A skateboarder who suffered a painful injury found a new activity to keep himself active — roller skating through VRChat.
During a year of layoffs or closure for many of the content companies that provided many their first VR experiences, VRChat is seeing record numbers and people like MuhMow are discovering its vibe. He converted a second floor office into a mini roller rink he glides around wearing a Meta Quest Pro and Vive Ultimate Trackers. Years after he forced himself to stop skateboarding he’s recaptured the feeling of being out at the skate park and doing tricks in front of a small crowd.
“If you set your mind to something you can do it,” he says on the Good VR Podcast. “One thing that people are afraid of is failing. And with skateboarding or roller skating, part of the sport is you need to fall to progress. What matters is getting back up and trying again…. You just gotta keep progressing. People are scared of dancing because you might look dumb. Everyone’s gonna look dumb, you’re just starting out. It took me forever to make myself look cool in my videos.”
He’s found an avatar he feels at home inside and he works with collaborators to add roller skates to the feet. He moved everything he could out of the office to avoid collisions and wears battery packs to go the distance. His longest session in VR lasted around eight hours.
“If I’m in a lobby and I have below 20 FPS, I cannot skate because I’m moving too much,” he says. “I think the most I get is 40-50.”
You can donate any amount via Stripe to support the work of Good Virtual Reality and thank you to my paid Substack subscribers for supporting independent journalism.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.goodvirtualreality.com/subscribe
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör
Ian Hamilton. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Ian Hamilton och inte av,
eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.
