VRList.xyz has been in operation for more than 150 days thanks to the continued support from our community. Now let’s reflect upon the journey starting from the very beginning, a very good place to start.
My personal journey into VR
Back in November of 2021, I found myself with a stable job which provided enough income to transition from a mentality of surviving to living. However, with covid raging on and the cold weather settling in, safely socializing beyond outdoor activities was a concern. This was when I stumbled onto an ad for the Oculus Quest 2 which marketed personal Virtual Reality devices as a new form of gaming and entertainment.
I had never bought a gaming console for myself before, neither did I consider myself an avid gamer but something about the Quest 2 caught my eye so I splurged and ordered one from Amazon. When I eventually received the box, I ripped it open and rushed to put on the headset.
I got my inaugural VR injury by underestimating how much space I truly needed while playing Beat Saber. After some quick first aid, I dove into Horizon Venues for my first “VR as a social experience”. Looking back, I define that evening as a surreal and pivotal moment. It planted within me the seed of a notion that there was something different about VR. This was more than just another medium for gaming.
Of course, this seed didn’t bloom until many months after I got hooked on Arena Clash, Horizon Worlds’ premier shooter game. Beforehand, I had never enjoyed playing FPS games but in VR I felt like an active participant instead of a ghostly avatar. Each game built and reinforced unique friendships forged in the thick of VR matches. Some of us eventually gathered and competed in a makeshift player-led tournament, perhaps the first of its kind for Horizon Worlds.
This was when the seed planted in me back in November finally bloomed. As I participated in the group that organized and spearheaded the player tournaments, it occurred to me that VR was being enjoyed in more ways than one. While I had focused on gaming and the occasional VR movie night, there were concerts and clubbing occurring in Horizon Worlds. Basically, the makings of a service industry within VR was forming.
The tree of curiousity
Some context to better explain Virtual Events. Due to Covid, virtual events had grown into a trend. These were Zoom rooms with walls of faces. The definition of virtual had thus been warped to mean 2D moving images with little interactivity. Now 3D events were popping up but they were ultimately viewed through 2D lenses, like the wildly successful virtual music concerts performed within Fortnite which were accessible through standard screens on computers and phones. True Virtual Reality events had yet to gain mass popularity.
Gaining popularity amongst VR platforms like Alt Space and Horizon Worlds were VR comedy clubs. Participating in such events crystallized the notion of “VR as a social experience” to me. With this realization came questions, such as how does one even find VR events? In Horizon Worlds, Meta provided the answer with a tab for events. Then the next question popped up, how does one find VR creators and entertainers for the events?
After many searches on Google, I discovered that the process was complicated and time consuming to say the least. It involved searching through multiple VR-oriented Facebook groups for hours. It involved being constantly in tune with a VR community that continues to grow exponentially. It involved posting on many groups and subreddits about what you, a potential client, was looking for then hoping with great luck that the right vendors would find your post interesting enough to contact you.
Essentially, if one wanted to run a VR event, be it a corporate retreat or simple birthday party complete with having their own space and competent entertainers, they would need to spend the equivalent time and effort necessary to do arduous research for a college term paper.
The search process for VR vendors was reminiscent of the early days of the web before speedy websearch services like Google existed. This inconvenience was seemingly not a priority for many to consider solving but my unique insight as an Event Professional experiencing VR had locked on to this problem.
Solution built from belief
As I experienced the VR sphere continue to grow as a niche of the Metaverse, I gained a simple belief. Web 3, aka the Metaverse, like the previous iterations before it, will usher in a new era of opportunities for all those daring enough to partake in it. So in April of 2022, the seed of treating VR as a social experience led to the question on “how does one find VR entertainers”. My annoyance at the then current answer to this question brought about the development of a time-saving solution, the first step of which was to build a hub founded on a directory.
After surveying my circle of VR friends, I came to the conclusion that a directory would be well received. Now, I had a vision but I understood my limitations so I sought a partner on this endeavor. Together, we molded our ideas to something that seemed feasible. Next, we came up with tasks then tackled each of them to get a minimum viable product off the assembly line and onto the runway of public reception for feedback with a little leap of faith.
Currently, our directory serves as an open marketplace for VR creators, instructors, and entertainers to proudly showcase their talents to potential clients.
At VRList.xyz, we believe the Metaverse will usher in new opportunities for all. Therefore, we have embarked on a mission to connect people by simplifying how those that supply VR services are found by those that seek said services.
Milestones on our journey
It is important to celebrate each step of the journey. On April 18 of 2022, VRList.xyz went live. By April 19, we had our first vendors already signing up due to a lot of pre-marketing work. Yet progress wasn’t always smooth. Between April and June, we had just under 20 sign ups. For July, we had zero sign ups. We marched on to August, where we iterated on new strategies. As a result, we more than doubled the number of vendors listed. On September 10, we crossed 50 vendors listed on the site and now we seat north of 65 vendors listed.
Our community is more than the vendors who list and the clients who find them, it is also the many denizens of the Metaverse who participate in the events put on by those two groups. We are proud to call the more than 300 people on our social media accounts our community.
The journey is only getting started so we must not let up. To further encourage our ever-growing community, we are announcing “Race to 100” as part of an overall Community Perks initiative.
Race to 100 simply means that when we hit 100 vendors listed, we will enable URL and social links for all accounts. This means anyone will be able to link to their sites for free.
By the way, since we crossed 50 vendors listed, everyone now has access to Profile Badges & Cover Photos. These are just more tools for our members to better express themselves by further customizing their profile.
To our Premium Members and Partners, thank you for supporting our mission this early on with your utmost sincerity. We will continue to work to earn that sincerity through expanding our offerings of premium service. In that spirit, we are announcing the “Premium Preview” initiative. This means you will gain access to Community Perks ahead of the general base, such as enjoying URL linking right now. When we break past 100, you will gain access to Profile Analytics and so on. Additionally, once our VR world comes online, new perks will be announced.
Our Path Forward
Looking ahead, the coming months paint a rosy outlook for the VR industry. New headsets appealing to different demographics will hopefully drum up more mainstream enthusiasm for the industry. With such an optimistic view, our strategy remains the continued growth of our directory in order to keep creating value for our community as a hub that connects clients with vendors.
On that note, we are proud to announce a new category - Proprietors. This category is for VR space owners and managers to list themselves. This will facilitate a better connection with vendors and clients. We hope this provides an additional source of exposure for the hardworking people behind the success of a lot of vibrant VR worlds. We are also always looking for ways to improve our services so do reach out to us with ideas.
We are pleased to announce that we will be expanding our presence in VR realms, starting with Horizon Worlds, over the next few months. The first “Project World Seed'' is already underway with a request for bids from VR Creators listed on VRList.xyz. We will announce who successfully bid to create our first VR home on September 22, 2022 so stay tuned.
Project World Seed has two stages. Stage 1 is all about Designing, Building, and Scripting the world while Stage 2 is breathing life into the world through a grand opening. This opening will be attended by rising VR entertainers across multiple genres and broadcast through the many upcoming VR influencers of the Metaverse. It is sure to be a party to remember.
We envision this new VR space as a serious aid to our mission of simplifying the search for VR services. The offerings in the VR space will be integrated with our directory service for a synergistic experience, from weekly competitions to monthly networking opportunities for our members and much more. We are unbelievably excited just imagining the possibilities.
We will be holding a special poll for folks to help us choose a name for this new world so stay tuned for a special announcement on that. Our goal is to have a grand opening for our world before Meta Connect 2022.
In Summary
The journey has only just begun:
Curiousity turned to belief, belief built a solution
We will continue to grow our directory to meet the needs of our community
We will launch our first VR world in the coming weeks
We welcome our community to continue this journey on the mission of simplifying VR search with us. Thank you all for your support. Let’s build our future in the Metaverse.
Cheers,
Toby N
Co-Founder of VRList.xyz
comms@vrlist.xyz
