Hello! I have some thoughts that I’d like to share on the Creator Economy, mostly geared towards the security and safety of using it.
I think it would be in the best interest of creators and players to make some ideas for monetization available to inspire content creators towards good practices. By good practices I mean it keeps creators properly compensated and players happy, and avoids predatory practices and low effort content like things made solely for the purpose of suckering people out of their money.
I’m thinking of a pretty passive idea. Maybe some readable stuff or posters in the menu that creators can use as a guide to using best practices so that they can avoid common mistakes. Also, players can avoid scammy and malicious stuff. I’m thinking of the type of things like media in the loading screen or on the menu, essentially places where a user would expect a tip or hint type of thing, where they would look for guidance in the game. Here is some ideas I thought up really quick, to better explain what I mean:
“Did you know you can host VIP only events? Try it now (insert proper stuff for using it here, and a visual that might entice the user further to try it).”
“Keep it fun! Nobody likes unfair games. Try to keep your paid and free content balanced in your game worlds.”
“Avoid scams! (insert some reasonable advice on avoiding scams, maybe after some more feedback is had in the future)”.
My vision is that it’s similar to those tips that tell you about creating content, using self-moderation tools, and informing you of new features.
I think it could help with the voting by participation concept, by offering guidance that people can choose to adhere to or not (players and creators alike). This can help foster community support for people who are using higher-effort, non-predatory monetization strategies and inform people of what to watch out for as far as scams and low-effort content so that they can avoid that.
I think the toughest thing to remedy would be malicious users employing social engineering to coerce people into doing things, which can happen even with a fairly “locked down” system . Knowledge is power in that case, and teaching as many people as possible about these scammy techniques could actually become a net-positive for the community. Anyways, that’s what I’d like to advocate for in the Creator Economy! Knowledge is power Thanks to the team for all the amazing updates the past few years! I hope that implementing this will go well and people can be happy getting some $$ for their hard work
The problem here is that a lot of people want to put unique clothes on their avatar (at least I’ve seen this a lot in the club scene)… without the Unity and Blender assets for a given base, you can’t really grab clothes from elsewhere and bash them onto the avi, and requiring a custom commission for relatively simple tasks like clothing modification doesn’t scale at all.
This is definitely a inherent issue with how vrchat works at this time, and how hard it would be to intergrate in game modification yes. But this is a solution that would in part help a lot of artists who wish to offer their work. But do not wish to give full access to their entire work process (this is a very unique and uncomfortable experience for some, like myself.)
Giving access to the full asset of a working game model for barely any money, for it to most likely be spread amongst people within hours of the purchase. It’s a big, and problematic part of the current attitude towards artists works at the moment in VRC. We all see it happen, and we all see new popular avatars spread like wildfire in public uploads within days of release if the artist wishes this or no.
My solution would not stop artists from still selling packages for individual uploads/people to modify these works themselves. But open up more options for artists who want a bit more say in how their work is protected, and some clients a much easier way to commission unique models and access them from these artists without the need to have the entire package. A win win for both of these types of people involved.
Heck, even on PC, do you know how much a PITA it is to open and use a browser using something like XSOverlay/OVR Toolkit and navigate it with VR controllers?
There are many cases of avatars being shared in violation of the terms of use, but the issue of illegally downloading them from the ripper store and the issue of easily sharing them within vrchat through pedestals and the like are two different things.
If there were a space in the world where only paying users were allowed, would they be able to notice illegal pedestals placed there?
I look forward to what Tupper calls a “robust avatar system”.
Some interesting stuff… but also some concerning stuff. I’d just want a way to tip and rather have a virtual currency that people can collect and spend. I’d pay a lot of money for VRC as is but I’m not a person who’s gonna spend money on stuff in it… I do want to offer things that people can pay for though, not that I have a lot to offer. And if that’s easier and cheaper than for example Ko-fi I’ll use it. I made a longer comment under the Youtube video of what I think of it, just gotta wait and see.
With the current implementation, you can create a group that has a “Supporter” role that grants nothing but costs X amount.
It takes a bit more setup than what you’re noting here, but “I like you and I want to support what you’re doing” is definitely a thing that you can do with CE as described in the video.
Personally I only hear about these servers when certain YouTubers make videos where they show up and make a scene. I guess the real question is, if a world or minecraft server has weird pay 2 win mechanics, what actually attracts users instead of the next world or minecraft server down the road?
Are there any plans to fix the tremendous lag spikes that either completely freeze the quest 2 or crash the game? On top of that are you going to make it to where the game wont crash just because the headset has been struggling to process avatar changes without crashing?? One single avatar change if im not looking away and my game freezes and dies
I’m genuinely excited about the development and effort you are putting into VRChat. However, I do have some concerns regarding the proposed monetization. Historically, we’ve seen that such steps, if not handled carefully, can hamper the user experience - as seen with “Second Life” and many other games that have chosen a similar path.
For me personally, it’s crucial to continue having avatars available in the current formats like .bend, unitypackage, and .spp files. This holds tremendous value for me, enhancing the versatility and personalization that I can enjoy within VRChat.
If these formats aren’t supported, it would be highly disappointing and would dampen my enthusiasm for the game. I trust that you will make the right decisions and avoid the pitfalls that others before you have fallen into. I’m looking forward to your thoughtful considerations and future updates. Thank you!
No plans on changing any of this. I, too, very much value the ability to make my own avatar in VRChat with industry-standard tools.
We very intentionally didn’t talk about avatars yet – we have ideas and plans, but nothing solidified enough to talk about just yet.
I use VRChat on Quest less than I do on PC, but I still use it fairly often! I don’t run into these issues on my Quest. Crashes do happen, though. Almost always “out of memory”. 6GB isn’t very much. You can only ask so much of hardware like that.
Are these Very Poor avatars? Very Poor avatars on Quest are by far and large the biggest issue for the headset. They can cause crashes just with one or two poorly-optimized avatars. Even just wearing one yourself can cause huge issues, depending on how bad the avatar is.
Try reinstalling the app to clear out your Hide/Show Avatar settings and then try again. Don’t “Show Avatar” every Very Poor avatar you see. :S
If you still have issues, contact our Support team. This isn’t a tech support thread, unfortunately.
The act of paying/subscribing currently via patreon and similar websites is not too bad.
But actually uploading and using those purchases (e.g. avatars) has to be about the most user-hostile thing on all the internet.
Anything that saves potential customers from having to install highly technical development software is a huge win. That’s really where the value is in this, at least for me.
I would be interested in a new camera system that woudl be similar to the replay mod, allowing for universal recording and editing the camera angles later, as to make moving making much better.
Or a live animated camera that can be animated to follow a set path for world showcases, i do belive this is one very fun idea.
ive known about this for a while now and its never not going to be a shit idea. instead of lining your pockets with cash stick to fixing actual bugs and problems with your game instead of making new bugs that cause new exploits that fuck the game up more. ui update that was alright, physbone update that was great idea needs some polishing still but still a great idea, eac most snip idea yet, this shit here just shows that you want more money. there has been a system in place for creators to get money for a good fucking while you know it as does everyone else. they have patreon for a reason so there is no reason for an update like this to be made. first fix up your crash exploits that you didnt remove, second fix ripping cause you had it fixed till you undid said fix cause of rippers complaining, finally fix some of the other fucking bugs your stupid game has for christ sake
I have been using avatar optimizer scripts like VRCFury to remove blendshapes that are unused from avatars. Not only is it good optimization (saving VRAM and mesh memory), but it gives ripped avatars less value because of the loss of those blendshapes. Make them stupid avatar rippers have to do just that little more work.
You’re probably just parroting stuff you’ve heard elsewhere, otherwise you’d link or mention specifics. Smells like misinformation. Everyone who speaks negatively about EAC always seems to focus on avatar ripping, but as a regular user I haven’t seen anyone get surrounded by every prop in a world in an attempt to lag them out since EAC was implemented.
Hahah yeah, having an optimization workflow before upload is a great way to make it hard to work with for them. xD
Remove blendshapes, atlas textures, remove unseen parts of meshes (like arms under clothing).
Thanks to the team for all the amazing updates the past few years! I hope that implementing this will go well and people can be happy getting some $$ for their hard work 