I initially attend the AltspaceVR service using my everyday laptop, but when I put on my goggles for the VRChat version I’m plunged back into the Church of Scotland of my childhood. The sense of other people sitting on all sides of me, hands clasped, is uncanny. All the weirder when the prayer ends without that collective murmur of ‘Amen’ – the other congregants must have their microphones muted.
Halfway through Alina’s sermon, two people start making trouble, donning demonic avatars. ‘We all have the power to mute and block,’ Alina tells the flock, ‘and I encourage you to use this.’
Alina, now 49, attended church regularly growing up, but her career as a flight attendant left little time for worship. Then she contracted a vascular disorder that left her fatigued and in excruciating pain. Four years ago, she found virtual reality – and the VR Church.
‘I was never into online anything prior to this,’ she tells me after the service. ‘[But] you can be satisfied in [the VR world]. You can be happy and healthy in it. I don’t feel deprived any more.’
So, does she feel you can live in VR fully? ‘Not completely – you still need to eat, sleep, and give your eyes a rest… But it absolutely can give life back to you.’
Day 5: Shopping
Zuckerberg’s dream of the metaverse may depend on VR, but that won’t be enough on its own. A successful metaverse must foster a thriving virtual economy of items and assets that can be bought, sold and transferred.
The virtual world Second Life is perhaps the closest thing we have to that vision. It launched in 2003 and today an estimated 200,000 people visit it every day to chat, shop and have cybersex. Business is conducted using a virtual currency called Linden dollars, which in turn can be bought or sold for real money. One avatar shop I visit features fantasy-style characters such as orcs and trolls for sale that cost around 2,000 to 8,000 Linden dollars apiece (roughly £5 to £22).
Bernhard Drax, a German filmmaker and contractor for Second Life developer Linden Lab, who has spent years documenting its culture, explains that players can earn real money by selling almost anything on Second Life: clothes and hairstyles for your avatar, virtual real estate and buildings, breedable pets that follow you around, or in-game work such as DJ sets or even escort services. Once a player designs an item, it can be listed on a central marketplace, or you can set up an in-game shop using land that you’ve bought – Linden Lab takes a cut of any transaction.
