I was that little girl who watched Star Trek: TNG late-night Saturdays and dreamed of having a holodeck, so of course I love VR. I have played Beat Saber and done VR painting for a few years now and recently started streaming when I am in VR. I have shoulder/neck/right side injuries and pain issues which I have been dealing with for years from a lifetime of repetitive stress from manual labor, painting, and unfortunately compounded with injuries and trauma that was causing so many symptoms including loss of feeling and fine motor control which is essential to painting and drawing especially.

I find working in VR a fantastic tool for rehab because it gets me moving and stretching and activating the muscles with zero impact or other issues that come from real painting. In the last couple days, I did such a long marathon of Beat Saber that tired out all my muscles and fascia so much, it caused a horrible knot in my neck that was tension and injury from an ex assaulting me to release. While uncomfortable in the moment, it alleviated so many issues I was having on my entire right side of my body from that trigger point being so backed up and inflamed. No shitty PT office under flourescent lights, just smashing boxes to music I love.

Especially for repetitive stress, the varied movements that come from VR gaming I find super helpful. I also love the immersive aspect. I put on the headset and the world melts away, even though I'm super plugged in, it helps me unplug. This is especially useful in VR painting to focus on work with minimal (despite dogs sometimes hehe) distractions. My favorite VR painting app is Painting VR with Vermillion and Gesture VR being runners up.

don't @ me

vr painting

https://superrare.com

Painting VR has helped me with my shoulder injury to still do really emotional full body motion painting, and while I still struggle with the fine detail painting in VR, I'm definitely finding more control. Painting VR has improved over the course of me using it, but I still wish it had more multiplayer capabilities for me and my friends to paint together. Or they released a "painters studio" package for Meta Horizon Worlds where I can build studios but utilize their core painting game.

Earlier this year I wanted to go to a concert in Meta Horizon Worlds to have some fun and maybe socialize with other NERDS, but was being geoblocked by Meta in Mexico to access Worlds. I actually sent a huge nastygram to Meta about this then, and told them to let me know when they let me be able to access all features of a device I PAID FOR despite my geolocation. I guess in May they did unlock Mexico, but I missed the memo (whoops). However, in a recent session in VR I noticed suddenly Worlds was on my headset installed, which of course brought me much joy.

When I noticed Horizon Worlds I also looked into how to build in it. As someone who has built in OnCyber, Cryptovoxels, and Nifty Island, I'm very interested in expansion of my building skills and potential market. Horizon Worlds has this fantastic AI integration in their tools to build, which I will be using to build an art studio to showcase my PG-13 art and other spaces in it for sure to share with people and start to socialize more in VR hopefully, because the social aspect of it is something I have avoided but been yearning to dive into more. I guess Meta has some rewards for creators right now who do build in Horizon Worlds for anyone intersted in that. Maybe I will build something cool enough to get that, but more so my motivation in this is to build dope spaces that showcase my art to more mainstream audience which hopefully leads to more sales of it.

When I had my physical art studio in the Bay Area, the way I sold paintings was super simple: people came over, we hung out, music on, coffee and smoke flowing, no pressure. They’d wander around the canvases, we’d talk, laugh, vibe, debate, or even have heart to hearts. If something hit them, they’d buy it right off the wall. If not, maybe the next piece I painted while they were there would speak to them later. It felt natural, human steeped in the centuries-old tradition of artists opening their doors and letting the work breathe in real space with real people.

That exact tradition is what I want to bring to VR. Same chill energy, same open studio door, just now anyone on the planet can step inside, no flight required. Walk around my digital walls, sit on the virtual couch while I paint live, talk shit, play music. No hard sell, no auction timers screaming in your face, just “come hang, see if something calls you.” The connection feels deeper than stream chat or many other digital interactions ever could because you’re actually in the room with the art and with me. It’s the oldest way artists have ever moved work, ideas and inspired others only now it’s possibilities are infinite and borderless.

Hardware accessibility is the real accelerator, led by Meta Quest's 50.8% market dominance and affordable entry at $299 for the Quest 3S, making it the go-to for casual users versus pricier PC-tethered rivals. VR gaming is growing from $19.24 billion in 2024 to $24.33 billion in 2025 with immersive tech like Horizon Worlds poised to capture that wave through seamless social tools and AI-assisted building, reaching Meta's 3+ million monthly users without the wallet friction or niche fragmentation of crypto-native worlds like Decentraland (which hover at under 10,000 daily actives in 2025).

Building there lets me bridge mainstream audiences with polished, easy-entry VR experiences that draw in scroll-weary tech enthusiasts while expanding my network through things like my art studio for hanging out, fostering cross-pollination without alienating newbies. It's low-barrier, high-upside: tap Quest's accessibility to grow a fanbase organically all while riding a market that's maturing faster than crypto metaverses, which remain gated by blockchain hurdles and low traffic. In a world where 49% of gamers already seek "deeper immersion" over passive feeds, Horizon seems like another smart beachhead to plant my flag and to see if the tide roll in.

Hopefully, in the future, integration of blockchain enabled commerce can happen in Meta, or we can have more Web3 presence in the Meta Quest store (looking at games like Nifty Island for this one), because quick and easy transactions for digital assets in real-time in a 3D setting seems like it would benefit everyone. Proof of ownership, instant splits and support, and even assets can become cross-pollinated where crypto and VR merge as they grow from the fringes of current tech markets.

There's some potential building around VR/crypto crossovers it's not just my hype, it's a two niches that's maturing with legit momentum together. The VR metaverse market alone is exploding from early stats cited, driven by immersive commerce and digital ownership where blockchain fits like a glove for verifiable scarcity (think NFTs as unique VR art pieces or land), cutting fraud and enabling seamless royalties cross game markets for artists, something Horizon could supercharge with Meta's 3+ million monthly active creators.

We've got proof-of-concept from Decentraland and The Sandbox with $500M+ in NFT sales since 2020, but they're crypto-gated; integrating into Quest (which sold 15 million units in 2024) could explode adoption 5-10x, per Deloitte's 2025 metaverse report, since 62% of non-crypto users say "ease of entry" is their big barrier to Web3. For artists like me, it's a no-brainer: real-time interactions which could lead to potential sales in a 3D gallery could boost engagement 40% over 2D drops, according to Unity's 2025 immersive e-commerce survey. I think this could be the next layer for Quest, crypto, and digital artist growth, turning passive scrollers into active owners and particpants ~ no matter geolocation.

Hardware improvements can supercharge this whole VR wave, and the second I think about it, my mind jumps straight to haptic gloves. Humans experience so much of the world through our hands. I mean hell, we're scrolling endlessly on phones just to feel connected, so imagine unlocking fine-motor magic in VR with affordable, easy-to-use hardware that plugs right into tons of games and experiences. That's the golden ticket to mass adoption: gloves that let you feel the grip, the swing, the impact, the texture, without the bulk or price tag of full suits.

As an artist, it'd be game changing for having more realistic creation experience in VR. Like holding a virtual brush that pushes back just right, letting me fine-tune strokes with real resistance and zero physical strain, so I could layer details without the physical pitfalls. Or a ceramics studio where I could mold virtual clay without the mess and fuss. For gamers, it's pure joy: swords that you feel the crunch on impact, guns that kick in your palm, turning games into something you live, not just play. And for therapy? I think of vets swinging bats to rebuild motor control without real-world risk, folks with chronic pain venting rage in safe chaos, or even anxiety sufferers practicing social hangs with tangible feedback that grounds you in the moment, making immersion a healing loop instead of a headache.

I know some folks are already cooking this up like HaptX with their microfluidics that squeeze your fingers like you're gripping a hilt for real, SenseGlove's force-feedback beasts tuned for combat sims, and bHaptics' wireless TactGloves that could be consumer-ready soon. Commercial, accessible versions could tip the scales hard in VR's favor, pulling in the scroll fatigued masses who crave tangibility without dropping $500 on prototypes. We're talking a market primed for it with gamers and people begging for more connection and immersion.

Overall, I think VR is about to become the new couch time ritual and one that actually pulls people together instead of apart. People look at someone in a headset and scream “ultimate disconnect!” but my experience is opposite. It's helped me reconnect to my body that has been battered and bruised by reality from a child while dreaming and hoping for a better future.

Baseline... I'm like... hell yes, let’s disconnect from the garbage parts of reality. I want a future where tech fixes shit, not just numbs us and disconnects us more. In VR I see this happening and the potential for so much more: therapy that moves bodies and minds, commerce is connected to verifiable real builders, community who embraces and celebrates new tech, fun that makes you sweat and laugh, infinite space to build without traditional gatekeepers or issues, and freedom for anyone with a headset, no matter where they are on the planet (or potentially other worlds in the future).

That’s not escape. That’s arrival.

Thank you for taking the time to read my words -- <3

Until next time, stay real and curious

Empress Trash 🖤

empresstrash.com

zora.co/@empresstrash

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