✤MURO Marching : A VRC Social Experiment✤

 

"This world will be deleted in 24 Hours."

"This timer is ticking down towards the end of the world."

    That's the first thing a casual user might see when searching the Worlds tab and coming across This world will be deleted in 24 Hours. by Crazium. It's attention-grabbing, for sure. 

    As the name implies, this World was designed to be deleted when the in-game timer reaches zero. When you enter the World, you find yourself in an ominous foggy forest with a button and the countdown mentioned above in front of you. The gimmick? A button that resets the timer that is synced across the board. If a single person pushes the button, the timer resets for everyone.

    "With each passing hour this worlds ticks towards its death․ Will you press the button and reset the timer? Or explore each hour as the world draws closer to its demise? Either way․․․ We All Go One Day․" - The World's in-game description

    I find these sorts of things fascinating because they show - to me - intrinsic human behavior. There are no real stakes beyond missing one World out of thousands. It could have disappeared just like that. However, the World has lasted much longer than 24 hours. If you think about it, it's incredible! At least one person had to be willing to choose to come to this world out of any other option and decide to press the button every day for more than two years at this point, and that would statistically have to be part of the population of people who play VRChat. This world was published back on February 5th, 2023, and it's still up at the time of writing (April 24th, 2025).

 

    And the creator, Crazium, has created an opposite but similar sequel!  This Ship has 4 Years of Oxygen Remaining (published April 06, 2024) operates on the opposite premise - This world will be deleted in 24 Hours encourages people to join and interact, while this one presents not interacting as the morally correct choice.

 

    "After a tragedy takes place on this cargo ship‚ the last remaining astronaut only has 5 years of oxygen remaining [...]․ The more players‚ the more oxygen that is taken up․ With the passage of time the astronaut has to sacrifice parts of his ship to survive․ Will you take his oxygen? or spare him of this terrible fate? Either way․․․ We all Go One Day․" - The World's in-game description

    The premise is that an astronaut is stranded, and has five years of oxygen remaining. Every person that visits the World (not just in an Instance, across ALL Instances created of this World) drains a percentage of the oxygen supply. As you can see from my photo, I was one of five people present, and every minute we were in the World oxygen drained twice as fast.

 

    Morbidly, you can speak to the man you're sentencing to death himself - Craig. When I approached, he bitterly lamented the irony that he adored space when he was younger and that it was now what was doing him in as an adult. Even visiting to take these screenshots has slightly advanced his encroaching demise, if just by a small amount. He doesn't acknowledge visitors unless prompted. He just sits, resigned, and drums his fingers on his armrest as the remaining oxygen ticks down.

 

    What do you think? Are you planning on visiting these maps? Do you think the results so far on both are interesting? Let me know in the comments!