What to Do in VR: Special Edition!
This week in VR, so much is going on, and even Matthew McConaughey can’t slow down the progress.
It is not clear where this will end. Will AI robots inhabit VR and make us all better people? Will we buy property in VR and live there (with our robots)? Will the millionaires and billionaires scoop up all the land in VR and squeeze out the rest of us? Are we already living in VR all the time (and are we AI ourselves) and we just don’t know it? Is God a robot supercomputer?
So many questions, and so few answers.
What we can tell you is that VR is still fun, for now. We’re still in a bit of pleasant shock over last weekend’s spectacular MOMA Rave #27: Crusöe event, which we reported on in our most recent column, a dance rave on an island atoll.
And here’s what’s going on this coming week in a world kind of like reality, but maybe a bit better.
Some of this is slightly NSFW, in a PG-13 kind of way.
This Week’s Party
Bratwurst Meets The World – A Brat-Westworld Party
Thursday, March 3, from 3:30 PM to 6:30 PM (EST), AltspaceVR, free
We wrote about this biweekly party a couple of months ago; as with many VR events, the organizers constantly and frenetically change the worlds in which they meet. Last time we wrote about this party, it featured an alien-invasion theme; this time, the “Bratwurst” organizers have promised a Wild West party (but one filled with cheerful Germans, and not too many violent American gunslingers, although everyone is welcome).
While the Bratwurst scenery changes event-to-event, the stunning and witty nature of the visuals stays the same, and, most importantly, so does the friendly crowd.
This week’s world resembles one of those frontier town amusement parks that American kids visited in the summertime back in the 1950s through the 1970s, nostalgic and unreconstructed.
Organizers Mel Mel, Klaus, Menno and Simsimer have designed a saloon, sheriff’s building, a hangman’s noose, a church, plenty of horses wandering around, all painted in bright and cartoonish colors, just the way you remember it.
And you can pick out a horse to ride around town!
An elaborate and spectacular space to accommodate the party’s growing legions of fans.
Mel Mel promises that there will be no killer robots, but plenty of surprises. Please drop by and introduce yourself.
This Week’s Dance Raves
LA MADRIGUERA CLUB: Carnival Edition
Thursday, March 10, 2022 from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM (EST), AltspaceVR, free
Organizer Sergio Martin Murcia promises a “merry carnival celebration” at a colorful roof rave, featuring Halloween bats, confetti and techno music, and, for the revelers, hats, animal masks and unicorn antennas.
The photos of the club are beautiful, as you can see, and word on past La Madriguera events has been highly positive. So go!
+18 VIOLET Grand Jeu “PlayroomSX”
Saturday, March 5, 2022, from 6:00 PM to 12:00 AM (EST), AltspaceVR, free
How real will VR get? How real can it get, when most VR avatars don’t have lower bodies yet?
VIOLET and its producer VenusSX, an intimacy coordinator, seek to answer that question.
VIOLET was rolled out last month in AltspaceVR, and it is indeed a beautiful space, a vast, dark and stylish nightclub, featuring a well-designed dance floor with an interactive sci-fi disco lamp and suspended dance cages, and multiple other themed rooms, including a VIP zone, chill zone and … Elysium, a cavernous universe of a room, with an ocean, a garden of giant flowers and miles of dark space.
This weekend’s club features live DJs and experimental audio interactivity features never seen before.
“VIOLET is not like any other VR dance club,” Venus says. “Imagine a premium adult club in Paris or Berlin, pumping tunes, performances and exclusive themed rooms. It is not just a dance party, it is an experience and a place to connect with other open-minded people within the ambience of decadence…. We enter into the age of digital relationships, and VenusSX Events provides the new erotic playground.”
Wow!
This Week’s Concerts
Katelyn Christine Live Holographic Performance
Thursday, March 3, 2022 from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM (EST), at the Failed to Render bar in AltSpaceVR, free
Singer/songwriter Katelyn Christine is a bit of a VR trailblazer, who has been performing her acoustic, folk-tinged country originals and cover tunes at the virtual reality “Failed to Render” nightclub for some time, and at Thursday’s concert she will appear as a “Live Holographic Performance,” not an avatar. The Failed to Render club is a cheerfully rundown dive, and you can be sure that Katelyn Christine’s regular audience will be there, a crowd of fans who will follow her anywhere. A wonderful, friendly vibe, and great music.
March 9, 6 pm to 6:43 pm, Venues, free
This punk band from Japan (named after a “Love Hotel” in Osaka”) has performed together since 2011; their performance at Venues is a 2D event, live-streamed on one of Venues’ gigantic “Supersphere” screens. If you have never been to Venues before, it is worth the trip; the crowds are among the friendliest in VR, and the showcase is beautifully designed.
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Best Hang-Out Spot of the Week
Always open; AltSpaceVR, free
This world is, quite simply, spectacular. If you are looking for a stunning locale to meet a friend for a relaxed drink, or to throw your own shindig for a large crowd, consider The Brooklyn Rooftop. There is a bar, a hot tub, a basketball court, a bonfire, a fireworks show (which you run yourself, shooting rockets into the starry city night sky), and, appropriate for a high rise on the water in Brooklyn … oh that view of Manhattan!
Coming up!
In future columns: More reviews of VR TV animation, and a return visit to a growing Multiverse, filled with neighborhoods in which people actually … live?
^^^
Chickadee Prince Books publishes books about AI and VR, such as Mark Laporta’s science fiction epics.
Audere Magazine regularly publishes articles about technology and VR. Read more here.
Cover image of VR events designed by Kalyee Srithnam. Amelissa Oblige models the Oculus headset.