Readings: *VR Has A Harassment Problem, A Blueprint for Designing Inclusive AR/VR Experiences and the Designing Safe Spaces for Virtual Reality chapter of* ‘Ethics in Design and Communication.’
Write-Up: Find and try three social VR applications in the Oculus app store. Stress-test each to uncover and use their safety features. Write about every safety feature you can find (3+) and whether or not you think that they utilize Hedonomic design principles.
Optional: If you want to go deeper on social VR functionality, read this API Guide.
My experience in Horizon Worlds was very glitchy, but my wifi also kept crapping out on me. Going to try to put that aside to talk about what I noticed.
This was my first time going in to the app, so I did appreciate the walkthrough tutorial it immediately sent me through. I did find the slide method of moving around a bit dizzy-ing, so I switched to teleportation even though I find it less efficient.
My settings were already set to the ‘make other avatars disappear in the personal body distance spacing’ which I appreciated, and I kept that it that way.
I explored two of the worlds - the paddle golf and the fishing spaces. I think I would have appreciated the experiences and games in them with a stronger internet connection, but alas. In the paddle golf world, I could not see any of the other avatars that were in the space at the same time, but I could hear this British teenager who kept getting annoyed no one would chat with him or play at the same time with him. He was not rude, but it was definitely odd to be able to hear him but not see him. In the fishing world, I had what sounded like a 13 year old come up to me and ask to be friends. I also did not mind that interaction, and it showed me their avatar disappearing in my personal space which was cool.
I would have loved an easy way, however, to not be in a space with minors (if these people were in fact, both minors). I don’t mind saying hello but it’s odd when they’re trying to become friends.
I also would have loved an easy way to change my name inside. My avatar’s/profile’s name is zoemargolis (my insta+oculus handle), and it felt odd to broadcast that to complete strangers when everyone else had random handles that gave away no personal information. I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the onboarding I was doing, that I didn’t figure out how to change it in app, and had to look up how to change online after.
I did use VRChat a bit in 2021, but could not remember my log in. I had spent a good bit of time on my avatar on that account and remember liking it a lot so I may try and get back into it.
With my slow internet, it took each world a while to load, which let this slide show of safety features and alerts play and let me read them.
I was fine in VRChat with the slide to move setting. I was not getting motion sickness.
I did go in and manually turn on avatar boundaries so I would not end up particularly close to anyone else. Although in the handful of worlds I did visit, everyone seemed to just be looking around and they weren’t interacting with each other anyways.
I did one VR Hop in VRChat back in 2021 with a group of other immersive theater/experience/game people and it was great to be able to create our own instances of various locations, and only have people from our group around. I really appreciate the ability to have private spaces even on a public, social platform.
