Meta Horizon Worlds Spotlight: Mavix

Welcome back to our weekly spotlight on the people building for Meta Horizon Worlds and their amazing creations.

For the last three weeks, we’ve been highlighting the Worlds creators who won The Game Awards Future Class competition: Team N0M4DVR, Team MsMust, and Team Cthunicorn.

This week, we spoke with Mavix, the creator of numerous worlds built to support the LGBTQ+ community, such as Arena Queer 4x4, about his quick journey from VR novice to a prolific Worlds builder.

In December 2021, I was alone for Christmas for the first time, and I decided to buy a Meta Quest 2 to keep me busy and not feeling lonely at home. I jumped right in.

At first, I was very hesitant to build—but then I helped start an event and group called QueersOnMeta, and we came up with a lot of ideas for worlds we wanted to build. But no one knew how to create worlds, so I started learning with my friends. And now we have the biggest LGBTQ+ meetup in Worlds. That’s something I’m really proud of.

When people visit, I want them to see that they’re safe spaces for the queer community. They’ll be loved, respected, and seen, and we’ll discover life together as we go. I’m proud to be building a community where everyone, but in particular queer folks, belongs.

I am not a programmer, although I do work in a creative field. But Worlds has given me the opportunity to execute creative ideas I couldn’t do in other 3D graphics platforms or apps.

I love collaborating with creators who support the LGBTQ+ community outside the spotlight. I work with people who care as much as I do about culture and intentions.

Start by creating a room with four flat walls, and then fill it with assets from the library. Then start replacing those assets item by item with your own designs. That way, you’ll have inspiration, sizes to compare with, and you can move forward with your ideas without getting stuck on how to do any specific thing.

Many people are very invested in Worlds’ technology, but I believe the most powerful part of Worlds is the community. The way we create connection and culture inside Worlds is unlike anything else I’ve seen. My friends and I spend tons of time together in Worlds, to the point where we know each other’s jokes, humor, and stories, and we know if everything is OK just by the way someone is breathing. The human connection behind the technology is the most powerful tool in the metaverse.

VR has many potential applications, including in fields like medicine, sports, and others. For example, in the medical field, VR can be used for a variety of purposes, such as training doctors and surgeons, rehabilitating patients, and even conducting virtual surgeries. VR can also be used in sports for training, analysis, and even for creating immersive experiences for fans. Overall, VR has the potential to revolutionize a wide range of industries by providing more immersive and interactive experiences. It definitely changed the way I see the world, and the fact that I can get to know someone’s personality without seeing them in the physical world has helped me tear down the kinds of social walls that we all normally build in day-to-day life.

Let's say you have a group of friends who love hiking, nature, and partying together. You all decide to rent a farm to spend the weekend playing games, dancing to loud music, and hiking. You make hiking jokes and then you all hike out together to this waterfall with the most breathtaking views. You have this great weekend together and then you all go back to your everyday lives.

That's how my friends and I spend every Wednesday. I build my week around this weekly get-together so that we can all just let it go. We laugh as loud as we can, dance to music that we like, and laugh at silly jokes. And we also get to meet new people and help others who are just starting their journey.

We play games, talk about topics we might never discuss otherwise, and we do all this with our headsets on. That's my favorite VR experience, and I get to have it every week.