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VR Dwight meets stranger VR Hank-2022 (77)
I want to sit down and talk with strangers (January 29, 2022)
I really believe, "a stranger is just a friend I haven't met yet." However, I have found there are few venues that make it easy to go up and start chatting (as in talking) easily with a just-met-friend, either in the flesh or online.
I went searching on Google and found an Oculus Quest 2 app that seems to fit the bill. Called "vTime XR," it's free and I installed it right away. Sitting in my comfortable office chair with the Oculus headset on, I started the app.
After a few missteps getting my avatar setup, the navigation became pretty easy in order to meet my first stranger friend.
How to meet my first VR chat friend?
Sitting on a VR sofa in a master parlor room by myself, I found a menu screen that showed all the people who were in a "gathering room." I could see each of their chat names. Some were connected in chat groups. Several were "standing alone." I had the option of 1) asking to join a group, 2) asking to start a chat with a single person, or 3) waiting for someone to ask me to join them. Of the 7-8 single people, I asked Hank if he would join me.
Hank started moving toward me as I watched the gathering-room display
A few moments later he appeared instantly on the sofa on the other side of the coffee table in the VR parlor room. Here's Hank!
Meet Hank, United Airlines pilot for the 737, living in Chicago with his wife and son Michael (and dog)
We didn't get into a lot of personal stuff. I was so lucky to meet Hank the first time because he showed me all the cool things you could do inside vTime.
For example, since I had invited him to join me, I was the host. I had the power to jump us into another venue. He gave me instructions on how to do it and we jumped from the cozy, elegant parlor room into the boardroom, looking out over the skyscrapers of a city.
He also showed me how he could jump instantly from seat to seat, either closer or further away from me. He then selected a photo of his ten-year-old son Michael and dog appear on the wall in the boardroom, which he had previously uploaded to his vTime account.
He told me what to select to make him the host. Once he was host, he took me to a few other fascinating venues. We were doing all this while it was about 12 noon on Saturday for me in Kunming, China and he was coming up on 10:00 pm in Chicago in the USA.
We agreed to be "friends" in vTime.
Thank you, Hank!
Here's a video I took of us talking together in vTime
Hank took a photo of us (somehow) from a third-party view during our chat