When you first glide into Horizon Worlds, the virtual reality app from Meta Platforms Inc., you’re greeted with a vivid cityscape and portals into worlds with labels like “adventure” and “comedy.” On a recent visit to the “adventure” world, I zoomed around a town in the Wild West toting a Colt single-action army revolver and occasionally trading shots with three other avatars dashing between a saloon and a bank. The avatars sported sun glasses and multicolored hair, but were sans legs, a limitation Meta doesn’t appear to have solved yet.
There were at least a dozen of these cartoon torsos floating around the Soapstone Comedy Club, whose welcome sign said it was created by unemployed_alcoholic. This zone felt more active, with avatars standing in groups and making small talk about their kids or life in the real world.
“I woke up at one, and then ate something, and then took another nap at two,” one woman told a man just outside the club.
