generator. I saw a default game-like avatar readily stand next to the main menu and immediately realized that this is ME because its body movement is responding to mine. After waving hands to my altspace avatar and doing all kinds of silly gestures, I start to customize my avatar to craft my aspirational personal image. The customization toolkit provides a range of skin tones, face shapes, and outfits. I made my hair color to ombre blue- my dream hairstyle but never have the guts to bleach it in real life. I also noticed that body shape customization is not categorized by binary options (female or male) but a few different body types with no obvious sexual characteristics to avoid debates around gender identity and ensure inclusivity.
Now I am satisfied with my digital avatar, I start to explore events in altspace. All the events are in real-world time, and you could see the number of people in each space and make the decision on where you would like to explore. If it happened that there’s no live event at the time you arrive, public spaces like Common’s Campfire could be a good place to start.
Interesting encounter in Campfire
I entered Campfire and saw a lot of interesting floating avatars just like me. People are gathering and talking just like in real-world meetups. It still takes courage to initiate a conversation with strangers but seems easier than in real life because the instant judgment we usually perceive from strangers is blocked by the digital avatar which acts like the armor that hides our true identity along with social awkwardness. With this virtual image, we all look cool and calm (and weird when you are standing there and trying to figure out the controller- looks like your hands are broken).
The first person I talked to comes from Germany, we were chitchatting about hobbies, jobs and asking each other about covid situation in the country. Altspace is considerate enough to provide interactable objects all over the space, such as fire sticks, campfires, and basketball. These objects can also be the starting point for novice players or great conversation starters: it’s like the first date with your crush, there need to be some things for you to maintain the conversation and trigger potential common interests. Soon I find myself giggling with my newly-met “friend” because we are trying to feed virtual marshmallows to each other’s mouths which is funny and weird. I also realize that I rarely do things like this even with my close friend in real life. Altspace allows me to do silly things as if it transports me to my childhood.
Teleport to personal space
Another good conversation starter is to compliment people’s outfits, like saying “Hey I like your glasses”. Compared to real life, people in altspace are more likely to spend time and effort on their digital appearance as it’s a great opportunity to let personalities shine without financial costs. I come across another person in a very cool gothic-style robe with silver hair, and start to compliment on her style. Later on, she was glad to invite me to her place, which is usually not something I would say yes to in real life as we just met 5 minutes ago and it can be quite risky, but I assume if any harassment happens I could quit immediately. She drew a glowing sphere in mid-air which is the entrance of her magical space and asked me to put my hand on it so that we are all connected to this portal. The whole process reminds me of side-Along Apparition in Harry Potter (maybe they do get inspiration from it, who knows?), after she enters the portal, a floating window populates in my view asking me if I’d like to enter the space with her, I select yes and teleported to a new place.
Here in her space, she as the host gave me a short tour guide and also showed me some beta features and tips in Altspace. It turns out that this is a showroom to advertise her real-world business. I also learned that you can create your own world using simple functions in blender and unity. Although some of the decorations and photographs can be overwhelming, I did appreciate her kindness and courtesy. I would take it as an eye-opening adventure.
Dealing with unfriendly Speech
Harassment is the last thing people want, and one-time harassment can kill all the affection and good impression people have on VR. In Altspace, players can create a bubble as your personal comfort zone to avoid people teleporting and sitting on you or intentionally violate your personal space. Additionally, you could easily block someone and this person will never appear in your world.
That’s my first impression in Altspace, and I’ve also explored Venue (Beta) which offers a quite similar experience. In the future, I will do some in-depth comparisons on Avatar creation and interaction mechanisms. Stay tuned!