In case you were wondering what inspired Nylon Pinkney's latest comic about VRChat, reader "Cake" has some more context for you in Comments:
The mirror is a big social area in your typical VRChat room. People stand in front of it and talk like they would if they were primping with friends in a bathroom. Shaders also look slightly different in different maps depending on what you're using--so even if you have one set for your avatar, you still go to the mirror to check out what you look like on that particular map.
That's actually a fascinating analogy, and does a lot to help explain VRChat's popularity:
In real life, lots of people love socializing in front of a mirror in the bathroom's club or bar, but not everyone can afford to do that -- even if they lived near a decent nightclub or bar, which many don't. And in the end, you're still hanging out in an actual bathroom. Which, you know, ew.
Stereotypically it's women who socialize in front of bathroom mirrors, but given VRChat's strong skew toward male users, clearly it's an activity many men enjoy too -- especially when they have the anonymity of their avatar to avoid gender norming judgements of other males.
I'm Aemeth Lysette, I just call myself Cake because I don't really like my username much anymore.
I make content in VRChat as a hobby when I'm not working on comics. I'm probably going to blog my experience and comparison between that and Second Life soon. I don't believe they're exact rivals--Sansar and VRChat are, though.
Posted by: Cake | Monday, June 10, 2019 at 06:28 PM
This is a very interesting and beautiful post, keep sharing more
Posted by: Geek squad support | Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at 12:21 AM
Thank you for the very complimentary spam.
Posted by: Wagner James Au | Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at 12:01 PM
Yeah, I've always known mirrors would have that effect on a virtual world. You want to feel like you ARE your avatar - seeing yourself in a mirror kind of solidifies that.
Posted by: Adeon | Thursday, June 20, 2019 at 05:12 PM
Thanks for sharing this fantastic blog, really very informative. Your writing skill is very good, you must keep writing this type of blogs. Geek Squad Tech Support
Posted by: Smith Alfred | Thursday, September 05, 2019 at 06:06 AM
I read this complete article it is just amazing thanks for posting interesting information with us if you have any technical problem with your hardware devices so you can visit us for solution
Posted by: Geek squad | Thursday, November 21, 2019 at 10:46 PM
Thanks for such a good article it really helped me after reading your posts.
Posted by: Service Host Superfetch | Friday, February 28, 2020 at 01:39 AM
That's actually a fascinating analogy, and does a lot to help explain VRChat's popularity:
Posted by: sareh | Thursday, September 03, 2020 at 03:33 AM