It was Jean's baby, to begin with. A fully immersive and interactive landscape barred to no one by location, race, or creed; all it took was a pair of electrodes and a mind agile enough to deal with conflicting sensory input. Limited versions were in use among Sparkies as early as 2013; a full-fledged, if Jeanite-only, VR universe was operational by 2016. Fast, for Jean.
He had competition. Competition that was far less concerned with keeping VR under safe and secure administration -- safe and secure are not words one uses to describe Vapula without getting very skeptical looks from Seraphim. Technology's engineers were several years behind Lightning's in their construction of a feasible VR, up until the spring of 2018, when a critical tactical error on the part of an Elohite of Lightning resulted in two things: firstly, a Habbalite of Technology named Semcharib, now the holder of the Word of VR and a Baron; and secondly, Vapula's full access to the VR specs.
It was only weeks before it had spread, uncontrolled as any virus, to Earth and humanity, who rapidly made it their own. This is where it gets interesting: while Vapula had the tactical advantage over Jean, and both Lightning and Technology had the technical superiority to control virtual space ... it's actually been humans who have made the best, most rapid use of it. Humans changed VR from a communication aid to a living, breathing environment; human ingenuity created the swarming programs that control it, and the radical ideas of information-as-currency which power it; human depravity turned it from a business enterprise into a sordid underground smuggling hotspot, among other highly illegal activities; and humans are the ones who have benefited the most greatly.
Well. Humans, and Nybbas.
What, you expected the Media to leave this one for the old man to exploit, babe?
The Media is everywhere in VR. Billboards, advertising, corporations. New, strange breeds of music that spring up like algae. Soap operas. Celebrities whose skulls you can actually live in. VR is pure, unadulterated medium -- and Nybbas intends to be the Message, piped in smoldering electric impulse straight into the neural cortex of billions of human beings. Control, darlin'...
If Vapula controls the technical side of VR, with strict and constant competition from Jean, Nybbas has a near-lock on the content... which, of course, makes the angels quite displeased. Heavenside opposition to Media-control of VR has had three primary fronts: Jean, working mostly on the technical end; Dominic and (surprisingly) Laurence, attempting to influence the content of VR by both policing it (on Dominic's part) and producing counter-memetics (on Laurence's part); and Gabriel, through methods of her own, which at the moment appear to be a lot of babel. Babble, sorry... something about the Word of the Lord. Gabriel and her Servitors have moved onto the virtual landscape, acquiring many items from Jean, and are doing ... something. It's not clear. It may have to do with inspiration -- certainly, amazingly inventive new programming follows where they've recently been. It may also have something to do with prophecy. Gabriel herself is as enigmatic as ever on the subject.
As for Laurence's counter-memetics, the Archangel of the Sword seems to have actually hit on something that sells -- religion. The proliferation of megachurches online is in many respect a direct result of his work. It is up for debate whether megachurches are a benefit to the Host, especially electronic ones, but it's got to be better than letting them glut themselves on Media-sponsored sex, drugs, and rock&roll.