Exploring virtual agency: Ethnographic study of advanced immersive technologies and VRChat

Abstract

This thesis inspects and defines “virtual agency”, which means the capacity of individuals to exercise their will over virtual environments or by virtual means. The study is framed in a broader human sociocultural and his torical context, where evolving technologies and human tendency for escaping material immediacy result in a new spatial dimension. These virtual reality worlds enable new possibilities for users to express and explore their identities and novel virtual environments. The fast technological leaps paired by normalization in the field of virtual reality technologies ques tion tradi tional forms of human agency, implying a transhumanist notion. Transhumanism is accompanied by fastly evolving technologies, defining the transhuman in relation to traditional forms of human agency. The study is conducted in a virtual reality platform called “VRChat”. VRChat was launched in 2014 and has a steadily growing userbase which currently exceeds 8 million. VRChat is a suitable platform for the study of virtual agency because of the possibilities for agency it offers for its users. The rules of a virtual platform frame and limit virtual agency. VRChat can be considered as a “bottom-up” platform, where the userbase creates its contents. The abundance of user created worlds and communities define VRChat as a metaverse. This study inspects virtual agency through general themes related to agency: self-expression, social interac tion, meaningfulness and its associated challenges. Users utilize avatars – virtual embodiments and exten sions of themselves – in interaction and self-expression. Virtual reality offers new ways of control over users’ visage, resulting in a new form of agency. In addition to avatars, some examples of virtual agency include usage of virtual objects, creation of virtual worlds, new cultural and religious practices. Virtual agency results in erosion of socioeconomic barriers but is also accompanied by ethical challenges. The method of the study is ethnography. The research materials were gathered during a yearlong observation period, which include large amounts of personal notes, semi-structured interviews, screenshots, pictures and recordings. The study findings suggest that evolving technologies imply novel forms of human interaction. The study of these interactions peek into the growingly virtual world and the growing role of virtual agency in society