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Within two minutes of walking into the welcome room in Altspace, a number one social VR app, I used to be given my first unsolicited “virtual reality kiss.” Shortly after, my skinny brown-haired avatar was swarmed by male users rubbing on me and asking if I used to be as skinny in real life or simply a fatty behind an avatar. I felt ripped from the virtual world and transported back to middle school.
A moderator stepped in not long after to regulate the situation. He could tell I used to be uncomfortable and asked everyone to present me some space. “Sorry, it’s my first time here,” I felt compelled to say. I turned to certainly one of the male avatars clustered by me. “So, there aren’t many ladies here,” I said. “We had one earlier today,” he responded.
Just a few days later, Mic tech editor Alexis Kleinman went into an Altspace room using a female avatar and was also immediately harassed. Other users got in her face and tried to “kiss” her. The other male users jokingly yelled, “I even have a boyfriend!” and “Harassment!” as she asked them to maneuver away from her. One user did mention he had spoken to a female journalist named Taylor about harassment within the space. (That was me.)
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The concept of social VR spaces is great, however the vibe just isn’t. Despite the rocky start, I gave Altspace a pair more tries over the weekend and I even have to say I actually adore it, or at the very least the concept of it. When the moderators are around, conversations are nice. I talked to people from around the globe and even met a pair other women.
Unfortunately, these interactions were sandwiched in between men making jokes about gang rape and pretending to present one another blow jobs.
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When I stepped into the Altspace last Saturday evening, a bunch of men with HTC Vives were discussing the very best option to give one another the finger, given the indisputable fact that they did not have hands.
“We need a universal sign we are able to do with our controllers, since we do not have fingers,” one said. “It must be something all of us agree upon so we all know what it means.”
I stood there unsure find out how to engage. I finally began to laugh nervously. One man standing off to the side turned to me and said, “I believe this proves how mature everyone with a Vive is.” It was the primary time in Altspace that I felt camaraderie.
Later on that session I started chatting with a pair other women within the room. “How do you prefer it here?” I asked a friendly British woman. “It’s great. I’m in here way an excessive amount of,” she said. “You just must avoid the creeps and if anyone annoys you simply block them, or get someone like James. James is like my big brother here.”
James is a friendly Irish man who explained to me that he likes to look out for others, especially women on the platform, and hates when “a couple of” bad actors spoil the experience. “Let me know if anyone is bothering you,” he said. I felt like I had found the start of a crew.
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Altspace is working on anti-harassment tools. The app has tried to make its platform more welcoming to first time users, especially women. It added a simple blocking tool that renders your avatar invisible to offending users. Harassment, cyberbullying and lewd and unwanted advances all violate Altspace’s community guidelines and, if reported, can swiftly get a user suspended or terminated.
But right away it appears like Altspace’s problems stem as much from the user base as from the app’s feature set.
“My first experience in Altspace was some idiot poking his Vive controller into every Avatar’s mouth while repeating the mantra ‘In your mouth’ for an hour,” one user recently wrote on Reddit.
VR is in its tween stage, and lots of users still act like they’re in middle school. Though several analysts agree that VR technology has the potential to go mainstream in the following few years, for now it’s still a distinct segment product that has attracted a distinct segment community — largely made up of tech and gaming enthusiasts.
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The user base may need to vary. For Altspace and other social VR apps to take off, a broader variety of individuals could have to make use of them. Lewd conversations aside, a lot of the discussions in Altspace felt like inside banter between developers: How to hack your avatar to vary its color or make it run fast was an enormous topic one night.
In the longer term, I imagine I’ll have the opportunity to speak with my real-life friends about my popular culture interests inside Altspace. The platform does allow for friends to share experiences or hand around in private rooms, but right away none of my girlfriends have headsets.
Altspace also holds public events which have gotten a number of attention. Musician and artist Reggie Watts might be putting on a live concert in Altspace tonight, and the platform usually hosts comedy nights. Though I even have yet to attend one myself, I’ve heard that event experiences on Altspace are a number of fun. They’re more tightly controlled than the open rooms and disruptive users are quickly booted.
I believe Altspace has tremendous potential, provided it may well construct the suitable community and facilitate more meaningful connections. VR has been derided as the final word solitary experience, but despite the crass welcome and middle school humor, Altspace proves that VR has the flexibility to be a strong connector of individuals. Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly claimed that virtual reality could grow to be “probably the most social platform ever.” I believe he’s right. It just has to grow up.
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