This is a long one so if you’re not interested in reading a big paragraph about someone’s take on something, don’t bother. Nonetheless it’s still… maybe mildly interesting to read?
A big question that I’ve always asked myself is What made Rec Room so special? Well, in my opinion it’s a plethora of things. I’ve been playing Rec Room since 2019 and transitioned to playing on a Meta Quest 2 in 2021, which is what I still play on now! So if that helps solidify that I have a little bit of experience throughout the game’s lifespan, if you’d even call it a game. What do I mean? I feel like only calling Rec Room just a ‘game’ isn’t very accurate to what it was. Honestly from all of the games I’ve ever played, Rec Room stands out on such a different level. Now if you wanted the real-deal Rec Room experience you had to have played on VR (in my opinion). VR itself already opens so many more possibilities to gaming itself and takes it from being y’know, a game, to being so much more. Now other games utilize that quite horribly sometimes, like ahem… VRchat. BUT, the way Rec Room did it was so… unique. Now to be honest, I think it was completely unintentional. Rec Room was originally just basically Wii Sports in VR, but when they mix so many unique ways of interacting as well as the light-hearted nature of the game, it just clicks. Take the party, friend, and revive features. To party you literally had to fist bump someone, to friend you had to give a handshake, and to revive someone you had to give them a high-five. That sort of interaction just makes everything feel more friendly in a way.
Let’s not even get started on the theme. Just the actual gameplay and theme mix together so well. The entire theme revolves around a college campus. Take that and new players who might feel shy or unfamiliar when starting out to meeting new people, making friends, etc… It really has that sort of social feeling out of something you’d get in real-world interactions. That’s unique. Really unique. Rec Room really did feel like a college too! Sports, Quests (literally just theatre plays), and even classes that were hosted! The events feature was honestly my favorite, well, aside from when those military games started coming around. Now look at the Maker Pen. Literally just a hot glue gun and it opened possibilities to so many things and had a very arts-and-crafts feel to it. Let’s not even get started on the community. People in the Creative Club were some of the most amazing, nice, and tangible people I’ve ever met (I’ve actually met Meriesa before). Speaking of clubs, look at those! There were so many clubs for so many different communities. Can’t forget leagues either, those had great communities too! Just all of these things blended together so well and just… fit. We had major events too, like the Reclympics or Rec Con for example! All of these things just made the game feel so personal in a way. This is exactly why I just cannot say that Rec Room was just a game.
That’s where I get to now, and I feel like the best way to truly label Rec Room is NOT a game, but more like a social sandbox, or even a ‘third place’ in a way. Think about it, during COVID 19 we all had nothing better to do, or even before & after it. A lot of people would go to work/school, come home, do some things, and go straight into this entire different world with a whole community and experience that set itself so differently from others. Now this is a little different for each person because a lot of people weren’t very involved in the community at all and basically just used it as an alternative Roblox or VRchat, so it can be hard to understand a viewpoint like this is you didn’t experience it, but it was amazing. I literally grew up around this game for years and it actually taught me a lot of lessons about doing right things and being involved in your community. I’m 16 and I’ve actually been volunteering at a few places. It’s just something that’s so different about Rec Room that stood out from any other game I’ve ever played. It was so much more. The term “Give it your Rec Room best!” didn’t make as much sense to me as it does now, because I fully understand the meaning. It means to be creative, kind, social, involved, and most especially optimistic. Rec Room may be gone, but the influence of it and the culture lives on as a little part in everyone who experienced it.
To summarize everything, Rec Room’s deep community and creative focus mixed with the theme and environment of an actual college gave such a unique experience that isn’t like other game. Even titles like VRchat can’t compare quite the same, since at its core it kind of is just a Roblox for VR sort of thing. Sure, Rec Room started leaning that way too after a while, but still!
Additional Note: Rec Room was only Rec Room from 2016-2023
That’s all from me. Thank you for reading! (if you did :p)
