We Bond in Simulation

The inventor of the Web, Tim Berners-Lee says “There was a time when people felt that the Internet was another world, but now they realise it's a tool we use in this one.”^[1]

Although virtual communication and exchange of information have always been an essential part of human lives since the invention of the web, having an online identity has been playing a very important role especially in the era of worldwide pandemic where seeing each other in a physical space is institutionally prohibited. We live in the era of having to do at least one video call every day with friends, family members and colleagues to keep the social stimulation and communication up-to-date. Technology has been further developed that facial recognition became possible in real-time. So, even having face filters on these video calls is normalised. We can have anything on our face; a beauty mask to cover pimples, a funny super hero, a person with three eyes, or even the ability to pretend to be on the sunny beach in Hawaii. How we perceive the world and each other depends on what we see on the screen. With a VR goggle, we can even experience this seamlessly compared to real life.

Therefore, virtual identity became much more important than ever before. Especially for the younger generations, it is very common to use large social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok day-to-day with their peers as a form of communication. For them, not having an existence online almost means not being able to be socially involved.

Having this shift of online communication as a mandatory activity not only a choice, the user-based virtual reality social platforms flourished. There are the two main virtual games which have histories with extensive user activities and user participation for its development. They are VRchat and Second Life. In this thesis, I started with curiosity to know more about these two games. Expecting to experience completely new worlds, I played the two successful virtual video games myself. I made interactions in the space, talked with the users, and explored the logic. After some time investigating the experience, I discovered that the spatial, architectural, and the sonic aspect of the games are very much similar to our reality itself.

Considering this information, I explored more in depth how and why that’s one of the reasons users engage, feel attached, and even get confused in the game by blurring the lines between reality and virtuality.

^[1] Downes, P. K. “An Introduction to the Internet.” British Dental Journal, vol. 202, no. 5, 2007, doi:10.1038/bdj.2007.173. ↩

VRchat

In April 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, the famous online virtual reality game ‘VRchat’ brought a lot of its users online.^[2]

VRchat is a free, Windows operating system based community game, which has a large amount of user-made worlds anyone can explore. It enables users to play with a VR headset for motion tracking and to communicate with other users in an avatar. In this chapter, I play VRchat going in and out to different rooms and communicate with other users to see how the experience is different, or similar to real life.

I’ve been watching many gameplay videos from just wandering around in different places to have very personal conversations with complete strangers. User ID iListen on Youtube uploads videos of VRchat gameplay regularly. Majority of his videos are about very personal stories he hears from people who he meets in the game. Alongside 144k followers, millions of viewers listen to these intimate stories that he shares. Not only iListen, but also quite lots of YouTubers share this sort of videos and it often attracts a large amount of viewers.

What fascinated me the most here was how individuals can be extremely open to people who they have never met in real life and bring up their childhood scars, family issues, and mental struggles in this VRchat world. I wondered how people can feel safe as much as to be able to share their vulnerable stories in the virtual space. How did the people decide to extensively expand their social environment to the VR space? What makes the VR communities flourish? With the excitement, curiosity, and a VR goggle, I decided to jump into the game.

^[2] Lang, Ben. “Social VR App 'VRChat' Is Seeing Record Usage Amidst the Pandemic.” Road to VR, 22 Apr. 2020, www.roadtovr.com/vrchat-record-users-coronavirus/. ↩

A Room

This chapter shows how the space is introduced to users just starting the game, and how it is similar to our own room, where we have the most privacy. The game starts with entering your room which is exactly the same room in appearance as the other people’s room. But it is the only private place in this world that exists, because the user exists. Wearing the virtual reality goggles, there are some options in sight. There are game learning areas, multiple portals that you can go through to the different worlds, a chill area to rest, and pens to write or to draw something in your environment. The world here is seen in your eyes with a very common perspective in video games, a first-person point of view. Your space changes by how you move, it illuminates the imagery of yourself from the world and leaves the imagination about the existence of yourself up to you.

There are several objects and furniture in the room, pillows that you can hold and throw, a couch to sit down on, and a big mirror to look at yourself. At this place you can practice the body movements and interactions like walking, sitting, jumping, crawling, throwing, talking through your microphone... which you would make in the outside of the room in the larger world. Because here the visualisation of yourself is missing, the only way to identify your existence is looking at the ‘mirror’, which is a plane in the 3d place calculating the mirrored image of you.

Here, how you are is your choice. You can be any’thing’ - a truck, a dog, an anime-character, darthvader, or a person you wanted to be. Once you’ve chosen your avatar you can step into the shining portal, which leads you to a completely different space.

After looking through all sorts of different identities like robots, Japanese anime characters, zombies, and many more, I decided to be a dog with a sword in the back. In the real world, dogs are so pure, happy, unconditionally giving and non-judgemental. Because of these reasons, I always wanted to be a dog. This avatar that I found looked like a dog with protective gear and some sort of seriousness in its face - ready to fight nonsense and violence. I felt pretty much resonating with this dog. Finally choosing the right avatar, I walked out to the world through a portal.

A Mirror

In this chapter, I will investigate the reason why the object ‘mirror’ became such a popular object to be around with other users in this game.

While you’re walking around the virtual universes, you will encounter multiple areas where people line up in front of a wall and have a chat. This is a very popular activity in VRchat which made me curious to know the reason why. If you turn on a button on the side, you can activate the mirror duplicating and mirroring everything in front of it. Most people decide to stay for long in front of this plane and observe how their own body shows by moving two VR controllers in their hands.

Jaron Lanier, a computer philosophy writer and father of the term ‘Virtual Reality’ once said that “VR is the removal of a single human-shaped mass from the fabric of the universe”. ^[3] Like Jaron mentioned, in VRchat, the view that the user sees is the same as what the user sees through their eyes in real life. Like we all can’t see our faces without a mirror, we can’t either, in VRchat. What you can see of yourself is your arms, hands, and if you put your head down, your legs and possibly feet. It is a very realistic view when you wear a VR goggle. Therefore, this architectural object ‘mirror’ in VRchat is there to indicate the users to understand their appearances and create a culture of observing each other in front of it.

Despite the sense of self-existence in the world of VRchat, it is not too easy to visually recognise yourself. Not only because you don’t see yourself, but also because you don’t have the same physical appearance that you’ve had for many years. Mirrors help the users identify the existence of their physical bodies.

Looking at the same sight triggers conversations. “Look at me, I can make this body movement. “Wow, can you do this too? “Maybe if I move like this, it will look funny.” This activity brings a bonding experience between the users sharing the same information. Among all the imaginary, and fantastical, intriguing spaces in VRchat, looking at the mirror together is one of the most common activities that the users spend a lot of time on. Here in front of the mirror, users understand each other’s existence and have the urge to communicate.

^[3] Lanier, J., and Lanier, J. (2018). Dawn of the new everything: Encounters with reality and virtual reality. New York, NY: Picador/Henry Holt and Company.↩

The Void Club

Would the nightlife exist in VR as well? The answer is yes. Exploration of this space proves that the appropriate etiquette and politeness according to the location exists in virtual space as well. Thinking of where I should go first, I decided to go somewhere I haven’t been for a long time. It is where a large number of people gather in a small place and be intimate with each other which is prohibited for a while now in the global pandemic state. It’s a dancing night club.

Going through a portal to ‘The Void Club’, shining fluorescent blue lights in the darkness already make everyone be in the mood for the night, regardless of which time zone they are from. I could listen to the sound coming from one ear to the other depending on where I stand. Although I’m not with my self-appearance, but with the shape of a standing dog, I still feel a bit awkward going to a club by myself. I hear loud electronic dance music with boosted bass coming out at the entrance. I haven’t been to a physical club for 6 months. A big part of me got very excited. Who will be there? What kind of people will I meet? Is it culturally acceptable if I just talk to random people in the club? Will there be any flirting in this space? If so, how would flirting with body movements work? How will people judge whether they feel attracted to each other or not, when they are wearing all sorts of crazy anime avatars? Without knowing any culture or tradition in this space, my head is full of questions. I walked into the club with a bit of worry that I would be such a weirdo in the space.

There were a bunch of people in the main dancing room, mainly just jumping around and talking to each other. I was just uncomfortably standing in front of them. The music was weirdly turning off and on after like a minute of the song playing. One person in the crowd next to me spoke something about it and considering his voice, he was presumably a male over 25 years old.

After looking through all sorts of different identities like robots, Japanese anime characters, zombies, and many more, I decided to be a dog with a sword in the back. In the real world, dogs are so pure, happy, unconditionally giving and non-judgemental. Because of these reasons, I always wanted to be a dog. This avatar that I found looked like a dog with protective gear and some sort of seriousness in its face - ready to fight nonsense and violence. I felt pretty much resonating with this dog. Finally choosing the right avatar, I walked out to the world through a portal.

Stranger:

Why does the music stop all the time?

Silence

I enabled my mic for the first time and spoke.

Me:

Maybe it’s a copyright issue?

Stranger:

Maybe.

Silence

I was mostly confused about what this place is about. Since the music stops all the time as if there was a terrible DJ, people just started to leave the space and go to another room. I couldn’t decide what to do. Then, the stranger spoke to me.

Stranger:

Hey, I think this place is a bit dead. I think I will move to another room.

Me:

….? Hahahahaha, thanks for letting me know, like as if we’re in an actual club

Stranger:

Hahahahaha

Me:

Hahahahaha

Stranger:

Hey, I send you a friend request okay?

Unexpectedly, I got a first ‘friend’ in this space so quickly considering how nervous I was. I was very happy that I made it. Seems like people in this place are way chiller than what I imagined. I realised it’s actually a very open minded space where talking to people next to you is very welcomed. While I was trying to find how to accept the friend request, I got more confidence to walk around and talk to people. I’ve listened to a couple more songs which all broke in the middle of its play and left the ‘club’.

The Courtroom

The experience in the ‘Courtroom’ shows the idea of how space can affect engagement of role playing games between users and triggers certain actions. Browsing through a large variety of the user-made worlds, I found this room called ‘Courtroom’. I wondered why this room exists among all the other crazy fantastical places, which trigger everyone’s imagination. I decided to explore it out of curiosity.

As soon as I arrived at the room, I was surprised by how detailed the surroundings were and how it gives spatial experience close to the actual space. The objects placed around were simple but enough to feel formal. As if I just arrived at the physical space I’ve never been to, and as if I know no one around, again, I browsed the space with a bit of awkward movement and thought of what I should do here. The first thing I saw was clothing racks with tags as exactly looking as the ones that we see at the theatres in real life.

They look quite convincing with the numbers and writings on top of the rectangular notes.

Not much after, I hear very young voices from the room in the corner which is slightly far away. Sounds like they must be in their early teens. How can these young children use the Virtual Reality equipment? I also hear a couple of voices of adult men. They sound like they are communicating together and having some sort of discussions.

There were multiple anime characters and a green man in the courtroom. The green talked and seemed like he’s very familiar with this place as he navigated the whole space without hesitance.

TIMESPLIT:

“There... okay.. RGBdog, you are a defence lawyer.”

RGBdog(me):

“?”

Suddenly being called by someone, seems like I accidentally got given a role without knowing what I’m supposed to do in this room. I just wanted to look around the space.. Wasn’t ready for a verbal communication. I quickly try to put my social mask on and understand what is happening here.

TIMESPLIT:

“RGBdog, do you have a mic?”

RGBdog:

“Oh yes.. I do”

TIMESPLIT:

“Good. This character in front of you made a cruel crime and you need to defend her as a defense lawyer.”

TIMESPLIT started to unfold his imagination and read out the story he had in his mind while I was still not sure what my role was.

TIMESPLIT
(judge):

The ID HAYDENCHANICE is accused for 10 million murders throughout the universe. She ran around and destroyed people’s spaceships. Do you see the giant tank here? This is one of the weapons she used. She genocided 10 million of geno-alien species. You have to talk to her and find a way to defend her.

Me
(defend lawyer):

“(very confused about this whole situation, pointing at ID HAYDENCHANICE) How…. how dare you!! You’re a terrible murderer!”

I hear children laughing hard at this. They must be less than 10 years old.

TIMESPLIT:

No, no no. You’re supposed to defend her, that was a worthless defence. Go to the evidence room and get some evidence for your trial. It’s in the back.

A very young kid:

RGBdog, you suck at defence.

Me:

“(Couldn’t hold my laugh, laughing out loud) Sorry, it’s my first time being here.”

The kid:

Ahh! That explains EVERYTHING!

After lots of laughs and playing along with them for a while, I realised this space is designed to encourage a role-playing game between the users with the concept of ‘a trial at court’, which needs users’ voluntary participation. Considering the large age range starting from less than 10 years old, I thought this space must be great for learning as well. Even for me who wasn’t very aware of the terms like ‘defend lawyer’ and ‘prosecutor’ in English, it gave me an idea immediately what the roles were about, (after my one mistake that all kids laughed at.) Also, I found that the gaming system was very cleverly designed with many elements helping user interaction to be even more enjoyable. For example, an evidence room.

The evidence room.

When the judge allows, the defence lawyer and the prosecutor can go into the evidence room and grab an object that they might find useful for them. A broken clock, money notes, a toothbrush, a pen, a cigarette, an iron, a trophy, a floppy disk, a revolver… Many items were intriguing the imagination. It’s such a simple system but effective. The users with their roles quickly have to think of what items can add to their circumstances and bring it out to the table. Each of them is given some time to speak about their evidence and explain why they believe in what they do.

Secondly, the digital scoring system also makes this role-based game more playable.

The prosecutor earned a point after bringing a convincing story.

Considering the stories, which are backed up by the appropriate evidence the prosecutor and the defence lawyer create, the judge can give scores to each party. Finally, the digital system counts scores to judge the winner for this trial. In conclusion in this space, I have encountered many possibilities of design to trigger certain user interactions and the individual’s imagination in the VR space by bringing discourses from real life. Regardless of the age gaps, everyone could enjoy this role-play game as we used to do in our childhood. It is made possible with the architecture of this space, the easy-to-understand scoring system shown often in video games, and the open mindset, which occurred by the feeling of bonding. This feeling of bonding comes from the fact that we all already chose for this odd experience, from the moment we decided to play ‘VRchat’. In addition, I won the trial as a defence lawyer by arguing that the prosecutor didn’t have enough evidence and convinced the judge that the murderer was mentally delusional during the genocide.

A South Korean Railway

The experience from this space shows that when the virtual space is designed to strongly resemble a real space, it brings out the user’s true personality reacting accordingly to the space.

One of the spaces which pushed my curiosity was a railway station called ‘Wha-bon’. It was written in Korean and there was a fair bit of user traffic going in and out. Physically moving out of my home country for 6 years already, I had a feeling of ‘going back’ when I arrived at this place. It was similar to how I felt whenever I travel back to South Korea for a short trip. Walking to the station covered in snow, I noticed a really familiar song being played in the background. Wait… What was this song? I quickly realised it was a sound track played at subway stations in Seoul. Very specific and catchy melody, no one can miss this. The funny thing is, this song plays when the underground train arrives at the station, not with the train running above the ground. In Korea, they are two very distinctive carriages with different railway companies. Although the song from underground is used for above the ground station which never happens in real life, I could associate the space right away where vehicles constantly stop by and carry people to the next station. So, I couldn’t stop smiling how cheeky it is to play this song at a South Korean railway station themed space in VRchat.

As I walk deeply on the map I hear Korean everywhere. People were discussing something personal and doing inside jokes, that only people who know each other would understand. It is the same situation in the other places, but the difference here is that I should interact in Korean with them.

Funnily enough, I just didn’t know how to start a new conversation in Korean as a stranger, because I have two slightly different personalities in Korean and in English. People who learnt another language and moved to a different country in their adulthood will understand the personality differences between their mother tongue and another language they speak. Because the language comes with the cultural background.

Korean language consists of two different types of expressions. One is very polite, which people speak to strangers with, people who they don’t really know, or people who are older than them. The other one is an informal way that you speak to your friends, younger people and only close people. Age is very important in terms of the way you speak. Due to this reason, when I speak Korean to strangers, I become a person who is careful not to come across rude. If I want to approach a group of new people that I don’t know, I should indeed use the polite expression rather than a playful ‘Hi’. I couldn’t reach the people easily because, firstly I had to speak with a polite expression which is already a bit awkward and careful. Secondly, the group of people were already speaking in very informal expressions which means that they are already good friends. I wasn’t brave enough to interfere with the group to ruin their friendly fun. In English, whoever I meet, the expressions are the same. Therefore I’m a very outgoing person speaking to strangers very easily in English, whether it is in a physical space or not. But in Korean, it was the same as I am in real life. Very careful with expressions and an approach not to be rude. Also, in Korea it is not so common to just join the conversation of a group of people who you don’t really know.

I felt weirdly awkward. I was walking around them saying nothing. The subway music kept playing. It felt like I was alone there.

In the end, I chose to just make a fire around the railway and sit down. Around me there were three Japanese manga characters. When I couldn’t find a button to fire up the bonfire, one of them taught me where the button was in English. After a short talk, I realised these guys are from France. Knowing them geographically so close to where I live (The Netherlands) I felt at home for some reason. Only one of them could speak English, so the other two often asked in French and I heard the translation. I asked them why they are at a Korean community place where everyone speaks Korean. They said they just like to go around different places between three of them and talk. They shared the city they live in, what they do, how their days were, and were curious about mine, too. One of them said “Sorry, we don’t speak English well.” in a very friendly manner and I answered “No problem at all, my French is not even comparable to your English.”

After this experience, I realised when the virtual space strongly resembles the real space and brings the culture of it, it also brings my ‘real’ self, which made me act the same as I do back in that real space. In this case, it’s South Korea. It is an interesting discovery for me, since I thought people can have many constructed personas in VR. However, my real personality was revealed through the space at this Wha-bon station.

Second Life

In this other virtual game called Second Life, I experience how it is designed to be intentionally indistinguishable between reality and the game, and the consequences.

Second Life is an online virtual world developed by a company Lindan Lab in San Francisco in 2003. Unlike VRchat full of anime and imaginary characters as avatars, the majority users of Second Life represent themselves in human-like forms. It rapidly grew its community to approximately one million users in 2013.^[4] However, the number has been highly declining over the years. By the end of 2017 and now, it has around half of the community members compared to their peak.^[5] It used to support the function for VR use, but discontinued it after the failure of their VR-focused platform, Sansar.^[6] Although it was not as an immersive experience as VRchat, I could join the game on my desktop as same as any other video game.

“New Classic Avatars are Now Available in Second Life!”

I found it interesting that the game is almost a complete replica of life in the physical world. It has a fully functioning, financial ecosystem with a currency called ‘Lindan dollar’ which can be used for purchasing clothes, properties, furniture and pets virtually. 2,500 L$ is approximately 10 US dollars. However, that might be a reason why it felt like a dystopia for me when I started exploring Second Life for the first time. I couldn’t stay here for long. It is very different from my impression from VRchat.

^[4] Lab, Linden. “INFOGRAPHIC: 10 YEARS OF SECOND LIFE.” Linden Lab, June 2013, www.lindenlab.com/releases/infographic-10-years-of-second-life. ↩
^[5]Axon, Samuel. “Returning to Second Life.” Ars Technica, 23 Oct. 2017, arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/10/returning-to-second-life/. ↩
^[6] Matney, Lucas. “Second Life-Maker Calls It Quits on Their VR Follow-Up.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 25 Mar. 2020, techcrunch.com/2020/03/24/second-life-maker-calls-it-quits-on-their-vr-follow-up-sansar ↩

The Avatars

Looking at the options of avatars, we can observe how much this game is designed to be reality-like. In Second Life, I had to choose my gender between three options: woman, man and gender neutral. Having to choose my identity in a visual form is not an easy task. It involves questions and decisions — do I like to have a different hair style than my real hair? Do I want to try darker skin tone, or brighter skin tone? Do I want to have a different gender? Why not myself?... Due to the similarity and realness of the characters in terms of human appearances, I tend to think that the avatars I choose will represent what I secretly wish for. Thinking that being a male avatar prevents having online sexual harassment, I chose to be a man. Not that I experienced many harassment cases in online games, but it happens so often in real life. I felt much safer as a man, since the avatars are in human forms. I could be anyone from the options in this game, but have to be in a human form. Looking through the avatars with fabulous looks I didn’t feel like choosing anyone as I didn’t resonate with any of them for some reason. I decided to go to an avatar shop.

An avatar shop. Here I can purchase the avatar with Linden dollars.

This shop for choosing my physical identity truly shocked me. It was completely reflecting the capitalistic society we live in, where the ‘beauty’ that we are taught to find beautiful was on sale. Funnily the music playlist of this shop was something pop and overly happy, excited, but ‘cool for youngsters’ music, which we would normally hear at fast-fashion clothing shops such as H&M and Zara. Thanks to that background information from real life, I immediately associate this place as a fast, easy, and trendy shop which encourages mass purchases. Although the commodity we deal with here is, confusingly, our identities.

It was very dystopian to see actual transactions happen to purchase a ‘beautiful’ self in this world. 4,000 Linden dollars, which is around 26 US dollars to get a head of these handsome, pretty people. The heads all looked like the ones from famous fashion models we often find in fancy brand advertisements. I browsed the place as if I was window shopping. They were all fair-skinned and with heavy makeups shining in the lights. The Asian models looked like the ones from famous South Korean idol groups, showcased as a product by large management companies and factory labels. There was no head looking ‘natural’ or less ‘pretty’, and over 15 people around me were looking for their new heads.

Honestly, I felt disgusted. This feels even more real than reality. I didn’t want to experience this even in the virtual game. However, everything seemed normal and peaceful like any other beauty product shop in real life. It seems like the exaggeration of beauty as a commodity didn’t discomfort any of them, as if it’s the most normalised product. In the end, I decided to stay with one of the default avatars that I found hobo-looking. He had relatively dark skin and was wearing a hat. Even though I still didn’t want to be him, there were no other options without the artificial beauty on their faces. Unlike VRchat, Second Life constantly shows the avatar of the user in the view. In this way the users are more conscious of what they are wearing which can naturally lead them to the clothing shops. I didn’t like what my avatar was wearing but decided not to fall in this trap.

Adult Spaces

There are virtual spaces where it made me clearly realise how reality is. I teleported to another area with disgust. “What the f….” This was my reaction when I landed in this place. This looked like it is for adults, meaning, a sex contents shop. In this shop, many avatars were naked or wearing very exposed and sexy clothes. On the wall there were numerous pornographic videos displayed to be chosen. They were depicting mostly women, whether it was an actual human or not, in very sexualised forms. These adult contents were also on sale which people could buy with Linden dollars.

At this point I thought: the name of this game is quite well illustrating what this game is about. It’s really a life we already have, but a second life, which we have as an addition. This is the most blunt way of revealing what we’ve been familiarising ourselves with. Some sort of exciting pop music is constantly playing in the background to remind shopping malls and small department stores, where the transaction happens. The transitions between songs are seamless like the one from DJ’s aiming to confuse users with the endless concept of time on the dancefloor. The songs are similar but for sure different, however, it is hard to grasp when the song is over as it just keeps going. The users fall deep into the hole where the time is intentionally stretched. Many other users send me overly friendly automated messages selling their products - videos and photo files in folders - which I will get as folder directories of a bunch of adult contents after a purchase.

A guy with his genital out is facing towards me. Would the size of men’s penis be also 3d modeled with a ‘desirable’ size in real life?

I walked to the beach just a little bit away from this area trying to look away from this sex market. Unlike my intention, I had to see two users having ‘sex’, by imitating movements of sexual intercourse. One user in a female form was on top of the male’s, fastly moving her hips. Apart from getting shocked that I just witnessed virtual sex, I wondered how they made this 3d-model rigging works specifically for this sort of movement. Not long after, I quickly found out how.

A Movement Shop

Our physical body movement is limited to what resources we have. It is not different in virtual space, for our virtual bodies. This place was on the list of ‘hot places’ that the game organisation Lindan picked and promoted. There were numerous vending machines, from which the users could buy their dance movement. Depending on the dance the price varied from 500 L$ (US$ 2) to 2500 L$ (US$ 10). We can assume that the moves that I just saw on the beach would be one of the ‘dance’ moves, that people could purchase here. If I wanted to impress somebody with a para para dance, a popular syncronised dance move to follow everybody dancing together, or baby shark dance from South Korea to catch up to a more modern trend, I should pay. It is a very simple, straight-forward example showing that our body movements are limited to our financial resources, even in the virtual space.

A Second Life marketplace. ^[7] Here users can purchase the animations of body movements. There are varieties of them being sold, from an idle pose to different types of walking, talking and kissing, and expectedly, erotic animations. After a purchase, users can apply the animations on to their avatars and invite their friends to use them. The movement packages often include the interaction for friends around the user who uses it. So for the friends, it worked as a ‘try-out’ when they could use the moves from the owner. In a way it is also seen as a self-advertisement method for the movement creators. The users represent the characters of their avatars by using different sorts of body movements. Shy, seductive, rough, aggressive, playful, or careful...

^[7] Matney, Lucas. “Second Life-Maker Calls It Quits on Their VR Follow-Up.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 25 Mar. 2020, techcrunch.com/2020/03/24/second-life-maker-calls-it-quits-on-their-vr-follow-up-sansar ↩

The Very Familiar World

In spite of the fact it is not something that is touchable or tangible, the identity we create online is our projected self to some extent. We associate, resonate, and act as one with the avatars. In the computer science term, ‘virtual’ means “Sophisticated pieces of software that enable their users to project an identity into a generated three-dimensional reality through the use of advanced computer graphics and – through the eyes of this digital persona or avatar – interact with other players and wander through this generated reality.”^[8] Which can be read that the virtual space is designed to make our virtual identity interact with other personas in the generated world. While myself feeling discomfort for everything in this world being commodified and beautified, this is also one of the reasons why the users quickly understand the system and engage with the other users, bringing financial profits to the game. Everything is designed to be very familiar. The reward system, the ‘ideal’ beauty, sexualising women, the currency, the desire for possession, and even religious activities, for example, from church services to meditation at Muslim mosque.

An advertisement video of a wedding video production service in Second Life. ^[9]

Having a wedding is also one of them. It is one of the rituals that users can do with their lover, which is surprisingly the same process as the one outside Second Life. “Just like a wedding outside Second Life, it can be overwhelming! Fortunately, there are plenty of wedding planning services to help you get started. Here’s a handy wedding planning checklist that you can use to start planning.” ^[10] Like the description on the Linden website leading to articles of the wedding services, there are branches of small businesses grown with the wedding business just like the one we are familiar with. Wedding planner, wedding photographer/videographer, venues, attire designer, DJ, decorations, and flowers and cakes. These reality-copied services not only keep the ecosystem of the game, but also add to the validity of the experience.

^[8] Mayer-Schoenberger, Victor, and John R Crowley. “Napster's Second Life? - the Regulatory Challenges of Virtual Worlds.” SSRN, 17 Oct. 2005, papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=822385. ↩
^[9]https://youtu.be/bsbYhGvFtu4↩
^[10]Linden Research, Inc. “Second Life Wedding Guide.” Second Life | Weddings in the Virtual World, 2020, go.secondlife.com/landing/weddings/?lang=en. ↩

Collision

Due to these reasons, it is not too uncommon to see the cases of the game and reality collide.

“British couple set to divorce after wife finds her husband's alter-ego chatting affectionately with a woman in the virtual world” ^[11]

“... Sue (the wife of a couple) is growing tired of his continued interest in Second Life. Much to Sue's dismay, Hoogestraat(the husband)'s avatar had gone as far as marrying another avatar on Second Life. ...”^[12]

“Second Life Divorce: Woman Catches Husband In Virtual Gay Affair”^[13]

These are some of the love and affair examples where the two worlds lost their boundaries and have been affected by both of them. The stories are mostly about couples struggling to find out their partners having secondary relationships in the game. All of the cases above led to actual divorce or breakup, leaving distrust and anger between them.

At this point, the discussion of if virtual cheating still counts or not is not a fresh topic any more. We live in the era that it is impossible to completely divide our reality and what we do digitally. In these examples mentioned above, their digital-self became their actual selves, not only as a representation. People ended in divorce in real life because of their partners in Second Life. With the influence of virtual spaces designed in complete synchronisation with reality, conflict and confusion can happen back in reality.

^[11]Morris, Steven. “Second Life Affair Leads to Real Life Divorce.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 13 Nov. 2008, www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/nov/13/second-life-divorce. ↩
^[12] Friedman, Emily. “Does Virtual Cheating Still Count?” ABC News, ABC News Network, 9 July 2008, abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3473291. ↩
^[13]Shea, Danny. “Second Life Divorce: Woman Catches Husband In Virtual Gay Affair.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 25 May 2011, www.huffpost.com/entry/second-life-divorce-woman_n_165291?guccounter=1.↩

The Resemblance of Life

Experiencing the worlds myself, I found that re-creating familiarity of the experience that we’ve been having in physical spaces plays an important role to engage with the virtuality. The places made me feel nostalgia had the architecture of the train station in South Korea, the place made me feel formal and put myself in a role of illustrating a courtroom that I often saw on the news. The music that I used to hear in fast-fashion clothing shops were used for the virtual space that encourages purchases. The small bar where the locals would gather was so loud with people chatting next to each other that I couldn’t be there without getting drunk. At this bar in VRchat, the 3d model of the space was very small like a real local bar and all the sound of other people talking was coming from very close by. People were singing and talking loud like in any other real bars. So, to enjoy the space without getting irritated, it was better to be drunk myself and speak as loud as other people. The ‘real’ beers in my fridge helped in this case.

Even in the very fantastical rooms it had elements to feel familiar. Therefore we understand the logics, the physics system and react with the thoughts of how we will interact with the other users. The resemblance of life in a virtual space was one of the keys making the division between the two worlds very blurry. Everything was self-explanatory that I didn’t even feel new or alienated. In the next chapters, I will explore the architectural and sonic elements which highly affect users in the games.

The Bodies

What does it mean to have bodies in VR? The virtual environment provides flexibility for us to be someone else, which means that we can perform and act out in different bodies. In both of the games I experienced, the users projected themselves into a body, called an avatar. These avatars represent the identity of the users and allow role-play in the game. Being in these virtual-selves, people can free themselves from restrictions of their own physical bodies.

However, when virtual spaces strongly resemble real life, it can bring the similar issue that we have in reality. In Second Life, everyone had to have their avatars in a human form. Then, why would anyone want to choose an ‘ugly’ face when they can pay for a ‘pretty’ face? Bringing back the restriction of our own bodies made the users pursue the ideal type of its form. In other words, the game is designed to push the limits of beauty standards to make the identity market profitable.

On the other hand, the identity doesn’t have any borders in VRchat. Anyone could become anything, even a small ant or a skyscraper. This also means the users don’t get obsessed with the ‘best’ human forms which follow the body standards. This reduces chances of being exposed to highly sexualised contents. The bodies of users don’t have any categorization or pre-perception, therefore, it didn’t bring any pre-judgement. Freedom of bodies contributes to creating a safe environment.

In addition, as we didn’t have to look at ourselves since the view we could see our bodies was excluded, the appearance didn’t matter as much as it did in Second Life. Furthermore, every character you could get in VRchat is free and open-sourced. What matters in terms of the self-appearance in VRchat is more for the joyful aspect of playing with others or achieving an impossible dream like I did by being a dog. This element in VRchat creates a free environment where there is no judgement.

As discussed above, the roles created by these avatars heavily affect the user experience and culture around it in VR. We can explore that further with the next two examples.

One is my own experience in Second Life. Since Second Life only allows the users to be humans, it created the same roles and environment as it is in real life. As a female user myself, I chose to be a male character because I didn’t feel so safe to be around male strangers in a female body. Having a female body brings consequences. Sexualisation, being a commodity, body-shaming, and so on. Despite the possibilities of this VR technology, my roles were still limited to gender, clothing, movement, and body in this world. This component in VRchat created the place where everyone chases their capitalistic fantasies.

The other example is in a therapeutic program that I will introduce. Joshua Rothman, the editor of newyorker.com, shares a fascinating experience with virtual reality in his article ‘Are We Already Living in Virtual Reality?’^[14] on NewYorker. Joshua went into the virtual world with the VR goggles in this program created by the VR researcher Mel Slater’s lab. Before starting the program, he was 3d scanned by an imaging system. It captured the whole body of him; his blue shirt, grey jeans, and brown boots. So, when he entered the virtual world, he could look into the large mirror to see himself. In front of him, Sigmund Freud was sitting at his own desk in his white shirt and grey suit.

In this simulation he experiences being in different bodies, Freud and himself, to discuss the stress he personally had. After he asked a question to ‘Freud’, the world shifted and soon, he was in Freud’s body looking at his own self. He writes in the article that even though he was technically talking with himself, watching his world shifting and being in someone else's body made him feel like he was having a conversation. In this case, we can observe how experiencing different bodies in VR can function for therapeutic purposes. However, the bodies are not the only architectural components in the game affecting the experience.

This magical place that Joshua was in VR exercising virtual embodiment shows more elements that I found important, considering my own experience in those two games earlier. Following this chapter, I will explore how the space and sound influence the experience in VR.

^[14] Rothman, Joshua, et al. “Are We Already Living in Virtual Reality?” The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2018, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/02/are-we-already-living-in-virtual-reality. ↩

The Space

First of all, the space. “On some level, the brain doesn’t know the difference between real reality and virtual reality.” says Slater, the VR researcher, in Joshua’s writing. The virtual spaces in both games are constructed with intentions to enhance the user engagement to the direction they aim to go for.

The room Joshua was at with Freud was pretty much resembling the possible reality where they might have had a conversation as if Freud was still alive. Here, of course, there was a very familiar object ‘a mirror’ where he could find himself appearing, as familiar as in VRchat. The self-identitier mirrors for sure worked as helpers for him to understand this impossible situation to be true. In the simulation, his brain might have been tricked to understand the situation as reality. These objects do not only function in a visual aspect, but also to make the viewers believe in simulations. They are often replicas like mirrors, chairs, desks, the doors, the concept of doors as a portal — the magical object letting the users going through to the different space — the floors, the ceilings, and so on.

At the Virtual Interaction Lab lecture at Stanford University in 2018, an environmental scientist Jeremy Bailenson mentions how realistic the combat training games are as much as it being used for soldiers. ^[15] He continued his lecture explaining that many researches proved that after being exposed to the violence as consumers with these games you are more likely to become more comfortable with the concept in reality. He suggests standards for violent games. One of the suggestions is that in shooting games the bullets shouldn’t go straight, it should go in a different direction when users shoot. And the enemies that the gamers should elluminate shouldn’t be humanoid-shaped, sized, and move in a trajectory that humans do. Therefore, meaning that the violent game design has to have obvious, different logics to the reality which the users are familiar with. It is to prevent them from understanding the game as their extended reality. The suggestion he gave in this lecture tells the difficulties that action VR games are facing to separate the users from confusion. This also means, on the other hand, the architectural elements grabbing the reality to the VR space blur the line between the two realities even more. Therefore, it should be constructed with care and right intention.

Because how the space is displayed in VR is such an important part of the experience, it equals the maker’s intention. The room can be zero-gravity without any objects for simulating a dreamy environment, or full of objects on the ground to create a familiar showroom for selling products. Depending on the purpose, the influence is made on the users.

A furniture shop at Second Life.

^[15] Bailenson, Jeremy. “Experience on Demand.” Reality Lab Lectures. 23 Oct. 2018, UW-Seattle Campus. ↩

The Sonic Experience

Secondly, we can now point at the voices of the bodies going back to the story of being Freud. Joshua talked in his own voice to Freud which was recorded and played when he was in Freud’s body. Looking at himself as a third person hearing himself talking made his brain to believe that he was talking to a different person. To have a sense of presence in VR, there should be a sense of sound localisation, as much as a sense of beings represented by avatars. It means that we should be able to understand where the sound is coming from and what sort of resonance it makes, far or close, left or right, in a church or a small room… to localise as close as it does in physical space. Elizabeth Pegan, an author at Cogswell University in The US, emphasises the purpose of audio in films and connects to VR. She mentions “sound design, such as sound effects and audible environmental factors enhance the believability of the narrative in films together with music, which delivers emotional impact.” She finds that is even more important in VR. “VR imposes greater technical requirements on a soundtrack before, but relies on sound to make the situation believable and to deliver emotional impact.”^[16]

The experience of sound is crucial for increasing user engagement in virtual spaces. It often replicates the real physics locating the source of sound, which makes it feel even more ‘real’. We can sort out these important sonic components for the virtual experience in three different groups.

1. Distinguishable sound source

If the sound is a voice, is it human-like? If so, is it female or male? How old does the voice suggest? Is it a sound of something cracking? A tiny glass or a big jar? Is it the sound of an animal? What kind of animals would be, and what does it suggest in terms of the space I’m in? Do they habitat in a jungle, in the desert, in the forest, or around the human-living city?

In VR chat, I could orient myself by understanding the people with their voices. The young kids’ voices gave me so much joy and playfulness, and the older man’s explanation gave me a good sense of indication for my new journey in this game. There are structures of sound like human voices and sound effects which inform us of certain images. Understanding the users’ experience and the nature, the sound designers can create these images accordingly for desired simulations. When Joshua was in the VR program, he spoke as Freud in Freud's body. When he became himself again, he could hear what he spoke as Freud replayed in an old man’s lower toned voice. It was very different to his real voice that he spoke. Here, the modification of the sound was an essential part ‘to be’ Freud. This helped Joshua recognise who he was talking to — which led him to envision this simulation very easily — therefore, his brain threw him into it. These distinguishable sound sources are a powerful, convincing method for understanding what virtual spaces suggest.

2. Music with certain context

Music with certain context, in other words, background information. It is known that music has been a form of communication which shares certain meaning and emotions. In a book of Lyndon C. S. Way and Simon Mckerrell, called ‘Music as Multimodal Discourse’, describe this well borrowing other scholar’s words. Which means some scholars believe in “the ability of music to represent and promote socio-political interests or particular cultural values (Korczynski 2014; Lorraine 2006; Shoup 1997).” Meanwhile it can also promote the idea of large corporation together with the context of consumption which can suggest potential meaning in pop music(Frith, 1988, 1981 and Street, 1988).^[17]

As proposed above, music can bring meanings and contexts depending on the time it was produced, where it is produced, where it is promoted, by whom it is produced… and so on. Hearing certain types of music in virtual space sometimes triggers emotional throwback and memories like I did at a Korean railway station in VRchat, or encourages some actions like fast purchases at a face shop in Second Life. Bringing contextual meanings of music is another powerful method for forming the convincing environment in a virtual space.

3. Binaural audio setting and 3D audio effect

“The design of (in)audible spaces in the sense of the developing architectures in a virtual, imaginative or perceptual soundscape opens the possibilities of and embodied experience, an immersive journey, and a profound drawing (in terms of sound) of spaces ...”^[18] says Miguel Isaza, a composer, in his writing ‘Sonic Architecture’. It is possible to develop a space giving a sense of being present, with our body, the physical entity. And the experience coming from that space creates a sensation of being there.

The binaural audio is not the same as a mono or a stereo sound system which is recorded in one or two channels. The way it is constructed is to mimic the sound coming to human ears by creating the actual ear-like object around the microphone when recording, together with the appropriate mic positioning.

^[19]

Due to the same structure of our ear curves and shapes, the recording sounds as if our ears are hearing. So it is much more realistic than a stereo recording. Although the complete binaural sound experience is not spread much yet to the VR content world yet,^[20] we can get a gist of it with a spatial experience when we play VR.

Sound localisation.^[21]

To experience this correctly, the recordings should be done with the binaural setting and the user has to be in a static position, because the sound will be recorded from different locations considering the user’s position in one spot. Because of this reason, this setting has been used much in VRgames despite its high potential to enhance the experience. However, with virtual reality goggles and stereo headphones, we can indirectly experience this. It’s called 3D audio effect. 3D audio effects happen when the group of sound effects plays three-dimensionally. Binaural recording is one of the methods to create this 3D stereo sound sensation. However, because the sound sources are already located in the 3d environment in VRchat, the users can hear the sound from all sorts of directions and identify the location of the sound source in three dimensions.

Let’s imagine being at a small pub in VR like I experienced in VRchat. There are many people sitting close to each other and chatting. People are everywhere and their avatars have different heights. The sounds feel like it’s coming from many directions, close or far, left or right, and up or down. The sound reacts accordingly if I turn my head around. If I’m curious about the conversation that some funny characters are having a bit far away from me, I can physically move my avatar close to them to listen better.

As mentioned above, at first when I visited the bar, I was stressed by the noisy environment where people sat and talked right next to each other in the small space. Before my intoxication level was not yet high with my beers, I promptly moved to a close public toilet where there was a bit of peace. It was relatively quiet because there were not many people around me. This direct reflection of sound of the physical change in reality to the virtual space makes the user believe as if I am talking with another user right next to me. This enhances communication between users and makes them feel connected to each other in the game.

^[16]Pegan, Elizabeth. “The Importance of Sound in Virtual Reality.” Cogswell College The Importance of Sound in Virtual Reality Comments, 17 July 2017, cogswell.edu/blog/virtual-reality-vr-sound-importance/. ↩
^[17]“Understanding Music as Multimodal Discourse.” Music as Multimodal Discourse: Semiotics, Power and Protest, by Lyndon C. S. Way and Simon McKerrell, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018, pp. 3–3. ↩
^[18]Isaza, Miguel. “Sonic Architecture.” Designing Sound, 29 Sept. 2014, designingsound.org/2014/09/29/sonic-architecture/. ↩
^[19]https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Head_and_torso_simulator.jpg
#/media/File:Head_and_torso_simulator.jpg ↩
^[20]Lalwani, Mona. “Surrounded by Sound: How 3D Audio Hacks Your Brain.” The Verge, 12 Feb. 2015, www.theverge.com/2015/2/12/8021733/3d-audio-3dio-binaural-immersive-vr-sound-times-square-new-york. ↩
^[21]By de:Benutzer:Ebs, Vektorisierung durch de:Benutzer:Antonsusi - selbst gezeichnet, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57829192 ↩

Bonding Through the Digitalised Space

With these observations, I realised how the virtual spaces are designed very purposefully and intentionally. With all sorts of different types of spaces, the makers can create interactions between users. And these interactions can be very honest verbal conversations, roleplay games, triggering nostalgia and feeling at home for some people… but also, encouraging purchases, and promoting beauty standards and possession. Regardless, it is true that virtual spaces have been a friend of many people. It’s not seen in the physical, tangible space but it’s making so many cultures, communities, friendships, love, and relationships around it.

ID TheWingman sharing his mural in VRchat for his friends, on Reddit.^[22]

The name of the guy who was a judge at the ‘Courtroom’ in VRchat was Nick, from Illinoi, The US. When I curiously asked who he is, he happily shared his stories. His job is a truck driver, he loves his work listening to music and driving all day, and loves to play VRchat at home to meet people from different places. As I told him that I’m a beginner in this game, he brought me to many places opening up portals and more portals. We went to the world we could draw everywhere, a fancy clothing shop that we could hang around, a big tent with the lights in the middle of nowhere where people were playing card games. Everywhere we went there were more people enjoying the space, sometimes they even joined with us through the portals Nick made. Everyone was having so much fun, just casually saying hi to each other.

After a bunch of trips and giggles, I had to go to bed. It was 3am in The Netherlands. When I told him that I’m leaving, Nick said this to me.

"You know, it’s not easy to meet people around the world like you where I live. You’re from South Korea and you live in The Netherlands! How cool! I would not have met you unless in this VRchat. I’m so happy that I could meet all sorts of people here. That’s why I love to be here. What is your name again? Soyun? Soyun, It’s really nice meeting you! Have a good evening."

^[22] https://www.reddit.com/r/VRchat/comments/k4rcu0/mural_for_a_
couple_of_our_friends/ ↩