Month: July 2021

The New Ready Player Me Hub: The Ability to Import Your Avatar to Any Supported Platform!

An example of the avatars you can create using the new Ready Player Me Hub (source)

Wolf3D’s Ready Player Me, the customizable avatar system I have written about before here, here, and here, has issued a brand new update! In the email I received yesterday:

The Ready Player Me Hub lets you create one or multiple avatars and use them in all apps that support Ready Player Me. With one click, you can import your existing avatar or create a new one and add it to apps like VRChat, LIV, and Somnium Space.

According to the official blogpost announcing the update (which I recommend you read in full):

Ever since we launched Ready Player Me back in May last year, our goal was to create a cross-game avatar platform for the metaverse – one that gives you a consistent digital identity everywhere you and your avatar go. Think of it as a passport that gives you access to thousands of virtual worlds. Today, we are making the metaverse passport real with the launch of the Ready Player Me Hub…

When you sign in to the Ready Player Me Hub, you can see all your avatars and connect them to your favorite applications in one click. To import your avatar into a partner app that uses Ready Player Me, all you need to do is sign in with your account.

VentureBeat reports:

Wolf3D’s platform allows users to travel between video games, virtual reality experiences, and other apps using a single virtual identity, said cofounder Timmu Tõke in an interview with GamesBeat.

“We’re trying to build a cross-game service to enable a lot of virtual worlds to exist,” Tõke said. “We see more people spending more and more time in virtual worlds. The metaverse is kind of happening around us. But most of it isn’t happening in one world or one app. It’s a network of many different worlds that people visit for work and play and collaboration. And doesn’t really make sense for the end user to create a new avatar identity for each of those experiences. It makes sense to have one portable entity that travels with you across many different games and apps and experiences.”

In fact, 300 games, apps, and social VR/virtual worlds now support the Ready Player Me avatar system, including the following platforms (all links below redirect you to blogposts I have previously written about each platform, which might be somewhat out-of-date, as I am covering so many different platforms on this blog!):

You can peruse the complete list of Ready Player Me partners here.

If you are interested in trying out the Ready Player Me Hub to create an avatar (either from a selfie or from scratch), you can access it here. You have a choice of making either a full-body avatar or a head-and-shoulders avatar:

The Ready Player Me Hub starting screen

When your avatar is ready, simply click Next in the top right corner of the website. You will be redirected to the new Hub interface. To save your avatar, click Claim now and sign in with your email address. You will get a one-time login code that you need to type in the Hub. You can use the Hub to connect your avatars to available apps in the Discover Apps tab. To import your avatar into a new app, all you need to do is click Connect avatar (some applications may require a few extra steps).

We are getting ever closer to the dream of having a consistent avatar which you can use in multiple social VR platforms! Be sure to give the Ready Player Me Hub a try.

Help Club: Peer-Based Mental Health Intervention Using Social VR

What if a virtual reality headset isn’t just for gaming, but instead it can deliver an intervention that’s appealing to a younger generation and allows them to anonymously explore problems with a virtual coach as much as they want, whenever they want, all for the cost of two therapy sessions?

—Noah Robinson

I have been meaning to write about Help Club and Very Real Help for quite some time now! I’m glad that today I have finally had the opportunity to talk about a program that is very special to me.

Help Club is the brainchild of Noah Robinson, the founder and CEO of Very Real Help, the company that is building this social VR platform, and a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Vanderbilt University. (Many of you will no doubt remember Noah as PsychNoah, one of the three convivial hosts of the former popular VRChat talk show called Endgame, which I have previously written about on my blog here, here, here, here, and here).

In the following TEDx Nashville talk (which I highly recommend you watch in full), Noah explains how he turned his early experiences with virtual worlds and virtual reality into an idea for a portable, accessible, anonymous, and more affordable solution for those battling mental health and addiction issues:

The purpose of Help Club is to provide a safe social space for peer-based mental health and addictions support, combining cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) tools with social virtual reality in a process called Cognitive Behavioral Immersion (a term which Very Real Help has trademarked). According to their website:

Help Club utilizes the immersive nature of the VR ecosystem to help users defy distance and the physical constraints of the real world, transporting them to their own happier place. Once transported to our built-for-wellness worlds, users will be immediately provided with resources, calming games, and guided exercises to help them recenter, recharge, and reenergize their mental wellbeing.

After passing a short screening, most users will also have access to a groundbreaking form of group intervention called Cognitive Behavioral Immersion™. This proprietary, peer-led group approach gives users unlimited access to potentially life-changing mental health help. These event-based group sessions focus on issues that are important to users. These aren’t led by therapists or doctors—anyone can train to become a helper and begin to make an impact in the lives of others.

We will also have staff in Help Club 24/7 to ensure a positive, curated experience for all.

Noah describes his model for Help Club in a quote from the above TEDx talk:

In cognitive behavioral therapy, we have three ways to address negative mood: examine thoughts, change behaviors or adjust physiology. What we’re seeing with VR is that there may be a 4th way to change mood—by immersing the person in a virtual environment…

We’re building an intervention that’s more portable, accessible, anonymous and affordable than therapy. Instead of using a therapist, we’re teaching peers how to help each other—an immersive, therapeutic social world filled with people, represented as anonymous avatars, who can teach each other the key skills in therapy…

We can provide a change in environment—the thing that’s being sought through drug use—to give immediate relief to people. Yes, it’s an escape into a virtual world, but when they escape—when people escape to get very real help, we can help them confront the situations that lead them to want to escape, in the first place. And our research suggests that we can train peers on how to help each other to make it much more affordable and accessible, and just as effective as therapy.

Help Club is available for in a VR version for users of both tethered and standalone headsets, including the Oculus Quest via the App Lab, and in a flat-screen version for Windows and MacOS users (there’s also a beta iOS mobile client). You can download client software here.

Specially-trained volunteers take turns as moderators, guiding small groups of users in hour-long virtual meetups scheduled throughout the week, in which they discuss issues in their daily lives, troubleshoot solutions, and provide positive affirmation for each other. I can tell you that during the pandemic, it was wonderful to be able to slip on my Oculus Rift or Valve Index VR headset and attend a meeting, rather than having to put on my parka, get into my car, and drive somewhere across town! I always came away feeling that I had been listened to, heard, affirmed, and empowered.

After a closed beta-text period (full disclosure: I was one of the people who participated in group sessions and helped test and debug the platform late last year and earlier this year), Help Club is now available to everyone who is interested. Please note that there is a short screening process which takes place, to explain how Help Club works, what your responsibilities are, and to give you fuller access to their Discord community, which is a key part of the program. Everyone assumes an anonymous avatar identity for privacy purposes, both in-world and on Discord. So I am not “Ryan Schultz” on Help Club…but if you do decide to join based on this blogpost, tell’em Ryan sent you! 😉

For further information about Help Club, you can visit their website (there’s a contact form at the bottom of the home page), join their Discord server, or you can follow them on social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram. (You can also follow Noah Robinson himself on Twitter or LinkedIn, where he shares some of the interesting work he is doing in the area of mental health and addictions using virtual reality.)

Creating Virtual Learning Spaces Using Mozilla Hubs at the New School

The New School, a private university in New York City, has recently launched a program using the social VR platform Mozilla Hubs as a component of classes. This is an initiative of the New School’s XReality Center, a new research centre and testbed with four core components:

  1. Immersive Learning: Create a resource hub for inspiring XR initiatives within the university with the focus on developing new learning models, design, storytelling, performing arts and the future of learning;
  2. XR and HCI Labs: Learn, design and experience what immersive worlds, XR and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) interfaces offer through our workshops, events, virtual and lab environments;
  3. Research: Lead and conduct research to create new knowledge and better understand the efficacy and impact of immersive and emerging technology in education and across industries; and
  4. Partnerships: Develop XR projects and products with internal and external clients and partners.

Starting in 2020, the XReality Centre began a program to create virtual spaces using Mozilla Hubs to enhance the learning experience:

Starting in Spring 2020, the XReality Center has embarked on creating a set of virtual spaces in Mozilla Hubs as a way to enhance student engagement and provide new opportunities for collaboration. During the fall semester the XReality Center will host virtual events, class visits and other social activities in these spaces. The XReality Center is interested in partnering with faculty, programs, schools, and administrative departments to develop and offer virtual teaching and learning initiatives.

The State of XR and Immersive Learning Outlook Report 2021 (available to download here), recently published by the Immersive Learning Research Network, describes one such application:

In a year marked by lack of access to VR labs, Mozilla Hubs gave opportunities for students to use collaborative tools and explore creating together in social worlds. At Parsons School of Design in Fall 2020, over 100 students enrolled in the Immersive Storytelling course met weekly in Mozilla Hubs to co-create virtual narratives, play, and build worlds.

Inspired by the work at the XR and HCI Innovation Labs at The New School, faculty and students from across the Parsons Art Media, Technology, and Fashion schools exhibited their 3D models and presented projects in virtual galleries using audio, video, and an abundance of student creativity. While students acknowledge the limitations of the Mozilla Hub interface, most reported that they enjoyed the opportunity to be in a shared space. One of the students summed it up: “I think it is very fun to be in a virtual world, for me it is a place where I can explore my ideas that may not be possible to create in the real world.”

Four examples of student-created worlds from the Immersive Storytelling course at The New School’s Parsons School of Design (image source: iLRN State of XR and Immersive Learning Outlook Report 2021)

The use of a simple, accessible platform such as Mozilla Hubs makes it easy for the university to try new things more quickly and easily, without making a massive investment of time and money in building their own platform. I believe that we can expect to see more institutions of higher education set up programs similar to the New School’s XReality Center, as a way to incorporate XR technology in the courses they teach.

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: New Addams VIP Group and L$500 Store Credit!

The popular Second Life womenswear store Addams is celebrating its 7th birthday with a brand new store group, the Addams Store VIP group, which you can join for only L$5! With your group membership, you can pick up a full fatpack of the Tiara bikini, which comes with an open shirt to wear over top, as well as L$500 in store credit to spend on whatever you wish (the credit is enough to get you two pieces of clothing or footwear):

The Addams store is extremely busy at the moment, but you can also teleport into the sim next door, Addams Land, join the group (just search for “Addams Store VIP” under Groups in Search), pick up the new group gift outfit and the L$500 credit, and do a little camshopping at the Addams store the next sim over (here’s detailed instructions on how you camshop). Two sims, no waiting! 😉

Here’s an example of an outfit you can pick up for that L$500, the Penelope black leather jacket and top paired with Penelope black jeans, plus a free necklace to complete the emsemble! You can use the included HUD to change the top under the jacket to one of dozens of different colours, as well as make it either opaque or transparent (with an optional bra underneath). Lots of options!

You only have five days to use the L$500 in store credits before they expire, so don’t delay! Happy shopping!