Has anyone been using VR to socialize lately?

I have an Oculus Quest but I haven't spent much time in social apps like Rec Room and Bigscreen. I've found these experiences pretty awkward due to the lack of facial expressions and lack of social objective, but maybe that's just me. Also, there's often more kids in these apps than people my age, so it's hard to really relate.

As for my friends who have the Oculus and being social with them, again I find this missing something. It seems like despite Facebook being a social media company who's stated purpose is to connect the world, they've really done a lackluster job in the ability to have decent group experiences in Oculus. For example, I'm often not aware of when my other friends are using the Oculus, they could make it easy for me to see who's online and what they're playing. And when I start a party with friends to play games together, there's no native features to help us join the same game, make sure we're seeing the same thing. It would be cool if I could virtually see what a friend is seeing so I can at least help them get into the same game as me. Coming from Steam, it seems rather basic.

I'm curious how the social experience compares with other VR devices.

I did today - I was hanging out with two friends in Australia. We used the free game Rec Room and all had Oculus headsets.

What I find great about VR is the directional source of the voice - you can talk over each other in a group setting and not miss anything, unlike video chat.

It is still uncomfortable for longer periods though. And you still have to find a time when everyone is free

"Eleven" is a bonkers good table tennis (ping pong) simulator - it's the closest to the real thing of any VR sport I've played so far. It's 1:1, but if you have voice chat on, it enables almost the same social experience as actually playing ping pong with someone. Highly recommended (if you're on Steam, remember to switch to the beta, it's much improved and multiplayer compatible with the Oculus versions!)

Bought a Vive and new RTX card the first week of realizing I’d be stuck at home for months. Almost all of the other headsets were (and still are?) sold out.

I bought in with the expectation that I could have a great social experience in virtual reality, but it really hasn’t met up to my expectations. Virtual reality is cool, but the VR social networks are really lackluster.

First of all, the audience is typically very young. There are far more children than I had expected. Don’t expect to have a good conversation right off the bat, and it will take a while to find someone of similar age/maturity and interests.

I’ve hopped around a bit between AltSpace and VrChat, and I think I prefer the AltSpace crowd a bit more.

What I haven’t yet done is participated in structured events. Seemingly, you can find every thing from open mic night to meditation and movie night. I got really interested in this aspect by watching a channel on YouTube called Disrupt. (The same guy who spent a week in VR)

I think I’m going to give bigscreen a try tonight with the premiere of Jackass 3 in 3D.

Being generally new to VR, I largely thought the claims of motion sickness were overblown, but quickly realized how fatiguing VR really is.

As far as socializing these days, I’ve found luck with good old plain video chat. None of my friends have heavily invested in VR yet, but we still manage to hop on multi-hour long video chats and catch up on things or work on projects.

And as far as meeting new people, I’ve found luck in playing team based mmos in my free time. You’d be surprised how well a common objective can do you in meeting new people. Once you find team members you like, stick with them. Steam and Discord is particularly good at this.

I also think that’s the failure of social networks in VR. Without a common objective or expectation, it’s really hard to have a good conversation. At least in a game, you can always resort to talking about strategy and the like. Conversation usually comes naturally after.

My take here is that VR is only really a good medium for interacting with people you already know, but this requires buy-in among your existing friends. Meeting people in VR is much less satisfying than traditional routes.

Almost none of my friends have VR. It's still very expensive.

Instead we've turned to zoom/hangouts/discord and steam/gog/dolphin emu, etc.

I haven’t been socializing with friends, but playing poker stars VR has given me back the feeling of “getting out of the house” that I have been sorely missing. There can be good conversation and serendipity that I have been lacking in my life, somehow this game manages to scratch that itch.

I thought about it. I have a Quest. I just don’t think the tech is there yet

Not enough ppl (if anyone at all) online. The avatars are hilariously bad, but I get why they exist.

Maybe in 5-10 years

I played Catan in VR with the Oculus Go and it was amaaaaazing. It was so mind blowing that I wrote about it[1] at the time. It was just the most social interaction I've ever had playing a video game.

I got some friends into VR but unfortunately they have the Go and the battery sucks...

I have the Quest now, and it's an amazing platform that I recommend to all my friends (best buy has some in stock since yesterday) but unfortunately Catan is not available there yet :/

[1]: https://p1x3l.com/story/239/social-virtual-reality-and-the-o...

Many of my friends have been using VR to socialize since before the pandemic.

But they chose that because they could be their fursona, first and foremost.

I don't think VR is any better than just video chat for socializing, and nobody has it, including you.

I have a VR rig but never use it (because it requires me to reboot into Windows) and the vast majority of my friends don't have one.

Maybe in a decade if most people have something and cross-platform works well I could see it being compelling.

Not exactly, but I have been using Tabletop Simulator to socialize with former classmates, and after this experience (which I would recommend, hands down) I'm dying to try their VR mode.

Socialising, not really... It's not as good for socialising than webcamming IMO. I tried some apps like VR chat and altspace but they're too clumsy, and the avatars are too disconnected from the chat taking place. The tech isn't there yet. We need eye tracking, full body tracking and facial expression recognition.

It's great for feeling like being outside of the house (we're in full lockdown in Spain) but that's all.

I tried VR a few years ago and thought it was interesting, but not compelling enough to buy.

My new year's 2020 prediction for the next decade is related:

VIDEO becomes what people thought VR/AR would be. Reality becomes mediated through video, not 3D graphics

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21942100

Also related:

I don't know what's going on in Second Life now but to me it feels like it's probably not "real life". I guess people want "life" and not "second life", and video is becoming an increasingly large aspect of the former.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21932707

FWIW I did take some action on this and invest in a company doing video at the beginning of the year... probably could have been more aggressive though.

not VR, but plenty of people are socializing and "partying" in 3D worlds: https://opensimworld.com/

I have an Oculus Go but I haven't used it for anything social. Mostly I got it because I was interested in developing for VR and it was the only thing I could afford.

VR for long periods gives me headaches, so I can only use the headset for about an hour.

I don't have any VR tech and I think I know of only one person who does.

vrchat on steam seems like the one with most people

What constitutes VR? Do Apple Animoji’s count? Does teleconferencing software with background removal count?

I never kiss and tell.

Nope, too nerdy. Not even on my radar.