VRCHAT WOES

Stories of sadness in virtual reality

In Syrmors youtube channel you’ll find a child bugs bunny who was taken from a meth addicted mother, Sans from Undertale whose girlfriend died of cancer, or an anime girl with a man’s voice dealing with existential quandaries. These are all the avatars for players in an online game called VRCHAT, people wandering the digital void looking for a good time. Nerds, geeks, weaboos, incels, the sort of bunch you might assume to be on the platform. They play for hours into the night, laughing at Ugandan Knuckles marrying an apache helicopter or laughing at other inane jokes. In one clip by another youtuber I saw Kermit the frog running atop a sky scraper yelling “I’m going to Kermit suicide!” before leaping off the building while a deep fried version of Bob Dylan’s Piano man begins to play. If it sounds like an acid trip you’ve had before I suggest you give VRCHAT a try.

But sometimes the late night beer and mountain dew fueled gaming binge leads to more serious conversations. This is what Syrmor lives for. His channel is dedicated to human interest interviews in a Humans of New York style. It’s simple: he plays VRCHAT and meets people. Most conversations won’t lead anywhere, but sometimes he’ll find himself talking to a dying man suffering from ALS whose wife took away his children. He told Syrmor of his his youth in the 70’s trying shrooms and going to pagan festivals while he himself was playing as a 6ft mushroom sitting in a gocart in one of the many strange and hectic worlds.

Syrmor excels in this format because he lets his subjects speak for themselves with seldom questioning. He doesn’t make any assumptions. He lets the work speak for itself. “I really do believe there is room for magic in our world.” He told Syrmor. “Right now I’m breathing with what I call an ‘air-sipper. And with this I get to control when I get to take a sip of air and each time I’ll get two liters of air blown into my lungs.”

In the video interview the image of the giant happy mushroom in a bright green and blue world of fantasy is interlaced with the real and sobering images of the subject strapped to his chair, breathing out of his air-sipper. A vest strapped over his chest oscillates and shakes loose his airway so he can cough up mucus.

“After my first marriage is when I noticed signs of the ALS. My arms were so weak I didn’t trust myself to carry my own baby down the steps. It was a very dark time.”

In another clip Syrmor talks with a kid suffering rare genetic connective tissue disorder that affects 1 out of every 20,000 births in the United States which causes his skin to fall apart at the slightest of touches, the skin is so sensitive that he cannot shower without suffering excruciating pain from plethora of wounds all around his body. He doesn’t leave the house he says and when he does people tend to look at him funny and notice things about him, like his scarred and pink burned hands.

“ I don’t wanna be stared at. I just want to be looked at like a normal person.” He says through piglets mouth.

He retains some assemblage of a normal child’s life through VRCHAT and Fortnight, playing with foot pedals while he streams online under the handle ThatGeekAaron. Syrmor asks him one final question before signing off.

Syrmor: If you could tell people one thing what would it be?

ThatGeekAaron: Never let anything stop you.