VeronicaJae
Just wanted to share some thoughts on the new “Live Now” menu. First off — please don’t force it to open automatically when launching the game. I get that this might be part of a test rollout, but from what I’ve seen (and heard from others), it’s not landing well. It feels intrusive, and most of us just close it immediately.
Here are a few ideas that could make it more useful and less disruptive:
  • Make it optional: Let users decide if they want it to pop up on launch. A simple toggle in the UI would go a long way.
  • Focus on relevance: Prioritize friends, groups we’re in, or people we’ve interacted with recently. A “recently met” section could be cool — maybe even highlight users who we've manually shown avatars for.
  • Customizable layout: Let us turn sections on/off and rearrange them. Everyone uses VRChat differently, so flexibility would help.
I get that if people disable it, it kind of defeats the purpose — showing new events and stuff. That said, I do think it has potential. If it highlighted popular instances, new game worlds, puzzle maps, or trending community events, it could be a great way to jump into something fun without digging through the Worlds and Groups menus. Quick access to cool stuff = good vibes.
Also, one small note: the name “Live Now” might confuse people. Some folks think it’s related to livestreaming and avoid it altogether. Maybe try calling it “Events”, with “Live Now” as a section within it.
In my personal "Events" menu, it'd be laid out like so.
  • Live Now: Featuring live events being held and maybe even featured by VRChat.
  • Popular Instances: Featuring sections for Games/Puzzles worlds and other popular group instances outside of the groups you're a part of.
  • Popular with Friends: This can include sections for current group instances you're part of or just locations a number of your friends are hanging out.
  • Popular with Others: This tackles the recent user suggestion I made and would feature open instances that users you've recently met could be joined on to play whatever game their in or talk to the group or community they're part of. This would also include events for groups you've actively taken part of but might not be part of.
(Allow for the recent user idea to be enabled and have it disabled by default. that way people can choose to have themselves open to meeting people they've preciously met or not)
Ok, that's everything. Thanks for coming to my Tedtalk