That's a O'Rourke's first drug use, but he didn't back down. Last August, he was equipped with marijuana food, cocaine, ketamine and alcohol, and he spent nearly 12 nights together, during which time he claimed to be revelling for 60 hours in a row - none of them left the apartment. (He did take a restroom and managed to eat steak.) For the past 18 months, a 38-year-old IT worker from Dublin didn’t want him to use his name for privacy reasons, he attended VRCHAT every weekend, usually staying until 8am until 8am, and for VR Goggles and full-suited sports racers.

"There are a lot of weird things happening and it may be hard to adjust, but it's magical if you do it." "If you can't reconcile yourself and police yourself, it's infinite. You won't win, you won't see the party ending." O'Rourke is the numerous people who can fight the dreamy, escapist charm of a nearly uninterrupted wildlife gathering from the comfort of their own home. Especially when he usually has no plans with his friends in the real world.

Before COVID-19 lockdown, there were hardly more than 20,000 concurrent users on Vrchat, but the popularity has exploded since then. According to the VR Culture Blog, more than 130,000 people were locked in VRCHAT this New Year's Day, and the weekly VR parties are thanked to organizers from the United States, Europe and Asia. Once in the Vrchat Metaverse, users (describing it as an immersive, futuristic utopia) can choose which “maps” or parties they want to explore in their avatars.

Traditional clubs in the US and UK both ended at a startling pace – rising costs, lower profits and heavy regulations surrounding noise levels, safety requirements and closing times in some places. The unlimited space available on VR and the lack of regulations allow creators to happily ignore the economic pressures that limit nightlife in many places today. VR venues are not charged, so the main cost is VR hardware, which can be over $5,000 with high-quality gaming PCs and full-body tracking devices, although it's only possible to buy for $350 with a simple setup with the Meta Quest headset. However, there is usually a line that can enter the most popular virtual club nights, as they are all capped to 80 due to software restrictions on the VRCHAT platform, which is available via host Steam.

Link talks with 12 people who are fully focused, from gatherings that feel safer in VR to introverts and older people who find it more popular. It even spawns in underground VR gender and drug subcultures, nights at porn clubs and places designed to mimic the effects of psychedelic drugs. O'Rourke and other enthusiasts say they've already paid for the drug-burning marathon dance in many stressors of traditional club nights.

O'Rourke, an introverted person He was self-aware of his 5-foot-4 height and co-hosted a party called Euro-Corp, which resembles a traditional club space with a narrow, wooden dance floor and DJ booth overlooking it all. He said he was writing for so many hours (almost 1,800 hours at the time of writing) because he now thinks it is the "high water moment" on the scene. "When people look back ten to twenty years, they now say that this is the pinnacle of it. That's why I'm working so hard to get together."

But he admits that he sometimes goes too much. "I accidentally (mushroom) made a heroic dose, which was a little confused," he said of his trip in March 2024. He couldn't tell the difference between his own hallucinations and the VR world. “I haven’t got the knife because it’s a little heavy.” Since then, he decided that ketamine “works synergistically with VR” because it enhances the level of immersion that makes VR more realistic.

Others, such as Heelix, a 61-year-old VR DJ in Berlin, have spent nearly 5,000 hours (equivalent to 200 days) in VR, having trouble controlling their drinking. "I think it's a little dangerous," he said. "I've seen people walk through the boat and (their avatar) suddenly disappear." Another VR party promoter said, "You only realize how drunk you are because of the headphones until you take it off." One party said he had friends who need stomach and stomach after a marathon.