Future Presence: How Virtual Reality Is Changing Human Connection, Intimacy, and the Limits of Ordinary Life by Peter Rubin

Author:Peter Rubin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Family & Relationships, Love & Romance, Popular Culture, Social Aspects, Social Science, Technology & Engineering
Publisher: HarperOne
Published: 2018-04-17T03:00:00+00:00

7

Rec Room Confidential

The Anatomy and Evolution of VR Friendships

IT WASN’T THE DRIVE that made Ben nervous. Driving from his home in Cincinnati to Birmingham, Alabama, takes just over seven hours, and he’d driven longer than that before. Besides, the twenty-four-year-old hadn’t taken a vacation in a while, so he was looking forward to the time on the road. His trepidation stemmed more from what was waiting for him at the other end of the trip: his new friend.

In 2016, Ben had decided that he wanted a VR headset for Christmas—a nice one. He already had a desktop computer he used for gaming, so he asked his entire family to try something new that holiday. Instead of each person getting him a present, he wanted everyone to chip in a little bit to help defray the cost of the HTC Vive he wanted. Since Ben was kicking in $250 of his own money, it didn’t leave that much for everyone to contribute. The Vive plan worked, and by Christmas Day Ben was ready to enter the Metaverse.

What he would do in there, though, was a question he hadn’t yet answered. So, like so many computer-savvy twenty-somethings, he consulted Reddit. A subreddit was already devoted to the Vive, and there Ben saw a post about a free game called Rec Room (see here). What he didn’t know then, of course, was that he was about to encounter one of VR’s most notable new worlds: a place that helped people overcome social anxiety, facilitated close-knit friendships, and would eventually inspire him to take a seven-hour road trip.

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