Woops! Just two quick notes: at 5:09 I accidentally forgot to replace the credit text, that should be Wild Greenhaven by Enverex. Also, at 34:56, that world is Bathhouse Utopia - The Tranquil Sanctuary by Fionna.
I gave VRChat a shot for the first time last weekend. In my very first public lobby, someone called me a retard simply for existing, some dickhead with a klansman avatar ran around the lobby screaming racial slurs, and then my game crashed after fifteen minutes of exposure, looping the same five seconds of squeakers talking to one another incomprehensibly. I felt like I finally found my way back home.
I was thinking "Huh I was pretty young in the period Straszfilms is talking about, I probably don't remember the early internet that much" and then 18:55 happened and I got VIVID flashbacks to browsing Sailor Moon fansites for hours at a time
Wow, thanks for putting in words of what i was missing from the early 2000s internet but couldnt point my finger on. Great video, looks like I should take a look at vrc :)
this video has stirred my heart. in this point where I am hurting and gave VRC a try, that for the first time I've really gotten to break the shackles of gender identity that I got to put cracks in back in 2004 when friends on the internet told me it was cute when I was more effeminate and I liked that idea. trying to find worlds and get suggestions on what to explore and do began to truly fill me with wonder at a time where i am dealing with likely some of the biggest stressors of myu life save for when my body begins failing me much in the same way that is happening to my father right now. I come here now as it looks like Easy Anti-Cheat is here to stay, to eliminate solutions to problems that community had long since solved for themselves, to bring that sort of order as... things begin to change. That's been my first two weeks of VRChat.
Ima just say it. Even CG5 jumped on the Uganda Knuckles (the weird short "do you know da wae?" knucks) hype. That little guy is amazing. I once heard of someone who dressed up like him in public dancing to that very same CG5 song.
Anyone remember what Meez was? It was a mid 2010's chatroom where you made characters and and worlds, rooms to go to. Active Worlds sounds like an older Meez (or IMVU and the like)
in my opinion there is simply no way to monetize it without losing whats special. once the bottom line or means becomes money everything else will be endlessly sacrificed in the pursuit of such. while the slippery slope fallacy has the word fallacy in it, that argument does not become less valid by just having that word in there. once you begin to sanitize anything you can not stop. even if you do manage to avoid the slope and get people on board to give enough money consistently to keep things running then those investors will always want more money out of what theyre investing in. if something else crops up that fills a similar enough niche to vrchat investors will inevitably jump ship to what you can make money off of and it will then be put on the devs to adjust to what big corpo wants in order to secure funding
You said what I've been describing as "the wild west creative community" And comeon dude... Vrchat isn't all just anime people, it's also full of FURRIES :-3 We tend to hide outside of public worlds.
A funny observation. "Snow Crash" describes Hiro's VR glasses as having 2K resolution per eye and refresh rate of 72Hz. The only real VR headset I found that uses 72Hz is Oculus Quest 2, and it is also one of the very few with 2K resolution per eye. And now it is called "Meta Quest 2", and the same company is set to build something they call "Metaverse".
As an older zoomer, I started getting involved with the internet in the twilight years of its “golden age.” And here I am ten years later, watching internet documentarians such as Whang! And Wavywebsurf nostalgically talking about all the crazy crap that went on back then. I wish I could’ve experienced it.
It was Golden... Almost like the randomness of a dream that somehow makes sense while your in it. Not just any dream, the kind that sticks with you for years to come and you think "Yeah, I'd like to redream that dream." and a bit of your soul longs for it like a lover gone to war, you wonder if it'll ever come back. I've tried to describe that time, words won't ever compare to living it so, only the few can relate. It was another world, very random, magical, horrific, and just so amazing. To compare what was with what is, I physically feel my heart drop, rip, leak some blood, and cry. All before my eyes even begin to mist on the outside. Sorry for the rant ^^; I just felt this comment so damn hard.
@@slayerficated yesss i still remember allll of the virtual games i used to play! I still have my sheet of usernames and passwords for my olld accounts
This was a really good video. The way you speak and organize the content is very relaxing, you properly credited everything in the video, know what you're talking about and clearly express passion... Thank you for this, this was a pleasure.
i feel like.. tumblr hasn't been a total failure. sure, it's fallen from the highest echelon of social media by popularity, but it's still the pit that a lot of internet culture grows in. it's still up and running, and all of that. they've actually been trying to figure out how to monitize it well, i think.
tumblr recently released 15th anniversary merchandise, and started offering a paid subscription to remove ads.. either things are going to be ok, or this is one of the last hurrah's.. we'll have to see
I hope tumblr can stay up. People clown on it, but it's one of the few places that won't ban or mute you for anything not "kid friendly" aside from porn (RIP to the porn side of tumblr). It's got its own culture, and is full of genuinely funny people.
What Verizon did is like.. changing the salinity in a salt water tank and then going “how did the fish die?” Also it’s all man-butts now. What’s with that? XD
I've had a lot of conversations like this with old buddies from the aol/everquest/old internet days. WoW really did feel like a DMZ era between old and new. It's kind of insane to me because at the time, every web 2.0 thing was something we all LOVED and saw it as a natural progression. But somehow once it all got combined, consolidated, and monetized and the end result has felt so soulless and corporate.
I am so glad to have this sort of thing back after the death of the old internet. The true freedom and creativity is so absolutely wonderful. Every time I see someone calling for more moderation, censorship, or any other restrictions that are all too common in the sanitized, corporatized modern internet it honestly turns my stomach. Most of them probably don't even know the irreparable harm such things will inflict on the platform and when this does inevitably come to pass, many will be like the me before finding VRChat, longing for the freedom and creativity that they once enjoyed.
This actually had me in tears. I'm 33 years old, and while my computer time wasn't nearly as much as yours, I do remember the Old Internet. It really was a much more interesting place back then. If you didn't already know your destination of where you wanted to click, your possibilities were endless and mysterious.
I also 33 and...fuck. This era of early internet was really cool. I got my first 256 kb "fast" internet in 2005 when I was 15 years old kid and that was so cool . Those forums...old school rgs, rts games, forums and different wier websites. Also era of lan parties in computer clubs... That nostalgia of that era is so hard. I can only cry.
This video is fantastic. I've forwarded it to some friends of mine over in dev and 3d modeling chats. I made the house at 10:34. Around the time you made this video, I finally learned how to rig and 3d model my own avatar, do all the weight painting, visemes, and learn enough unity to get all that working in VRChat with full body tracking. I think, socially, the pandemic has caused me to become reclusive much like my high school years. It's given me a unique bit of time to explore new areas of creativity, learning C#, Udon#, Python, etc, just to continue to pursue making environments for people to explore, and potentially learn some applicable skills for other jobs. You managed to encapsulate perfectly so many of the feelings I've been having over the past several years in areas that include not just the evolving state of the internet, but in the design of completely offline video games. Large companies and advertising firms know what can get people hooked. With the early stages of the Internet, when no one really knew what to make of it, VC's backed hosting companies like tripod, angelfire, geocities, and people just made random websites expressing their true personal interests. Nowadays, once the companies have figured out what works through this sorta... genetic algorithm thing, the websites that remained have become super polished, and the users of that website are using it because they're been sufficiently advertised to, and are using it mostly because they're addicted to some gamified element of it (likes, comments, subscriptions, retweets, followers) that pits them up against everyone else with these metrics. It's this sort of implicit agreement where the house always wins, in a sense. In these environments, once anyone gets too creative, too innovative, and falls out of line with the expectations of the company, they can, for no reason, quash that individual, without ever having to explain themselves. That was made apparent in this very comment I'm writing, which got entirely deleted from your channel by RUclips without warning! This is the second time I'm writing this thing! I think what we're looking at with VRChat is yet another frontier, at the fringe of mainstream. Large corporations and VC firms are backing it because they don't know what to do with it yet to make it turn a profit, so they're just kinda having a hands-off approach to see what the people make of it. For now, I think we can basically ride the backs of these VC's to be as creative as we like. Some people will eventually discover some ways to turn this creative fun into something with a profit margin, and the companies will then absorb up this frontier and pave it over with whatever methods prove to be mainstream and efficient to keep the platform running. Some of the creative types will likely then get sucked into this corporate environment and allow the frontier to leave them behind. The rest of us, the incessantly creative types, will have to move onto something else. I have no idea what that will be, but I think it will continue to have these elements of chaos to them. I think we are attracted to the chaos of trying to get new technology to work. Where things break down is where we get to see people's true personalities, what they're truly interested in, and not just what caters to their addictions. I think what we can take away from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash is that the oppressive corporate dystopia reality that existed in Hiro's "RL" became the Internet we see today. It could be that the creative escape from corporate overlords is something that will forever happen in tech, and VC's will ironically be funding the way.
I didn’t grow up with the “old internet,” so I don’t have the same nostalgia for it that you do. But I still enjoyed listening to you talk about it! I guess I never really saw VR Chat in this light. I might have to look into it now.
I found your channel (thanks to that algorithm highlighting you on someone else's extremely professional review of new VR gear lol, the irony), and your content and essays are fantastic. Thank you for walking me through your thoughts in such a well thought out and comprehensive way, its been fantastic!
One more interesting note about having your own website back then-- cloud services weren't a thing yet. I had my own website partly to save flash movies and images I liked.
Great video! Really encapsulates a lot of my own feelings on why VRChat is so amazing. It’s really overwhelming and I haven’t really made friends yet, but the whole experience is just incredible. One day I was feeling sad and wanted to stare out the window on a rainy day, so I went on VRChat and did that. What a powerful thing this game is.
Saw your video on gender and identity first and took a look at what else you had. Both that video and this one have made me a lot more eager to try VR Chat. :)
This was a trip, and I enjoyed it a ton. I love that you keep your past experiences to heart. A lot of the games you talked about, I never even knew they existed, and i'm a millennial myself. I used to just stick with my xbox and playstation and went on random adventures on the internet, and never cared where it would take me. I was also a curious boy, and still am. I have a lot of my own special moments from the past that I wish I could re-live as well as me trying to re-live, but it's just never the same as the first time. But hey, i'm glad I got to see the whole video. I knew you were wayyyyyy more than just a cool dude I headbang and dance with in GrooVr to hard-hitting and passionate music.
Dude I love your content, but this trend of educational, informational creators putting "ear rape" levels of volume cuts into their videos needs to fucking end. Preview your own content on some decent quality headphones, and turn your whisper-level voice up loud enough to actually listen to, right before one of your audio cuts. It literally fucking hurts.
This video is perfect! Thank you for taking the time to make this it really helped me understand VRCHAT more. I hope that VRCHAT can stay in the magical form you have described!
Man, I can feel and see the effort u put into this video, I really applaud you. Seeing that u dont even have 1k subs shows that ur one of the many people I have found which are kinda swept under the rug till someone finds it. I really hope this video of yours makes it pop out
Oh damn, didn't even know you were relatively new to VRC as well. Watching your videos I always got the impression that you spent time in VRC for a long time already.
Why the old Internet was more interesting : the difference between a zoomed in view of a single car on a tiny road vs a zoomed out view of a busy intersection
I think the old internet stills exists, it has never died, it's just not on the spotlight anymore. I know these websites exist, I just have to find them, and I know how to, but I just don't want to try and find them right now. I got other things to do. It's difficult to find though because you have to ask around and avoid the many sites that are just imitating another site, trying to be big, or are focused on pushing a movement. This video reminded me a lot to when I was using REDACTED, they were good times. It's the first website I really cared about
RUclips deleted my original comment, annoying. The funny thing though is that the comment was a lot longer and it was deleted because I made an edit that said "I should probably make this shorter, not sure though. I said a lot of things that are unnecessary" There was also a reply from BreezeFox that said "we didn't do this to ourselves" I believe we did. We asked for search engines, and relevant results, and it led us to this. Websites can manipulate search engines to move them to the top and get more clicks, they don't have to pay the search engine to make it happen. We also asked to grow our business through the internet and advertise ourselves, this is what happened. Sure, maybe you didn't ask for this, but if you were a business owner then you would ask for it. I know the artists and animators at Newgrounds were asking for it. The big problem is that no one knew that this meant losing so much on the internet. We didn't ask to lose this magic, but the things we asked has led us to this.
I came here from VRChat's reddit and kind of expected a video about well VRChat. What I got I didn't expect but it helped me understand why someone could enjoy VRChat that much. I've been on the internet for quite a long time creating my own websites and just browsing the sites. I was more of a IRC person so active worlds or worlds chat is something I totally missed. I've been trying to figure out what I myself like about VRChat for a long time but I couldn't really grasp it. Pretty much everything on the internet is making me feel bad since it's reflecting the society, consumerism and whatnot. I'm tired of being told what to do, what products to buy and what to like. VRChat gave me freedom which I can't find in the real world but only after watching your video I finally understand why. Good job on your video, looking forward to your next one. (note that I don't normally watch youtube videos)
wow I can't believe this man literally took ALL the words from my mouth relating to VRC legit was thinking of working on a video that's pretty much this without the super good backstory & perspective looking forward to whatever you make next!
36:58 You haven't heard of Neos VR? Wait... or have you? Honestly none of your criticisms really apply to Neos VR. And a lot if not all of your comments on VRChat actually apply to Neos VR. (the cryptocurrency one (Ooh scary😮)) If anything VRChat is honesty more manufactured nowadays then how it used to be.
Absolutely had to comment on this. I know I'm late, but youtube decided I'm here now so welp, here we go lol. First off, VRChat is absolutely amazing, it isn't for me but you're entirely right that it gets the creative spirit of the old internet. It is a miracle of sorts that something of this sort was ever birthed this side of the millennia. Secondly, the issue is that corporations are playing it safe, providing what we all want, but that snuffs out any ounce of creativity that could exist. It's not exactly the wrong choice (especially when you consider investors), but it really is a shame that we're left with nothing but safe content. It's like being provided air, yes we all need it but it's so common we already have it. For anyone who wants something special, something creative, well that's outside of the standard and so that isn't "safe". To give us, as humans, what we ask for universally, they have to remove the truly "human" aspect from whatever it is we receive. It's a dilemma, and not one I really have a good answer for. For now, it's nice to see any mainstream app outside of the normal mold.
Straszfilms: I have been binge watching your series on VR for a while liking it got a question for you how do you do your real life room and your avatar in the same video is it video editing or is it live streaming.... I would really like to do the same thing in 2023 with my avatars in the future please help
The Amount of sheer freedom in Vrchat is staggering. I've seen things and talked to people I never would have met my entire life and that honestly is incredible to think about. I have roughly 4,000 hours and have been playing since early 2017 when the playerbase was about 250 or so. From the get go it felt like a giant family almost we all knew eachother, it was crazy. It has grown into almost feeling like another world full of others you can meet. I've seen two deaf people fully communicate in vr. Ive spoken to someone in Japan who spoke no english but I had a translater to translate for me. Its staggering the possibilities that come with VR. The future looks bright for it all and I hope others can experience the awe of seeing and the feeling of actually being there. Its wild! Thank you for the well put together documentary!
The feeling is probably just that you can be free do whatever you want, not be judged aslong as you're not beinge rude and be everything you want having fun as something or someone you're not are being able to escape the regular 'inprisonment' of your daily life being able to talk to people who do not neccessairly share the same ideology but still not be rejected because it's simply the community and they know not to judge how you look like or how you are because the games community is simply split in so many ways that it's regular to be so unusual compared to real life. It's a perfect place because it's like the way of life, chaotic and boundless which real life isn't even close to, you're not permited to do stuff, you need to do certain stuff at a certain time, you are on a constant schedule removing your freedom and bringing order to the chaotic way of life creating a lot of stress. In VR chat there is none of that, it's chaotic freedom where you can do whatever you want without constant perfection and limitation. It's just the origin on life
that was literally the first thought I had when I jumped into my Index and loaded up VRchat lmfao, it just felt like a mix between the old internet and counter-strike/gmod custom maps. A bit broader than VRchat, but I also really love how almost everyone has voice chat on in any VR game. It really feels like a place again to socialize and experience weird random stuff, it's just people having fun and wanting to socialize while at it. I don't know the last time I even had a conversation in a multiplayer game. The games keep dismantling lobbies and no one ever has Voice Chat on but in VR all of that is different. I forgot how much I missed this wonderful space where everything goes and you just forget the real world for a couple of moments, but not because you want to unwind but because you just have so much fun.
Because it is so community driven, I think it would make sense for VR chat to do patreon or equivalent. This would give them even more incentive to listen to the community and still be able to make money for their investors.
I just started watching through your back catalog and as someone who has worked with Activeworlds as a performance space, I was over the moon to see you give it such a deep dive here, oh my god.
The unfortunate pitfall of monetization is not the fact that the platform would take a cut, that is normal and it helps the thing you like to survive. The issue is that the moment VR Chat starts taking a cut o the on app sales, they take responsibility for the content and the suddenly the freedom is gone. Suddenly there is copyright, legality and all the other crap.
You eloquently and humorously laid out exactly what I love about VRchat. I've been saying it since the first time I played, just couldn't put it in such a way as to explain exactly *why* i felt that way. Thanks for sending me here lefty
You're so right about the way we experience the other internet. My nieces and young kids I've met always thought that "being on RUclips" means I'm a celebrity or something. It's odd
2002 zoomer here Yes. I at least on some level remember finding sites for video games and all that sort of stuff and personal websites. I think around 2008-9. But it was as you say in that period of changing.
Millennial here.. Last site that I feel still had a tint of the "old internet" vibe was tumblr before it sold itself and banned nsfw stuff.. Ofcoz you stayed on the site, but clicking on names of stuff being reblogged would lead you to discover new dashboards and new interests etc. It felt close to those old web-rings and you curranted a feed pretty close to void of "only sponsored posts" that twitter has turned into..
I really miss forums. Not the big ones either. The odd and scattered groups of a few dozen people just hacking up their own space. The horrid color schemes, the weird jokes, the signature banners - god the signature banners. I think I've still got one lying around I should see if I can find it.
It's unfortunate that in more recent times it feels we're starting to lose that "old internet" feel in VRC. Everything feels so ugh "moderated" compared to 2018 ever since they started shoehorning in more traditional social media features.
Just as a sidenote from a VR-outside, it is really heartwarming to see how much more expressive you become once you use your VRchat avatar. It may be in part due to your arm gestures being easier to see due to the different body proportions, but I don't think it's just that. Either way, esapecially from Chapter 3 onwards it really drives home the point that virtual worlds are truly meaningful to you as you just seem to communicate in such an immersed and natural manner. I keep bouncing around the idea of building a SlimeVR set of full body sensors and you only make it look so much more appealing. Also, the rage expressed towards your English Degree was hilarious.
Excellent job, very well done! I had loaded VRChat into my Original Oculus Quest (1). However, I could never get the hang of VRC, too much to read, too many menu screens. I stuck with AltspaceVR. Now that Microsoft has Closed Down AltspaceVR, many of us have moved over to VRChat. This time VRC is working for me. I have lots of people whom I trust to help me get used to the menus and controls. In a very short amount of time I have grown to like VRChat. You are correct that it has the feel of the raw internet back in the day. Thank you again for your VERY WELL DONE video essays on VRChat.
This is a little wordy, sorry! I was born in 2003, and it sucks, hearing what the internet was like is like hearing someone reminisce on the good days, and its saddening to see the state of the internet now versus then. Growing up with corporate ran internet is really depressing; more recently it feels like im told what to watch, my interests are rarely used by the algorithms, rather im served something close but diffrent, ill see a clip of a movie and wait for a reaction by some mediocre social media user, instead it just goesto the end of the clip and i then realize someone just posted a movie cut up into hundreds of clips,and no matter what i do i seem to still get the content forced onto whatever social media i go on. Vrchat is by far the best thing ive experienced, it feels so lively compared to the dull clockwork of the internet ive grown up with. And im terrified. Call me cynical but one day vrchat will go the way of the internet, you can even see the grounds of that being built by companies like meta; I dont want to loose the spark of life ive grown accustomed to. I cant go back to mindlessly watching content designed to pull in ad revenue. for now ill enjoy what i can but when the vrboom is over, im not sure if ill beable to mentally handle a corporate vrspace. The chaos of vrchat is truely addictive and i dont think ill ever grow tired of it if it stays at this stage. I know itll change one day, but i think its okay to not want the change.
very surprised to only see two comments in here about tumblr, which is still thriving in 2023. while even now as we're getting unwanted updates to try wear the flayed skin of twitter, there is still no algorythm on tumblr. stuff on your feed is put there mostly by the people you follow, you have to learn how to curate a feed - a skill that has been very lost on newer platforms. The way i can scroll through deep political posts and shit posts and breath taking art all one after another is amazing to me. I can still make my own blog html custom! there are some structural changes that will hopefully be for the better soon, and who knows mb one day it'll be able to properly reopen the doors to nsfw content that ppl seem to only think of tumblr for on another note, wild vrchat premium started two months or so after this video came out. doesnt sound like it changed things awfully which really gives me hope ngl!
Chapter 3: Dang kids, get off my lawn! Not complaining. Nostalgic as heck. Great presentation of a truly horrific looking (literally) era of the internet.
I feel that early platforms like the old web and vrchat thrive on creativity because they are made purely out of passion and artistic will, then later as they become monetized they become maintained by necessaity rather than passion. People see it as a way to survive by monetizing content rather than a way to express their creativity for no other reason than to create. Thank you for making this video discussing a topic I feel is important. I was born in 97 so I missed the web as you knew it, but I felt some of the magic that was there. I feel that I was really lucky that most of my first exposure to the internet was Scratch - an online block-based programming tool that let its users draw 2D sprites and create whatever they wanted. It was an education tool-turned-art program by its community, I saw so much art and animation and games made in it for no other reason than because someone wanted to, and I've always carried that inspiration with me. I hope that we can keep this spirit alive in VRChat for as long as possible. Future generations deserve to feel that freedom and inspiration as we've been able to.
I never wanted Facebook. Myspace is where it was at. I loved it in highschool. Facebook is boring and offers nothing fun like Myspace so I don't understand why it's so popular. I miss having music players, custom backgrounds, blingees, digi animal pet apps and many other great myspace stuff. Facebook just sucks. Internet is so not as fun as it used to be.
i have a similar nostalgic and ongoing fondness for second life. the one thing it will forever have over VRc, it the joy of building and modifying and customizing your avatar in world. and under the sleek surface, there's still a lot of the anarchic spirit of early 2000s internet.
It's easy to say monetizing is evil and ruins everything, but if you look at the other side of the glass you realize that it is actually amazing how much freedom and playfulness can be forgiven before things get monetized. We're all just a bunch of kids playing around in daddy Zuckerberg's garden before he decides to finish what he wants to build. Once we're not allowed to play there, we'll always find a new, better garden.
so, this is a bit off topic, but if you're watching this video, it might apply to you. if you want to get rid of a huge portion of corporate bs, and just not give them the space in your brain. get away from adds, youtube premium/red is kind of empowering, and just avoiding the corporate trash seriously improved my mental health. and it makes youtube feel a bit more like this old internet.
I have to say, Roblox had a similar feeling to me as a kid. Some games were very polished, some were absolute shit posts. Some avatars were normal, and others were...absolute shit posts. But even that is limited by its avatar system, the ageing game engine, and the creation tools it provides. Being able to use Unity is an invaluable tool for creativity. Roblox did sort of fall down the hole of monetisation and algorithms that did ruin it a bit imo. It became about making money, rather than making something you're passionate about. Nowadays, the whole point of it _is_ shit posting for the sake of shit posting, and the magic has been lost to a certain extent quite a few years ago. Then there's Dreams as well, which tries to accomplish a similar thing, but it's missing the community and social aspect.
I feel very lucky and happy that I adopted VR in it's current Wild West stage it's going to be said when big corporations finally get their claws into it and it turns into the same mess every other gaming and media platform has devolved into but for now we get to enjoy the golden years while we can. Enjoy free cyberspace while it lasts.
In my (very uninformed) opinion, one way to monetize VRChat is probably putting a price tag on the base game. This would make it so that you have relatively the same experience without having to see random ads constantly or something like that. It would just be a one and done purchase, and you're free to wander around without hassle. The main issue that would come up would be what would happen to pre-established players? Would they be free to keep the game, or would they have to buy it to keep playing? This could also make it harder for new players to come in, as many would not be sure if they would enjoy this sort of experience, and therefor have a hard time justifying the purchase. Many communities that focus on creativity depend on new people coming in and presenting new ideas and remixing old ones, so there's the possibility that in the end, maybe the VRChat community would be changed. Sorry for the tangent, my brain loves to go on.
The old internet may have been cool, but it was way too hard for someone like me to navigate. I'm glad it changed now. I don't feel like I have to be a computer expert to use it.
rip my comment that youtube deleted because I made an edit that basically said "This should probably be shorter" I hate the youtube spam filter, this is why I avoid typing long comments, they are more likely to be removed (but sometimes I mess up)
I absolutely love your long form video essays. As someone who grew up with the birth of the internet and lived through those early days, and went on to build a career around web design and development, I loved the look back in time to what it used to be, to what it is today, and how VRChat harkens back to some of that original ethos. You make a lot of fantastic points. Thanks for putting this together :)
VRchat is the same, because *people* are the same. If we, as a human totality, can't see past the irregular, we can't see what is, let alone what is possible...
man...im 15 years older than you. I have been to a lot of raves and i can tell you, that your face and your character are made for raves. So yes, you look like a guy that goes to raves.
Woops! Just two quick notes: at 5:09 I accidentally forgot to replace the credit text, that should be Wild Greenhaven by Enverex. Also, at 34:56, that world is Bathhouse Utopia - The Tranquil Sanctuary by Fionna.
I gave VRChat a shot for the first time last weekend. In my very first public lobby, someone called me a retard simply for existing, some dickhead with a klansman avatar ran around the lobby screaming racial slurs, and then my game crashed after fifteen minutes of exposure, looping the same five seconds of squeakers talking to one another incomprehensibly.
I felt like I finally found my way back home.
way back home... as in away from vr chat?
@@debonairrose They mean early 2000s internet basically.
@@debonairrose It was a less civilized age, but also less Big Brother bs.
Public worlds lol
I was thinking "Huh I was pretty young in the period Straszfilms is talking about, I probably don't remember the early internet that much" and then 18:55 happened and I got VIVID flashbacks to browsing Sailor Moon fansites for hours at a time
Wow, thanks for putting in words of what i was missing from the early 2000s internet but couldnt point my finger on.
Great video, looks like I should take a look at vrc :)
this video has stirred my heart. in this point where I am hurting and gave VRC a try, that for the first time I've really gotten to break the shackles of gender identity that I got to put cracks in back in 2004 when friends on the internet told me it was cute when I was more effeminate and I liked that idea. trying to find worlds and get suggestions on what to explore and do began to truly fill me with wonder at a time where i am dealing with likely some of the biggest stressors of myu life save for when my body begins failing me much in the same way that is happening to my father right now.
I come here now as it looks like Easy Anti-Cheat is here to stay, to eliminate solutions to problems that community had long since solved for themselves, to bring that sort of order as... things begin to change. That's been my first two weeks of VRChat.
Ima just say it.
Even CG5 jumped on the Uganda Knuckles (the weird short "do you know da wae?" knucks) hype. That little guy is amazing. I once heard of someone who dressed up like him in public dancing to that very same CG5 song.
Anyone remember what Meez was? It was a mid 2010's chatroom where you made characters and and worlds, rooms to go to. Active Worlds sounds like an older Meez (or IMVU and the like)
WHAT you got a virtual boy!?
Still have it?
in my opinion there is simply no way to monetize it without losing whats special. once the bottom line or means becomes money everything else will be endlessly sacrificed in the pursuit of such. while the slippery slope fallacy has the word fallacy in it, that argument does not become less valid by just having that word in there. once you begin to sanitize anything you can not stop. even if you do manage to avoid the slope and get people on board to give enough money consistently to keep things running then those investors will always want more money out of what theyre investing in. if something else crops up that fills a similar enough niche to vrchat investors will inevitably jump ship to what you can make money off of and it will then be put on the devs to adjust to what big corpo wants in order to secure funding
You said what I've been describing as "the wild west creative community"
And comeon dude... Vrchat isn't all just anime people, it's also full of FURRIES :-3
We tend to hide outside of public worlds.
This is true
Those furries better stay away from public worlds, can you imagine the teasing?
Im one that likes to jump into random public instances and try to talk to random people.
you better
@@olivermarie8319 we do
I found this google searching "VR chat seems very early internet" so we're on the same wavelength there.
A funny observation. "Snow Crash" describes Hiro's VR glasses as having 2K resolution per eye and refresh rate of 72Hz. The only real VR headset I found that uses 72Hz is Oculus Quest 2, and it is also one of the very few with 2K resolution per eye. And now it is called "Meta Quest 2", and the same company is set to build something they call "Metaverse".
As an older zoomer, I started getting involved with the internet in the twilight years of its “golden age.” And here I am ten years later, watching internet documentarians such as Whang! And Wavywebsurf nostalgically talking about all the crazy crap that went on back then. I wish I could’ve experienced it.
Relate hard to this
It was Golden... Almost like the randomness of a dream that somehow makes sense while your in it. Not just any dream, the kind that sticks with you for years to come and you think "Yeah, I'd like to redream that dream." and a bit of your soul longs for it like a lover gone to war, you wonder if it'll ever come back.
I've tried to describe that time, words won't ever compare to living it so, only the few can relate. It was another world, very random, magical, horrific, and just so amazing.
To compare what was with what is, I physically feel my heart drop, rip, leak some blood, and cry. All before my eyes even begin to mist on the outside.
Sorry for the rant ^^; I just felt this comment so damn hard.
@@edenmarble8048 it's called nostalgia
Older zoomer gang RISE UP
@@slayerficated yesss i still remember allll of the virtual games i used to play! I still have my sheet of usernames and passwords for my olld accounts
This was a really good video. The way you speak and organize the content is very relaxing, you properly credited everything in the video, know what you're talking about and clearly express passion... Thank you for this, this was a pleasure.
i feel like.. tumblr hasn't been a total failure. sure, it's fallen from the highest echelon of social media by popularity, but it's still the pit that a lot of internet culture grows in. it's still up and running, and all of that. they've actually been trying to figure out how to monitize it well, i think.
tumblr recently released 15th anniversary merchandise, and started offering a paid subscription to remove ads.. either things are going to be ok, or this is one of the last hurrah's.. we'll have to see
-SHHHHHHH. don't reveal the secret,- tumblr is totally dead and failed guys nothing to see there nope nothing whatsoever
I hope tumblr can stay up. People clown on it, but it's one of the few places that won't ban or mute you for anything not "kid friendly" aside from porn (RIP to the porn side of tumblr). It's got its own culture, and is full of genuinely funny people.
The fact it fell is proof of its failure. The best platform sadly is 4chan.
What Verizon did is like.. changing the salinity in a salt water tank and then going “how did the fish die?”
Also it’s all man-butts now. What’s with that? XD
I've had a lot of conversations like this with old buddies from the aol/everquest/old internet days. WoW really did feel like a DMZ era between old and new. It's kind of insane to me because at the time, every web 2.0 thing was something we all LOVED and saw it as a natural progression. But somehow once it all got combined, consolidated, and monetized and the end result has felt so soulless and corporate.
I am so glad to have this sort of thing back after the death of the old internet. The true freedom and creativity is so absolutely wonderful.
Every time I see someone calling for more moderation, censorship, or any other restrictions that are all too common in the sanitized, corporatized modern internet it honestly turns my stomach.
Most of them probably don't even know the irreparable harm such things will inflict on the platform and when this does inevitably come to pass, many will be like the me before finding VRChat, longing for the freedom and creativity that they once enjoyed.
This actually had me in tears. I'm 33 years old, and while my computer time wasn't nearly as much as yours, I do remember the Old Internet. It really was a much more interesting place back then. If you didn't already know your destination of where you wanted to click, your possibilities were endless and mysterious.
I also 33 and...fuck. This era of early internet was really cool. I got my first 256 kb "fast" internet in 2005 when I was 15 years old kid and that was so cool . Those forums...old school rgs, rts games, forums and different wier websites. Also era of lan parties in computer clubs... That nostalgia of that era is so hard. I can only cry.
moar pl0x
Guess his SR don't look at the icon
Everyone who wishes to be enlightened needs to take a "hot second" and watch this video.
"Do I look like the kinda person that goes to a rave?" asks the RUclipsr, looking exactly like the kinda person that goes to a rave. :)
This video is fantastic. I've forwarded it to some friends of mine over in dev and 3d modeling chats. I made the house at 10:34. Around the time you made this video, I finally learned how to rig and 3d model my own avatar, do all the weight painting, visemes, and learn enough unity to get all that working in VRChat with full body tracking. I think, socially, the pandemic has caused me to become reclusive much like my high school years. It's given me a unique bit of time to explore new areas of creativity, learning C#, Udon#, Python, etc, just to continue to pursue making environments for people to explore, and potentially learn some applicable skills for other jobs.
You managed to encapsulate perfectly so many of the feelings I've been having over the past several years in areas that include not just the evolving state of the internet, but in the design of completely offline video games. Large companies and advertising firms know what can get people hooked. With the early stages of the Internet, when no one really knew what to make of it, VC's backed hosting companies like tripod, angelfire, geocities, and people just made random websites expressing their true personal interests. Nowadays, once the companies have figured out what works through this sorta... genetic algorithm thing, the websites that remained have become super polished, and the users of that website are using it because they're been sufficiently advertised to, and are using it mostly because they're addicted to some gamified element of it (likes, comments, subscriptions, retweets, followers) that pits them up against everyone else with these metrics. It's this sort of implicit agreement where the house always wins, in a sense. In these environments, once anyone gets too creative, too innovative, and falls out of line with the expectations of the company, they can, for no reason, quash that individual, without ever having to explain themselves. That was made apparent in this very comment I'm writing, which got entirely deleted from your channel by RUclips without warning! This is the second time I'm writing this thing!
I think what we're looking at with VRChat is yet another frontier, at the fringe of mainstream. Large corporations and VC firms are backing it because they don't know what to do with it yet to make it turn a profit, so they're just kinda having a hands-off approach to see what the people make of it. For now, I think we can basically ride the backs of these VC's to be as creative as we like. Some people will eventually discover some ways to turn this creative fun into something with a profit margin, and the companies will then absorb up this frontier and pave it over with whatever methods prove to be mainstream and efficient to keep the platform running. Some of the creative types will likely then get sucked into this corporate environment and allow the frontier to leave them behind.
The rest of us, the incessantly creative types, will have to move onto something else. I have no idea what that will be, but I think it will continue to have these elements of chaos to them. I think we are attracted to the chaos of trying to get new technology to work. Where things break down is where we get to see people's true personalities, what they're truly interested in, and not just what caters to their addictions.
I think what we can take away from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash is that the oppressive corporate dystopia reality that existed in Hiro's "RL" became the Internet we see today. It could be that the creative escape from corporate overlords is something that will forever happen in tech, and VC's will ironically be funding the way.
excuse me, i am stealing your comment, and saving it on my hard disk. thank you
Thank you for typing this out. You feel like family 💜
VRChat sure is magical!
I didn’t grow up with the “old internet,” so I don’t have the same nostalgia for it that you do. But I still enjoyed listening to you talk about it! I guess I never really saw VR Chat in this light. I might have to look into it now.
I found your channel (thanks to that algorithm highlighting you on someone else's extremely professional review of new VR gear lol, the irony), and your content and essays are fantastic. Thank you for walking me through your thoughts in such a well thought out and comprehensive way, its been fantastic!
One more interesting note about having your own website back then-- cloud services weren't a thing yet. I had my own website partly to save flash movies and images I liked.
Great video! Really encapsulates a lot of my own feelings on why VRChat is so amazing. It’s really overwhelming and I haven’t really made friends yet, but the whole experience is just incredible.
One day I was feeling sad and wanted to stare out the window on a rainy day, so I went on VRChat and did that. What a powerful thing this game is.
Thanks! It's honestly just a matter of time until you find a social circle in VRChat. It honestly just... happens.
Saw your video on gender and identity first and took a look at what else you had. Both that video and this one have made me a lot more eager to try VR Chat. :)
This was a trip, and I enjoyed it a ton. I love that you keep your past experiences to heart. A lot of the games you talked about, I never even knew they existed, and i'm a millennial myself. I used to just stick with my xbox and playstation and went on random adventures on the internet, and never cared where it would take me. I was also a curious boy, and still am. I have a lot of my own special moments from the past that I wish I could re-live as well as me trying to re-live, but it's just never the same as the first time. But hey, i'm glad I got to see the whole video. I knew you were wayyyyyy more than just a cool dude I headbang and dance with in GrooVr to hard-hitting and passionate music.
Dude I love your content, but this trend of educational, informational creators putting "ear rape" levels of volume cuts into their videos needs to fucking end.
Preview your own content on some decent quality headphones, and turn your whisper-level voice up loud enough to actually listen to, right before one of your audio cuts.
It literally fucking hurts.
This video is perfect! Thank you for taking the time to make this it really helped me understand VRCHAT more. I hope that VRCHAT can stay in the magical form you have described!
VRChat is just that futurama episode where they go on the internet.
Man, I can feel and see the effort u put into this video, I really applaud you. Seeing that u dont even have 1k subs shows that ur one of the many people I have found which are kinda swept under the rug till someone finds it. I really hope this video of yours makes it pop out
Oh damn, didn't even know you were relatively new to VRC as well. Watching your videos I always got the impression that you spent time in VRC for a long time already.
Why the old Internet was more interesting : the difference between a zoomed in view of a single car on a tiny road vs a zoomed out view of a busy intersection
I think the old internet stills exists, it has never died, it's just not on the spotlight anymore. I know these websites exist, I just have to find them, and I know how to, but I just don't want to try and find them right now. I got other things to do. It's difficult to find though because you have to ask around and avoid the many sites that are just imitating another site, trying to be big, or are focused on pushing a movement.
This video reminded me a lot to when I was using REDACTED, they were good times. It's the first website I really cared about
RUclips deleted my original comment, annoying. The funny thing though is that the comment was a lot longer and it was deleted because I made an edit that said "I should probably make this shorter, not sure though. I said a lot of things that are unnecessary"
There was also a reply from BreezeFox that said "we didn't do this to ourselves"
I believe we did. We asked for search engines, and relevant results, and it led us to this. Websites can manipulate search engines to move them to the top and get more clicks, they don't have to pay the search engine to make it happen. We also asked to grow our business through the internet and advertise ourselves, this is what happened. Sure, maybe you didn't ask for this, but if you were a business owner then you would ask for it. I know the artists and animators at Newgrounds were asking for it.
The big problem is that no one knew that this meant losing so much on the internet. We didn't ask to lose this magic, but the things we asked has led us to this.
I came here from VRChat's reddit and kind of expected a video about well VRChat. What I got I didn't expect but it helped me understand why someone could enjoy VRChat that much. I've been on the internet for quite a long time creating my own websites and just browsing the sites. I was more of a IRC person so active worlds or worlds chat is something I totally missed.
I've been trying to figure out what I myself like about VRChat for a long time but I couldn't really grasp it. Pretty much everything on the internet is making me feel bad since it's reflecting the society, consumerism and whatnot. I'm tired of being told what to do, what products to buy and what to like. VRChat gave me freedom which I can't find in the real world but only after watching your video I finally understand why.
Good job on your video, looking forward to your next one. (note that I don't normally watch youtube videos)
The guy that makes the dna avatars is called MR_EM, he's a really cool guy! We talk about avatar making from time to time.
Thank you so much! I'll add that to the description. I saw him months ago and forgot to write down his name!
wow I can't believe this man literally took ALL the words from my mouth relating to VRC
legit was thinking of working on a video that's pretty much this without the super good backstory & perspective
looking forward to whatever you make next!
36:58 You haven't heard of Neos VR?
Wait... or have you?
Honestly none of your criticisms really apply to Neos VR.
And a lot if not all of your comments on VRChat actually apply to Neos VR. (the cryptocurrency one (Ooh scary😮))
If anything VRChat is honesty more manufactured nowadays then how it used to be.
NEOS VR is also magical! :-D
Neos is just vrchat v2. Vrchat but you can do more with less work.
Absolutely had to comment on this. I know I'm late, but youtube decided I'm here now so welp, here we go lol. First off, VRChat is absolutely amazing, it isn't for me but you're entirely right that it gets the creative spirit of the old internet. It is a miracle of sorts that something of this sort was ever birthed this side of the millennia. Secondly, the issue is that corporations are playing it safe, providing what we all want, but that snuffs out any ounce of creativity that could exist. It's not exactly the wrong choice (especially when you consider investors), but it really is a shame that we're left with nothing but safe content. It's like being provided air, yes we all need it but it's so common we already have it. For anyone who wants something special, something creative, well that's outside of the standard and so that isn't "safe". To give us, as humans, what we ask for universally, they have to remove the truly "human" aspect from whatever it is we receive. It's a dilemma, and not one I really have a good answer for. For now, it's nice to see any mainstream app outside of the normal mold.
Check out the world called Organism and the related Epilogue 1 and 2
Straszfilms: I have been binge watching your series on VR for a while liking it got a question for you how do you do your real life room and your avatar in the same video is it video editing or is it live streaming.... I would really like to do the same thing in 2023 with my avatars in the future please help
The Amount of sheer freedom in Vrchat is staggering. I've seen things and talked to people I never would have met my entire life and that honestly is incredible to think about. I have roughly 4,000 hours and have been playing since early 2017 when the playerbase was about 250 or so. From the get go it felt like a giant family almost we all knew eachother, it was crazy. It has grown into almost feeling like another world full of others you can meet. I've seen two deaf people fully communicate in vr. Ive spoken to someone in Japan who spoke no english but I had a translater to translate for me. Its staggering the possibilities that come with VR. The future looks bright for it all and I hope others can experience the awe of seeing and the feeling of actually being there. Its wild! Thank you for the well put together documentary!
The feeling is probably just that you can be free do whatever you want, not be judged aslong as you're not beinge rude and be everything you want having fun as something or someone you're not are being able to escape the regular 'inprisonment' of your daily life being able to talk to people who do not neccessairly share the same ideology but still not be rejected because it's simply the community and they know not to judge how you look like or how you are because the games community is simply split in so many ways that it's regular to be so unusual compared to real life. It's a perfect place because it's like the way of life, chaotic and boundless which real life isn't even close to, you're not permited to do stuff, you need to do certain stuff at a certain time, you are on a constant schedule removing your freedom and bringing order to the chaotic way of life creating a lot of stress. In VR chat there is none of that, it's chaotic freedom where you can do whatever you want without constant perfection and limitation. It's just the origin on life
that was literally the first thought I had when I jumped into my Index and loaded up VRchat lmfao, it just felt like a mix between the old internet and counter-strike/gmod custom maps. A bit broader than VRchat, but I also really love how almost everyone has voice chat on in any VR game. It really feels like a place again to socialize and experience weird random stuff, it's just people having fun and wanting to socialize while at it. I don't know the last time I even had a conversation in a multiplayer game. The games keep dismantling lobbies and no one ever has Voice Chat on but in VR all of that is different. I forgot how much I missed this wonderful space where everything goes and you just forget the real world for a couple of moments, but not because you want to unwind but because you just have so much fun.
Because it is so community driven, I think it would make sense for VR chat to do patreon or equivalent. This would give them even more incentive to listen to the community and still be able to make money for their investors.
I just started watching through your back catalog and as someone who has worked with Activeworlds as a performance space, I was over the moon to see you give it such a deep dive here, oh my god.
12:52 "GO AWAY ENGLISH DEGREE" absolutely got me lmfao, had to actually pause because I was laughing too hard
The unfortunate pitfall of monetization is not the fact that the platform would take a cut, that is normal and it helps the thing you like to survive. The issue is that the moment VR Chat starts taking a cut o the on app sales, they take responsibility for the content and the suddenly the freedom is gone. Suddenly there is copyright, legality and all the other crap.
I just added a week to my life span
I don't understand why your subscriber count isn't higher
also RIP geocities and irc
Damn, actually mistook the Snow Crash quote at the start for a quote on VR chat until it was referenced later...
You eloquently and humorously laid out exactly what I love about VRchat. I've been saying it since the first time I played, just couldn't put it in such a way as to explain exactly *why* i felt that way. Thanks for sending me here lefty
The best metaverse was club penguin, let's not kid ourselves.
You're so right about the way we experience the other internet. My nieces and young kids I've met always thought that "being on RUclips" means I'm a celebrity or something. It's odd
2002 zoomer here
Yes.
I at least on some level remember finding sites for video games and all that sort of stuff and personal websites.
I think around 2008-9.
But it was as you say in that period of changing.
Great video! Hope to meet you in VRChat someday! - some guy in his 30s too
Millennial here..
Last site that I feel still had a tint of the "old internet" vibe was tumblr before it sold itself and banned nsfw stuff.. Ofcoz you stayed on the site, but clicking on names of stuff being reblogged would lead you to discover new dashboards and new interests etc. It felt close to those old web-rings and you curranted a feed pretty close to void of "only sponsored posts" that twitter has turned into..
It's sounds little odd now, when you hear "for anyone not familiar with metaverse concept..."
I really miss forums. Not the big ones either. The odd and scattered groups of a few dozen people just hacking up their own space.
The horrid color schemes, the weird jokes, the signature banners - god the signature banners. I think I've still got one lying around I should see if I can find it.
nice video bro ... greats from argentina
if you want this back, check out beakerbrowser
edit: also yes you do look like the kind of person who goes to a rave
You do know neocities right????
It's unfortunate that in more recent times it feels we're starting to lose that "old internet" feel in VRC.
Everything feels so ugh "moderated" compared to 2018 ever since they started shoehorning in more traditional social media features.
amazing User created rooms keep bring me back to vr chat.
great video, we should send this video to the VRchat founders just so they understand what makes their platform so unique compared to everything else
Just as a sidenote from a VR-outside, it is really heartwarming to see how much more expressive you become once you use your VRchat avatar. It may be in part due to your arm gestures being easier to see due to the different body proportions, but I don't think it's just that. Either way, esapecially from Chapter 3 onwards it really drives home the point that virtual worlds are truly meaningful to you as you just seem to communicate in such an immersed and natural manner. I keep bouncing around the idea of building a SlimeVR set of full body sensors and you only make it look so much more appealing.
Also, the rage expressed towards your English Degree was hilarious.
This video is very good, as a veteran internet user who started chatting on the world wide web in 1994 I cant argue with a word you have said.
Excellent job, very well done! I had loaded VRChat into my Original Oculus Quest (1). However, I could never get the hang of VRC, too much to read, too many menu screens. I stuck with AltspaceVR. Now that Microsoft has Closed Down AltspaceVR, many of us have moved over to VRChat. This time VRC is working for me. I have lots of people whom I trust to help me get used to the menus and controls. In a very short amount of time I have grown to like VRChat. You are correct that it has the feel of the raw internet back in the day. Thank you again for your VERY WELL DONE video essays on VRChat.
This is a little wordy, sorry!
I was born in 2003, and it sucks, hearing what the internet was like is like hearing someone reminisce on the good days, and its saddening to see the state of the internet now versus then. Growing up with corporate ran internet is really depressing; more recently it feels like im told what to watch, my interests are rarely used by the algorithms, rather im served something close but diffrent, ill see a clip of a movie and wait for a reaction by some mediocre social media user, instead it just goesto the end of the clip and i then realize someone just posted a movie cut up into hundreds of clips,and no matter what i do i seem to still get the content forced onto whatever social media i go on. Vrchat is by far the best thing ive experienced, it feels so lively compared to the dull clockwork of the internet ive grown up with. And im terrified. Call me cynical but one day vrchat will go the way of the internet, you can even see the grounds of that being built by companies like meta; I dont want to loose the spark of life ive grown accustomed to. I cant go back to mindlessly watching content designed to pull in ad revenue. for now ill enjoy what i can but when the vrboom is over, im not sure if ill beable to mentally handle a corporate vrspace.
The chaos of vrchat is truely addictive and i dont think ill ever grow tired of it if it stays at this stage. I know itll change one day, but i think its okay to not want the change.
I really like your videos and you have a calming cadence. You are now trapped within my subscriptions. FOREVER.
very surprised to only see two comments in here about tumblr, which is still thriving in 2023. while even now as we're getting unwanted updates to try wear the flayed skin of twitter, there is still no algorythm on tumblr. stuff on your feed is put there mostly by the people you follow, you have to learn how to curate a feed - a skill that has been very lost on newer platforms. The way i can scroll through deep political posts and shit posts and breath taking art all one after another is amazing to me. I can still make my own blog html custom!
there are some structural changes that will hopefully be for the better soon, and who knows mb one day it'll be able to properly reopen the doors to nsfw content that ppl seem to only think of tumblr for
on another note, wild vrchat premium started two months or so after this video came out. doesnt sound like it changed things awfully which really gives me hope ngl!
Chapter 3: Dang kids, get off my lawn!
Not complaining. Nostalgic as heck. Great presentation of a truly horrific looking (literally) era of the internet.
I feel that early platforms like the old web and vrchat thrive on creativity because they are made purely out of passion and artistic will, then later as they become monetized they become maintained by necessaity rather than passion. People see it as a way to survive by monetizing content rather than a way to express their creativity for no other reason than to create.
Thank you for making this video discussing a topic I feel is important. I was born in 97 so I missed the web as you knew it, but I felt some of the magic that was there. I feel that I was really lucky that most of my first exposure to the internet was Scratch - an online block-based programming tool that let its users draw 2D sprites and create whatever they wanted. It was an education tool-turned-art program by its community, I saw so much art and animation and games made in it for no other reason than because someone wanted to, and I've always carried that inspiration with me. I hope that we can keep this spirit alive in VRChat for as long as possible. Future generations deserve to feel that freedom and inspiration as we've been able to.
I never wanted Facebook. Myspace is where it was at. I loved it in highschool. Facebook is boring and offers nothing fun like Myspace so I don't understand why it's so popular. I miss having music players, custom backgrounds, blingees, digi animal pet apps and many other great myspace stuff. Facebook just sucks. Internet is so not as fun as it used to be.
i have a similar nostalgic and ongoing fondness for second life. the one thing it will forever have over VRc, it the joy of building and modifying and customizing your avatar in world. and under the sleek surface, there's still a lot of the anarchic spirit of early 2000s internet.
37:50 neosvr we see you
It's easy to say monetizing is evil and ruins everything, but if you look at the other side of the glass you realize that it is actually amazing how much freedom and playfulness can be forgiven before things get monetized. We're all just a bunch of kids playing around in daddy Zuckerberg's garden before he decides to finish what he wants to build. Once we're not allowed to play there, we'll always find a new, better garden.
so, this is a bit off topic, but if you're watching this video, it might apply to you.
if you want to get rid of a huge portion of corporate bs, and just not give them the space in your brain. get away from adds, youtube premium/red is kind of empowering, and just avoiding the corporate trash seriously improved my mental health.
and it makes youtube feel a bit more like this old internet.
I have to say, Roblox had a similar feeling to me as a kid. Some games were very polished, some were absolute shit posts. Some avatars were normal, and others were...absolute shit posts. But even that is limited by its avatar system, the ageing game engine, and the creation tools it provides. Being able to use Unity is an invaluable tool for creativity.
Roblox did sort of fall down the hole of monetisation and algorithms that did ruin it a bit imo. It became about making money, rather than making something you're passionate about. Nowadays, the whole point of it _is_ shit posting for the sake of shit posting, and the magic has been lost to a certain extent quite a few years ago.
Then there's Dreams as well, which tries to accomplish a similar thing, but it's missing the community and social aspect.
I feel very lucky and happy that I adopted VR in it's current Wild West stage it's going to be said when big corporations finally get their claws into it and it turns into the same mess every other gaming and media platform has devolved into but for now we get to enjoy the golden years while we can. Enjoy free cyberspace while it lasts.
In my (very uninformed) opinion, one way to monetize VRChat is probably putting a price tag on the base game. This would make it so that you have relatively the same experience without having to see random ads constantly or something like that. It would just be a one and done purchase, and you're free to wander around without hassle.
The main issue that would come up would be what would happen to pre-established players? Would they be free to keep the game, or would they have to buy it to keep playing? This could also make it harder for new players to come in, as many would not be sure if they would enjoy this sort of experience, and therefor have a hard time justifying the purchase. Many communities that focus on creativity depend on new people coming in and presenting new ideas and remixing old ones, so there's the possibility that in the end, maybe the VRChat community would be changed.
Sorry for the tangent, my brain loves to go on.
wonderfull,someday i´ll get a vrglasses and i'll be there,so sad that i'd have to work two months without eating to buy it😭😭😭but someday,someday...
The old internet may have been cool, but it was way too hard for someone like me to navigate. I'm glad it changed now. I don't feel like I have to be a computer expert to use it.
I'm from the future! I'm sure you already know this but the Facebook "metaverse" blew up and it makes me happy
rip my comment that youtube deleted because I made an edit that basically said "This should probably be shorter"
I hate the youtube spam filter, this is why I avoid typing long comments, they are more likely to be removed (but sometimes I mess up)
you're making quite a strong argument for VR chat ^^ and for your community XD it really got to me XD
I have thousands of bookmarks, don't tell me I'm the only one..
I guess this is kinda what Gmod was for me. Especially the PAC3 addon.
I absolutely love your long form video essays. As someone who grew up with the birth of the internet and lived through those early days, and went on to build a career around web design and development, I loved the look back in time to what it used to be, to what it is today, and how VRChat harkens back to some of that original ethos. You make a lot of fantastic points. Thanks for putting this together :)
VRchat is the same, because *people* are the same. If we, as a human totality, can't see past the irregular, we can't see what is, let alone what is possible...
man...im 15 years older than you. I have been to a lot of raves and i can tell you, that your face and your character are made for raves. So yes, you look like a guy that goes to raves.
Wow, the way the internet changed is so much like the way RUclips has over the years.
You summarized my thoughts on the old internet in an excellent way.Maybe I need to really try VR chat then
That transition from IRL body to VRL body was smoooooth ! nice haha
Est 1981, I remember The Wild...... GG
This man had a fricken VIRTUAL BOY!
2:57 hearing this "when in Rome" quote after watching the gender video hits different
I'm late by a long time but, finally someone said it lmao