Virtualis

The digital world can be a maze, with endless virtual possibilities that the uninitiated can easily miss. Virtualis addresses this by taking the user by the hand. After checking in at a virtual tourist office and choosing a “tourist avatar”, the visitor dons an Oculus Rift headset and is shown around the world of the social VR platform VRChat. During the one-hour tour, the tour guides, operating from New York, talk about the history and culture of VRChat, what it tells us about Social VR, and its impact on how we view the real world.

Virtualis offers three tours: DIY Time, Kitbashing Identity, and Virtual Currencies. Each tour looks at these topics through the lens of VRChat. Using that lens, Virtualis makes connections to other platforms such as Second Life, MUDS, Facebook Horizon, and Web 2.0 to look at how online social platforms have altered our perceptions of reality.