The Election Was Even Weirder in VR [Video]

It becomes very clear, shortly after Donald Trump wins Georgia, that I have made a terrible mistake. I’m sitting at home on my couch, but I’m looking around at a giant convention hall that is filled with a loud, eclectic array of human-animal hybrids—most of them with childrens’ voices. The news of Trump’s clinching of a battleground state—and his now increasingly inexorable slide into the US presidency—has just been presented to us by a cross-legged skeleton who says he is from the UK. He’s just here to hang out with the Americans on their big day.

This scenario, as you may have guessed, is not taking place in the real world, but a VR realm. I have made the unenviable decision to follow one of the most important elections of our time from one of the most absurd places possible—deep in the metaverse.

The room with the friendly Brit skeleton is in the virtual reality service VRChat…