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Ask HN: Has anyone been using VR to socialize lately?

57 points by nbrempel ↗ HN
I've been really interested in VR as a way to socialize with others. I often play games online with friends with voice chat and it's a good way to stay connected and maintain a social outlet but I wonder if VR would be an even better way to experience this and satisfy my social needs.

From what I can tell Oculus products are the most popular and accessible but I refuse to buy into an ecosystem that is owned by Facebook. Valve index also looks very good but the price is very high. I wonder if the new Playstation will continue to push VR as a feature.

Does anyone use VR for socializing? Playing games together in VR sounds fun but even just chatting with avatars seems like a great way to stay connected.

43 comments

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redis_mlc
Nope, too nerdy. Not even on my radar.
smt88
Sad that you use Hacker News, but are insecure enough to avoid a new technology because it's "too nerdy". I don't really understand what's more nerdy about it than socializing over Fortnite or something.
fwip
Fortnite runs on every laptop and most phones.
cycrutchfield
No need to gatekeep who can enjoy this forum. I think it’s valuable feedback to know how VR technology is viewed by people of all backgrounds, not just hardcore tech enthusiasts.
cassiet
Too nerdy isn’t valuable feedback, it’s derogatory.
cycrutchfield
Derogatory to whom? It is calling a VR headset that you strap to your face nerdy. It’s not calling a person nerdy.
smt88
Not telling them not to enjoy HN. It's just weird and sad to be on an intentionally nerdy site and then insult its users by implying that nerdiness is something to avoid or feel shame about.
krapp
And yet half the people here proudly avoid social media, sports, music, movies or any other parts of modern popular culture for being "too mainstream." Or won't touch certain programming languages because they're uncool. Or hate the modern web because the normies have ruined it and it's no longer quirky and niche.
ralston3
I thought about it. I have a Quest. I just don’t think the tech is there yet

Not enough ppl (if anyone at all) online. The avatars are hilariously bad, but I get why they exist.

Maybe in 5-10 years

teach
I don't think VR is any better than just video chat for socializing, and nobody has it, including you.

I have a VR rig but never use it (because it requires me to reboot into Windows) and the vast majority of my friends don't have one.

Maybe in a decade if most people have something and cross-platform works well I could see it being compelling.

jameslk
I have an Oculus Quest but I haven't spent much time in social apps like Rec Room and Bigscreen. I've found these experiences pretty awkward due to the lack of facial expressions and lack of social objective, but maybe that's just me. Also, there's often more kids in these apps than people my age, so it's hard to really relate.

As for my friends who have the Oculus and being social with them, again I find this missing something. It seems like despite Facebook being a social media company who's stated purpose is to connect the world, they've really done a lackluster job in the ability to have decent group experiences in Oculus. For example, I'm often not aware of when my other friends are using the Oculus, they could make it easy for me to see who's online and what they're playing. And when I start a party with friends to play games together, there's no native features to help us join the same game, make sure we're seeing the same thing. It would be cool if I could virtually see what a friend is seeing so I can at least help them get into the same game as me. Coming from Steam, it seems rather basic.

I'm curious how the social experience compares with other VR devices.

davidandgoliath
Try poker vr. Perhaps too many kids at this point, but it'll return to normal soon enough.
jameslk
I have tried that one. Actually I do enjoy Poker VR a lot. It's probably one of the few decent experiences for social.
SI_Rob
It sounds rather like the coordination friction that constrained social usage of the internet before "always on" (and its exponent, the drool-proof smartphone) became the default; perhaps VR is still in an ergonomic analogue to the dialup era.
socks
I did today - I was hanging out with two friends in Australia. We used the free game Rec Room and all had Oculus headsets.

What I find great about VR is the directional source of the voice - you can talk over each other in a group setting and not miss anything, unlike video chat.

It is still uncomfortable for longer periods though. And you still have to find a time when everyone is free

justincormack
Mumble seems to support positional audio in voice chat, maybe that alone is sufficient.
ZitchDog
I haven’t been socializing with friends, but playing poker stars VR has given me back the feeling of “getting out of the house” that I have been sorely missing. There can be good conversation and serendipity that I have been lacking in my life, somehow this game manages to scratch that itch.
andrewzah
Almost none of my friends have VR. It's still very expensive.

Instead we've turned to zoom/hangouts/discord and steam/gog/dolphin emu, etc.

vmception
> dolphin emu

Is this because everyone is older millennial and Gen X finding nostalgia in the early 2000s? out of curiosity?

I'm trying to see why thats an option, unless I'm missing something

one of these is not like the other

andrewzah
I'm 24, for reference. I grew up playing multiplayer games on the gamecube with my brother and friends from school. super smash bros melee, mario party 4-7, mario baseball/tennis/golf/soccer, wario ware inc, kirby air ride. etc. I actually remember trading my xbox classic for my uncle's gamecube because super smash bros looked so much fun.

Aside from that, there are a few points as to why dolphin is nice:

1. The roms are "free". I ripped mine a long time ago but there are a lot of rom sites online. Not that I find it unethical since Nintendo would not be making money from used game sales anyway. This is probably the biggest draw because playing a regular indie game means our entire friend group needs to pay $10-$30. I wish all my friends had copies of Gang Beasts or Tabletop Simulator, but they don't.

2. Honestly, these games are still quite fun in 2020. Nothing really captures the mood of gamecube-era mario party games. The new one for the switch is kinda fun, but remains watered-down compared to the originals. Not that I would play these daily but they're fun as a variety mix. As far as other 4-player couch co-op games go, there aren't that many that are that fun that 3 of my friends own. Gang Beasts would be fun... if anyone actually owned it.

Mario sports games are... something else as well. Aside from baseball, which has hilariously bad controls, soccer/tennis are nice mix of skill and bs. The new mario tennis for the switch is pretty fun, but I think I'm biased for the original (and all the memories I have of competitions with friends at LAN parties). Games like Lethal League are in that vein, though.

There is no other game like wario ware inc, that I've seen.

3. Computer performance hasn't been a huge issue (thus far). We've played cross-platform with linux, windows, and osx dolphin clients without a hitch. Our weakest link is a macbook pro from ~2015.

4. Pretty much everyone has a computer, whereas systems are fragmented. I don't own (and don't plan to own) an xbox or ps4, and not everyone has a switch. Or, a switch and the $60 nintendo game everyone wants to play.

I still play modern games like tf2- oh wait, that came out in 2007. Like street fighter III:3s- oh, that released in 1999, three years after I was born. Dwarf fortress? Not released... but it doesn't look like a game from 2020. Chess..? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Jokes aside, there are multiplayer games for the PC like stardew valley (2016), animal crossing: new horizons (2020), terraria (2011), etc, that me and my friends have enjoyed.

For pc games that have co-op, but only locally, I want to try parsecgaming [0] soon.

[0]: https://parsecgaming.com/game-streaming-technology/

vmception
Those are good points about local multiplayer co-op

It seems two things are happening and I'm confused:

You download the roms for the local multiplayer but everyone plays them remotely on different clients, and the dolphin software makes it act like its in person local co-op on the same device???

Or is this just a general point of a free time-tested fun game with good graphics that people can play on multiple platforms

or a little bit of column A and column B

with a third column that sometimes your friends come over and play on the same screen

andrewzah
> You download the roms for the local multiplayer but everyone plays them remotely on different clients, and the dolphin software makes it act like its in person local co-op on the same device???

Yeah, that's essentially what dolphin does. You need to make sure that the clients are all the same version. And that everyone has the same save file, I believe. Everyone connects via a code given by the traversal server, but I believe it's still peer to peer.

So the players need to be relatively close geographically. For non-serious games I (east coast) can play as far as the midwest or so. But for good connections for competitive games, I have to stick to east coast.

> with a third column that sometimes your friends come over and play on the same screen

Before covid19 this is primarily how we would play mario party. It's definitely more fun in person, but still fun in zoom.

vmception
oooh that's really cool!

haha so you have to pretend not to screen watch on a game where everybody is using different screens lmao

yo dawg I heard you like multiplayer, so I put co-op in your co-op so you can screen watch while you ping watch

MattGaiser
VR for long periods gives me headaches, so I can only use the headset for about an hour.
some_furry
Many of my friends have been using VR to socialize since before the pandemic.

But they chose that because they could be their fursona, first and foremost.

nrr
Everyone likes to make fun of furries, but they have an uncanny ability to maintain a robust, cohesive social network irrespective of venue.

I'm not surprised that a subculture that mostly exists in a stratum of friendship by correspondence or socialization via avatar, as it were, would beat everyone else to making good use of VR to meet and share experiences.

The only thing that the pandemic really changed for them is, well, everyone else being asked to shelter in place has led to some very interesting VR chat worlds to explore and document with friends.

If Twitter is any indication, it all seems like good fun. So, yeah, I think furries got this one right.

golergka
Not exactly, but I have been using Tabletop Simulator to socialize with former classmates, and after this experience (which I would recommend, hands down) I'm dying to try their VR mode.
ge96
vrchat on steam seems like the one with most people
ende
I never kiss and tell.
hrydgard
"Eleven" is a bonkers good table tennis (ping pong) simulator - it's the closest to the real thing of any VR sport I've played so far. It's 1:1, but if you have voice chat on, it enables almost the same social experience as actually playing ping pong with someone. Highly recommended (if you're on Steam, remember to switch to the beta, it's much improved and multiplayer compatible with the Oculus versions!)
GekkePrutser
Socialising, not really... It's not as good for socialising than webcamming IMO. I tried some apps like VR chat and altspace but they're too clumsy, and the avatars are too disconnected from the chat taking place. The tech isn't there yet. We need eye tracking, full body tracking and facial expression recognition.

It's great for feeling like being outside of the house (we're in full lockdown in Spain) but that's all.

chubot
I tried VR a few years ago and thought it was interesting, but not compelling enough to buy.

My new year's 2020 prediction for the next decade is related:

VIDEO becomes what people thought VR/AR would be. Reality becomes mediated through video, not 3D graphics

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21942100

Also related:

I don't know what's going on in Second Life now but to me it feels like it's probably not "real life". I guess people want "life" and not "second life", and video is becoming an increasingly large aspect of the former.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21932707

FWIW I did take some action on this and invest in a company doing video at the beginning of the year... probably could have been more aggressive though.

maps7
I don't have any VR tech and I think I know of only one person who does.
bransonf
Bought a Vive and new RTX card the first week of realizing I’d be stuck at home for months. Almost all of the other headsets were (and still are?) sold out.

I bought in with the expectation that I could have a great social experience in virtual reality, but it really hasn’t met up to my expectations. Virtual reality is cool, but the VR social networks are really lackluster.

First of all, the audience is typically very young. There are far more children than I had expected. Don’t expect to have a good conversation right off the bat, and it will take a while to find someone of similar age/maturity and interests.

I’ve hopped around a bit between AltSpace and VrChat, and I think I prefer the AltSpace crowd a bit more.

What I haven’t yet done is participated in structured events. Seemingly, you can find every thing from open mic night to meditation and movie night. I got really interested in this aspect by watching a channel on YouTube called Disrupt. (The same guy who spent a week in VR)

I think I’m going to give bigscreen a try tonight with the premiere of Jackass 3 in 3D.

Being generally new to VR, I largely thought the claims of motion sickness were overblown, but quickly realized how fatiguing VR really is.

As far as socializing these days, I’ve found luck with good old plain video chat. None of my friends have heavily invested in VR yet, but we still manage to hop on multi-hour long video chats and catch up on things or work on projects.

And as far as meeting new people, I’ve found luck in playing team based mmos in my free time. You’d be surprised how well a common objective can do you in meeting new people. Once you find team members you like, stick with them. Steam and Discord is particularly good at this.

I also think that’s the failure of social networks in VR. Without a common objective or expectation, it’s really hard to have a good conversation. At least in a game, you can always resort to talking about strategy and the like. Conversation usually comes naturally after.

My take here is that VR is only really a good medium for interacting with people you already know, but this requires buy-in among your existing friends. Meeting people in VR is much less satisfying than traditional routes.

iamwil
How did you like bigscreen?
bransonf
Have to say, it’s been my best experience in virtual reality yet. 3D movies feel shockingly similar to the theatre experience, if not better. There’s something comforting about partaking with a bunch of other people as well.

Following the movie, I hopped in a room with some people just playing music and chatting.

All in all, I think it does one thing better than the other social networks in VR, and that’s provide a common objective, which is as the name would imply, a big screen.

adolph
What constitutes VR? Do Apple Animoji’s count? Does teleconferencing software with background removal count?
baby
I played Catan in VR with the Oculus Go and it was amaaaaazing. It was so mind blowing that I wrote about it[1] at the time. It was just the most social interaction I've ever had playing a video game.

I got some friends into VR but unfortunately they have the Go and the battery sucks...

I have the Quest now, and it's an amazing platform that I recommend to all my friends (best buy has some in stock since yesterday) but unfortunately Catan is not available there yet :/

[1]: https://p1x3l.com/story/239/social-virtual-reality-and-the-o...

krapp
I have an Oculus Go but I haven't used it for anything social. Mostly I got it because I was interested in developing for VR and it was the only thing I could afford.