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I felt it necessary to include a more detailed section as to why I did this project since I struggle to summarize its purpose in a short sentence or two. Beyond its necessity for completing my degree, I have always wanted to highlight the artistic creations of users online in a way that's presentable to people who do not have much knowledge on internet culture. The root as to "why" is my general frustration with what the internet has become in terms of its use. Social media sites are now the "town square" of the world, forcing interactions between volatile individuals that realistically should have never know the other existed. Celebrity wannabes that call themselves "influencers" create unfiltered, eye-catching, world-view destroying slop meant for quick consumption and little concern for what its showing. Advertisements are pushed on you every second of the day, with the subscription fees to turn them off suddenly raising their prices and switching your current plan to still show you ads but "not as often". The internet as it is right now as of April 4th, 2026 is hostile to the individual. It demands you give your attention to content it knows you don't want to see, encourages you to recognize your insecurities, preach how you should be ashamed for it, then sells you a product for temporary relief. The cycle continues, and by God don't you fucking dare question it because if you do then you are outing yourself as a woke communist who doesn't know how the world works! The internet as it stands is a misery machine that encourages miserable behaviors by targeting insecurities. Are you ugly? You'll never have kids! Start my Male Fitness program today! Do you want to be an artist? You'll never be good enough! Start using my AI art program today! Do you want to be happy? Don't be so selfish! Buy some Galaxy Gas today!
The internet wasn't always like this. Honestly I'd argue it used to be like VRChat. I'm not saying its the last bastion of freedom or some similar corny idea, that kind of thinking is reductive. After finishing my project I played the game for a bit while longer and I came across some of the most vile people imaginable. Openly racist individuals who would walk up to black users and ask them if they knew their father. One man modified his avatar to automatically translate his English into Mandarin text, just so that he could be racist to Chinese users. VRChat is not a utopia, and it has its problems, yet I consider it a more authentic place to be. That mainly has to do with the user-made content. Walking away from those racists I came across a Russian user who had set up a piano in front of him and was playing live music through his microphone. His avatar even had a piano in front of it to match his real-world motions. That kind of encounter feels special to me, to see someone perform or create or simply exist for the sake of expression. You do get that kind of stuff with the wider internet, but social media has turned that into a numbers game. You can't simply post a video of you making art without the moment being tainted by the view count signifying worth, or the comments telling you that you suck. You have to make an argument for your existence on the modern internet, either through popularity or notoriety. Online spaces like VRChat do not have such a system; what you present is who you are. It feels encouraging seeing so many people create and share their art skills, stories, comedy routines, and so much more without the looming expectation of needing to be popular.
Why VRChat in specific though? I prefer it to other social games like Second Life or Roblox because of it does not require you to pay in order to create something. Second Life and Roblox require you to spend real money on in-game currency or services to access their complete feature set, whether it be uploading content or creating worlds. VRChat is completely free and gives full access to avatar and world creation tools. I would not be surprised if 99% of the users I came across during my time in VRChat had not spent a dime on the game, including that one Jesus guy who floated into heaven. There is, of course, a premium subscription offered, but that's mostly targeted towards frequent players. I know this sounds like an advertisement but I honestly love the game for how open it is for content creation. I'm sure there are similar communities out there, maybe not in a video game, but the desire for expression seen here should be indicative that this passion to be human is far from dead. Its just been pushed aside due to aggressive advertising and the insistence on there being one big social media site that you must use. I wouldn't be surprised if in the future if not having a particular social media account would affect your credit score.
So, if anything, if you are still reading this, let this be your wakeup call that people are out there. Actual people who want to show you what they made because they want to show it, and in turn want to know more about you because you're there.
I had originally wanted this project to be a collection of drawings that combined all of my favorite things into one universe. It was ambitious, poorly-defined, and way out of my expertise. Ultimately I had this goal in mind, though, to highlight my appreciation for the creativity of other people. I think this is the better outcome.
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