VRChat Feedback: Safety, Probability, and Economy So I saw the latest video on VRC safety and wish to bring up the part on probability. From what I can glean, that’s likely not the full story. I assume you're bolted down by a few factors: * AWS server cost * Investment repayments * API cost (persona, etc.) * Tech debt * VRC item costs Knowing you're likely still in the red, you tried pulling a lot of tactics common in the late-stage Silicon Valley startup trap, leaving you in a space that may be at risk. Your main income is from: VRC+ Marketplace Selling data? The biggest issue I see with your monetization plans is why VRC has been giving fixed-cost investments (drones, marketplace drops, PFP and avatar slots, avatar marketplace) for a subscription, but freely offer ongoing costs (AWS hosting, avatar file storage, world asset hosting, impostor creation). This leads to a feeling that VRC+ is cheap, but often not worth the time. Early on you said the 18+ would be free, but you made a good step when you said you're looking to find ways to make it cheaper. I think I warned Strasz of this last NYC; most of what I said I think came to be. But taking steps in transparency has been a very good step and makes me feel a little more hope. --- ## How we fix VRC+/Marketplace ### Avatar Marketplace On the VRChat website, you have a VRChat package link that allows a user to add VCC packages from their account to the Creator Companion. When a marketplace asset is bought, the VCC package should then freely appear on the repo. In terms of the marketplace, I think this is one of the highest things that needs to be added, as this would allow you to take market share from sites like Jinxxy or Booth and would make it likely users may use it even if it may cost more. ### Items System If you remake it so that VRChat items will become free after say, 3 months, it allows shifting the idea so that getting it early is the meaning of the ongoing cost. While this may lower people buying in on this, it may take some heat off the idea. --- ## AWS Server Cost Pt 1: Visitor Bandwidth Sinks Quest kids are good user numbers for investment reports, but they often hurt the feeling of users in VRC. They also suck up AWS server costs and just make users who are more likely to pay not log in. So something we should do is limit how much server cost Visitor rank users take up. This could be, for example: * Visitor rank people may only be able to download impostors. * Be only able to use a few avatars. * Maybe limit them to a few worlds, unable to access the full site. This stops them from getting too far out causing havoc and downloading many world assets. It also contains them in a few worlds for targeted moderation. People who want to stay either have to be embraced by a Trusted User or grind their way to New User to bypass this. Trolls don't get that far. Yes, this hurts some new users, but it's the cost of making more reliable regular users. --- ## AWS Server Cost Pt 2: VRC+ Perks Since free but well-acting members still sink AWS costs, you should limit unpaid users from some systems. For example, you split the VRChat room limits so that VRC+ users can bypass world caps and have a priority queue ; that means they get first place on world entry. You could do VRC+ worlds only, but that just leads to drama, so I don't know if that works unless some shifts happen. But giving Plus users things that are ongoing costs would lead to a more informed reason to get VRC+. --- ## How to sell this to users Simply be open. State that we have ongoing costs and point to the enshittification of other sites. Say that we are limiting systems for free users; otherwise, you would want to see the marketplace adverts in your face all the time. You also make a system to make whales (I mean this in a good way) be rewarded massively for gifting VRC+. That would let users get VRC+ without paying but also allow people with more money to give back. Raffles for VR hardware is a way to make people want to hand out VRC+. --- ## TL;DR * Problem: High ongoing AWS costs vs. fixed income models are putting VRChat at financial risk. * Marketplace Fix: Add direct VCC package integration to steal market share from Booth/Jinxxy. Make paid items free after 3 months (pay for early access). * Visitor Changes: Limit bandwidth for Visitor rank (impostors only, restricted worlds) to save server costs and reduce trolling. * VRC+ Perks: Give subscribers instance priority queues and world cap bypasses. * Strategy: Be transparent about "why" (costs) and incentivize gifting/whales through hardware raffles.
