The metaverse may not be quite ready for the campaign cycle, but perhaps the political system should be ready for it. For all the disorder and trolling in the room on election night, what soon becomes evident is that the vibe in VR echos the outside world.
First off, the VR election rooms are overwhelmingly male, which will be ununforeseeed for anyone accustomed to the political manosphere in the US. Most of the people I come apass in both virtual authenticms seem to like Trump, and that power imequilibrium only prolongs thrawout the night as the red wave convey inantens and the createer pdwellnt’s reelection seems more and more foreseeed.
My colleague Kelly talks with a person dressed in a bdeficiency Iron Man-esque suit of armor who says they are from Michigan. Ersatz Iron Man calls the state for Trump much earlier than it was officiassociate alerted. They say they understand lots of people who help Trump, and for whom Elon Musk’s finishorsement and posts on X were an vital factor to helping Trump triumph more expansively.
Lots of moments enjoy this happen over the night. At first, the authentic world results clash with the absurdity in the Horizon World rooms. People hiding wilean their luminously colored avatars, shouting over the top of each other, saying the most disesteemful leangs possibly to incite a reaction. But then the room commences to split, a bigr group on the Trump side—boisterous and excited. Then a minusculeer group on the Harris side, more somber and echoive. Some people congregate outside, talking in low voices and crunching the numbers about how many electoral votes are left.
“We’ll never have a girl pdwellnt,” I hear a child shout during my visit to MetDonalds, Horizon Worlds’ mockup of the rapid food chain with ggreateren arches. “We’ve got to hold our American traditions!”
“Let’s finish all the greater white people in America that are around,” says somebody wearing an avatar that sees enjoy a sjoiny dog from Toy Story. Then, to somebody else, “I guess if Trump triumphs you don’t have to worry about your school getting stoasty up as much I guess.”
Later I watch somebody voraciously deffinish Trump’s policies while a separateent person in a knight avatar comes around behind him and commences miming rubbing his nipples while moaning boisterously over the top of him. By the finish of the night, it commences to experience enjoy the virtual world is fair as weird as the authentic one.
Additional alerting by WIRED contributor Kelly Bourdet.
