Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Had a busy day working on a cool new virtual world project (more on that later), so here's a good long video we can watch together (hat tip, Julian of the Virtual Worlds Museum): A close-up, first-hand look at VRChat's creator economy, and the relatively recent addition of direct monetization options for creators.

I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but one thing jumped out at me: One of the VRChat creators speculates that the company over-hastily added monetization, but I doubt that's the case. As the founders explained to me for the book last year:

In early 2021, VRChat the company announced the ability to sell user-generated content in-world as coming soon. As of early 2023, however, VRChat had yet to fully follow through on that promise —– despite the growth of VRChat’s creator economy.

“VRChat has not rolled out its long-promised user-to-user economy,” I pointed out to the founders recently, “even as many VRChat creators monetize their work via Patreon, Gumroad, etc.,

“So why the delay?”

“In short: getting it right,” Graham Gaylor and Jesse Joudrey tell me. “We really want to have a creator economy —– it’s absolutely one of our biggest priorities. Helping find a way for users to show creators how much they love what they’re building is absolutely crucial for us.”

Their caution is well-placed. In Second Life, the arrival of an economy where L$ could be exchanged for US$ drove enormous outside interest —– but it also accelerated its shift into hyper-consumerism. Where once stood collaborative art projects were pervasive across the virtual world, shopping centers and weekend-long sales events quickly came to dominate.

VRChat’s founders seem fully aware of that dynamic: 

“[We’re] very cognizant of the impact an economy could have on the community. Creators would obviously be impacted pretty heavily, but so would regular users. In many ways, introducing an economy can be incredibly destabilizing. Suddenly, creators have obligations and considerations they didn’t previously have. Socially, users might feel compelled to behave entirely differently due to where they’ve spent their money.”

When I last talked with them on this topic, VRChat’s founders seemed to still be thinking through the implications of unleashing an official economy on its community.

“[There’s] not just one way to introduce an economy into a social platform,” as they put it to me. “Almost every platform does it differently, and there’s a reason for that. What can you buy? How do transactions work? There are almost endless variables we have to consider.

“When we roll out a creator economy, we want to make sure that it’s done right, and that our community is happy with it. The last thing that we’d want to do is implement a system that they feel lukewarm about —– or worse, ruins what makes VRChat so special.”

As for whether VRChat still retains its specialness after monetization, watch the whole thing… and expect a deeper dive from me.