A sharped-eyed Redditor recently noticed VRChat's tab for “Granted Avatars” had been changed to “Purchased Avatars”. Which, yes, means VRChat the company is actively working on an in-platform creator economy for avatars (I can confirm after talking with insiders). That the user interface has been changed suggests it's coming soon (i.e. this quarter or next), but I haven't been able to get a specific launch date.
In any case, this does mean talented VRChat avatar creators like "lackofbindings" (who created the avatar above) will soon-ish be able to sell their works on the platform, instead of doing so on Gumroad and other third party sites.
Speaking of VRChat, Wired has finally a huge feature on the virtual world's burgeoning rave dance club seen, something that's fascinated me for years. Excerpt:
Ru, a trans woman from rural Ohio who works as a hospice nurse, says VRChat provides her a safer environment than she might find in real life. “I get sexually assaulted far less often,” says Ru, 48, who didn’t want to use her real name for professional reasons. “I'm a trans woman, and I live in the middle of a red state. Sometimes you don't want to go to that local place and deal with all of that shit.” Plus, she says that the music that DJs on VRChat play is just better than at the clubs in Ohio she has been to.
“The music is unbelievable,” she says. “Go listen to your local people, and then come to any random club in VR; you're going to be shocked that your local DJs suck ass.” Ru’s virtual club, Kaleidosky, looks like the inside of a shape-shifting kaleidoscope, bending the laws of physics with all the fractal visions of a DMT trip.
Her VR success as a DJ has even led her to play physical shows in Japan, although she was not the headliner. “My life has been expanded in ways that I can hardly relate to you,” she says, “all because of VR and how it brings all these different, immensely creative people together.”
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