main entrance
This view greeted me as I loaded in, an immediate sightline to where I ended up spending the bulk of my time: four loosely genre-based exhibition subworlds + one “Alternate” world for the live DJ events.
Fencing in that visual beeline to the portals was a circle of booths, stages, and advertisements – the last of which I immediately ran towards and started snapping photos for future adventures… 🥰
An endearingly clever setup off to one side let you support vtubers by purchasing props you’d expect like lightsticks–but even accessories worn by your favorite talent!--to upload with your own model.
main shows
At the back corners were these grand part-MMD part-motion-graphics experiences by a “Particle Live” creative group. I’ll have to check them out! I had no idea you could do some of the camera zips away to rooms tucked out of sight or access from the main world area in VRChat. 😳 (While a friend took me to that trendy Miku Miku Dance world before, it kept the camera shot locked to one spot, whereas KING here had text effects and zoomed your player position around all–like a music video dark ride!)
exhibition
Although I decided to go through the genre worlds in the order shown to me at the main hub, what the main world showed me–apart from the DJ live events confined to their own world–left me with a slight impression that these kiosks may angle more into idol-culture-y than anything else. But, well, I, uh:
Yeah. If your eyes pick out that kiosk shape over and over, that’s the idea! Figured it would be easiest to have a screenshot of all the information that popped out whenever you walk up to one of the kiosks if it vibed with me… and well, there was a lot more going on than just the pop idol sound! (Though admittedly, I got a couple of those in there too. 😂)
The Sharp world though? –My jaw hit the floor. As I’ve been getting lost in VRC rave sets, and maybe it's my inner 00s weeb, I forgot how much I love j-rock, popping off at kiosk after kiosk. 💘
Shocked by how many songs I liked were free to boot, maybe passion, maybe building up a following?
But before I wrapped up checking out that Alternate rave world, I actually ended up recognizing these other few personally significant oddities among the other worlds, too – some dramatic recreations:
“Oh wait, that Tatsh? The one who used to be all over the Touhou music search results with the hours long playlists because they kept dipping their toes into different genres and getting on different guest vocals? Oh heck it must be, that says nayuta! I can’t believe they’re still around in 2022, that’s so cool!” “--and huh, isn’t nhato the one that blew away all the EN vtuber fans with their Excuse Me, RIP remix back during that rearrange challenge? Powerful…”
“Wait, MOKURI as in like, that animation short and streamer project by the Kemono Friends x Made in Abyss creative heads from back in the VRCon 2021 community festival I traveled through all ghost town style? … I guess that’s confirmation that they’re still kicking too. 😎”
Even a couple people I’ve bumped into since starting to play / been following here and there before even joining VRChat! So yeah… there went 3-4 wild hours of watching my back to ensure I wasn’t bumping into any users in passing as I pumped my fist in the air and/or bounced around at a kiosk on some kind of musical sugar rush. 🔥 It really was the closest I’ve come to what it felt like as a kid dashing back and forth between a music store’s aisles of tapes and CDs in just about… 2 decades? (With significantly less fiddling to get it to scan barcode stickers.) I guess that’s what happens when most music I liked wound up limited to videos online! But that VRChat can recreate that spatial sense all over again really makes me eager to visit more MusicVket events in future years. 💕
alternate world
And finally here’s that rave world! The entering vignette is super cool–if you’ve been to SHELTER, it’s a bit like that, but the exit had this Monster Hunter World lobby feel. 🤩 Sadly I don’t think I’ll be able to make the events and I did not catch any Twitch stream links I could tune into for them – but I can see the world design chops that people seem to really praise the big Virtual Market event for flexing. 😂
Also… this is what it did to my browser window by the time I got done browsing and opening web links to access all those songs from earlier… 💦
bonus
If you happen to circle around the edge of the elevator, not travel down it, you’ll find this lil’ secret area!
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