Early VR Communities Adopting Gaming's Toxic Male Culture

"Virtual Reality Is Full of Assholes Who Sexually Harass Me. Here's Why I Keep Going Back" is a must-read post by Taylor Lorenz which is her account of trying to explore the VR social chatroom Altspace, but gets this treatment for her trouble: 

Within two minutes... I was given my first unsolicited "virtual reality kiss." Shortly after, my skinny brown-haired avatar was swarmed by male users rubbing on me and asking if I was as skinny in real life or just a fatty behind an avatar. I felt ripped from the virtual world and transported back to middle school... Despite the rocky start, I gave Altspace a couple more tries over the weekend and I have to say I really love it, or at least the idea of it. When the moderators are around, conversations are pleasant. I talked to people from around the world and even met a couple other women. Unfortunately, these interactions were sandwiched in between men making jokes about gang rape and pretending to give each other blow jobs.

Her experiences actually seems less traumatizing than has been reported by other women, but bad all the same. Despite that, Taylor ends on a hopeful note:

I think Altspace has tremendous potential, provided it can build the right community and facilitate more meaningful connections. VR has been derided as the ultimate solitary experience, but despite the crass welcome and middle school humor, Altspace proves that VR has the ability to be a powerful connector of people. Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly claimed that virtual reality could become "the most social platform ever." I think he's right. It just has to grow up.

But that strikes me as over-optimistic. Generally speaking, an online community is defined and shaped by its early adopters, because they set the expectations and mores of the userbase that develops around them. And by all appearances, VR's social spaces are being shaped by the people who've been first to adopt VR as a technology:

Young, male, hardcore gamers, who have maintained a Lost Boy culture of teabagging, rape jokes, resentment of anyone not like them for decades. As these gamers get into their 30s, they mostly get married, have kids, learn to maintain serious jobs, and largely fade away from this culture -- which therefore doesn't benefit from their maturity. (And they're replaced by a new wave of teen males with even grodier new ways to be asshats.) This is the culture that's shaping the culture of VR right now, and it's difficult to see how that will change any time soon. Indeed, the longer VR remains a niche (at least the next 10 years), the more ingrained it will become. If gamer culture has hardly improved (see Gamergate) in decades, what makes VR enthusiasts think they can improve their own, already-infected subculture?

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Comments

[melponeme_k]

I've never experienced harassment in SL. I've never heard anyone I've known in SL complaining about such a problem. Maybe it occurs more in new arrival hubs.

The difference between Altspace and SL is ease of use. I think the very reason the harassment issue is not a huge problem in SL is that actually creating your own avatar and not looking like a newbie is something that goes beyond abilities of the average troll. This is why WOW, other games and simple VRs like Altspace are treacherous. The avatars are disposable and cheap. Where in SL you are your avatar, it is your calling card, and your proof of investment in the world. New avatars are so easy to pick out and easy to avoid. Female users are quick to mod their avatars and move rapidly into fashion forward circles in the process creating community around themselves. Quite simply Second Life empowers female users.

And THAT is why it is hated by the tech geeks.

[Wagner J Au]

Very interesting points!

[joe]

After reading this 'post', I'm having my perfectly good, real legs amputated and replaced with gleaming technology ones cuz we all know that new tech is cool and real stuff is lame.

[Cyberserenity]

When i go to my virtual worlds sometimes people can abusive.
But in worlds that have a higher investment in time and learning people are nicer. Not everybody like me. I am a woman among thousand of men on IVAO but everybody are always polite.
On easy access networks as Altspace VR or TruckersMP it can be bad sometimes.
It is often young men that have no social skills at all. I suspect too many hours by the computer.
In SL thera are almost none of those making it a nice experince.

[SanityPlease]

I really tire of the ridiculous emotional hyperbole. Did she come fresh out of her safe space with it's puppies and padded walls to warrant you writing this ridiculous gem:

"Her experiences actually seems less traumatising ".

You make a mockery of trauma or any suffering for that matter.

[Ciaran Laval]

I doubt very much that hardcore gamers are embracing AltSpaceVR. I'm also not sure what you mean by "Teabagging", I know a definition of "Teabagging" but it doesn't fit your context.

There are harassment issues around VR and Virtual Worlds, but Virtual Worlds generally attract an older crowd, so you may be aiming in the wrong direction here.