VRChat - how the metaverse could be and should be

I am a VRChat[1] player. I know it's very rare. Espically considering I'm on Gemini. Unlike most people on this protocol. I am not a pessimist when viewing technology. I think the Metaverse is a logical nextstep to the internet. But I don't think the one built by Facebook would ever live up to it's potential

VRChat is a game that teleports you into different worlds made by other players. Let you make firends, play games, goofing around, etc... Having fun with online strangers. As it's name suggested. It's in VR. For me it's a way to learn to socialize (there's things that you just don't learn when spending most of your free time in school patching). Unlike current social media letting people communicating through text, pictures and sometimes video, with a very strong algorithm that manipulates what people sees. In VRChat, you can go to different worlds and hang out with people. There's no algorithm determining which world is shown to you, who you can see. You select a world and you see everyone, and hear everyone... It's just like the real world.

After a few nauseating days to combat VR siknees and weeks solving social awkerdness. I have made friens half way around the Earth. Heard their voice and see their body languages. Played games together. Even slept once because I'm playing too late. Stuff that it impossible on other platforms. Not Facebook, not Mastodon, not even IRC. Everythone what the Metaverse promises. And VRChat had already implemented everything needed. There's no NFT real estate, no brands promoting their ads, non of those bullshit. It's just like the real world.

It's amazing what the VRChat community has done. People make their own avatars. Want to be a big boob anime gril? Sure, enjoy your gender euphoria. Wanna be a stick of humanoid butter? Why not! Some people built own world to share with other people. Clubs, bedrooms, churches, tree house, game wolds... Some breath taking and some pushed the limits on how cozy a VR world could be. Even some worlds designed for hooking and having sex (ERP, just search it). People build stuff and become who they want to be. This is what the real world should have been.

This is why I think Facebook and most coperation pushed Metaverse projects will fail. They designed their Metaverses for a perpose. Either for work, education, concert, conferencing, ... But non of those even matters. VRChat works because there's no purpose. You can be who you want to be. To do what you want to do. And go where you want to go. The real world is just a reference design. You can't "live" in a purposefully built Metaverse, you go to that Metaverse for s certain purpose. To work, to attend lectures. But VRChat is an entire world. Where you make firends and do all sorts of things together. In my opinion. It is what the Metaverse promises and it has been realized.