----Before the Fall-----------------------
I have spent over 1,300 hours in VRchat. In a Utopian world.
Day in, day out, I would argue to anyone that would listen, that the True Metaverse exists already, and it's a utopia named VRchat. That it is not just a game, but an open platform, where you and your friends can play, or make, anything.
Endless creativity, in worlds, avatars, and client modifications.
You can be WHAT YOU WANT, you can do WHAT YOU WANT, WHERE YOU WANT! You have never felt as free. Want to fly, do it, want to become a giant suddenly? Done! Want to spew smiley faces from a ghostbuster quantum pack, while music blasts... yep, sure. No matter how serious, or how random, you have* the freedom to do it!
----The Fall-----------------------
*had the freedom to do it.
Unfortunately, the developers of this utopia, this universe built entirely around what the Community does-have decided to show they know only disdain for their playerbase.
They have in recent days (07.25.2022), VRchat has pushed forward with an update, that disables almost all client modifications, reducing the user's ability to alter the way they play the game greatly.
They have stripped the ability for disabled players to alter the game to make it playable for them, disabled modifications that made the game run on lower end hardware, and of course, removed a plethora of massively helpful QOL modifications.
Including those that so often gave one that feeling of freedom. That you were truly in the future- able to summon a mirror at will, fly through the air, or teleport to friends in an instant. Your freedom, has now been reduced, and the game will now run worse.
Why run worse? Because many mods as mentioned above, improved performance! From simple things like hiding avatars at a distance, to supersampling.
----Why Fall?-----------------------
But why did they do this at all? Why? We don't know. We have been told that it was to prevent malicious modding, and attacks. To help reduce the amount of complaints they receive about stolen accounts, or people grieving others. They claim modified clients "even ones that aren’t malicious – are a burden for creators." That any frustration caused by modified clients causing issues with their creations, "ultimately has a chilling effect on VRChat creators, hurting their enthusiasm and preventing them from building awesome things. "
As a creator- it does suck to not know if an issue is innate with the game, or caused by a mod. What hurts far more though, is knowing an issue exists in the base game, and not being able to fix it- knowing the devs, as they have proven over years, will not release an update to improve or fix said issue in any sort of vaguely timely manner. Luckily, a modder will-- or would have.
Instead of hiring said modders, or buying out their code- instead, they now will ban them. Even ban people making tools for any Unity game, that could be used to mod VRchat.
This of course, also ignores the FACT, that Mod makers are creators too. They have added so much to this game- and, in return, they have been vilified by the developers they tried to help.
----An Insult------------------
The first insult, is that in the past, when they first mentioned removing mods, they backed down- then claimed they would work with mod developers.
Unfortunately, by their own words, all they did was garner “feedback and insights that they had from their unique position.” In short- or, again in their own words, “Much like the feedback you provide via our Feedback boards, much of that conversation fed into our production process.”
Aka, they used it to help decide what they may work on next- not actually work to integrate anything someone else made, nor buy said mods for integration.
It should also be noted, that they have done this, all the while telling those that find fault with this, to voice their opinions… not on the actual update mind you- but on what features should be added next.
From their announcement of this update:
“I rely on a feature that I only get through modifications. What should I do?”
“While we can’t promise any particular feature is going to be added into VRChat, we’d suggest actively using our Feedback board. This helps us decide what features to work on, and what things our users really want. ”
There is more to this response of course, speaking of how difficult it is to add features, and how aware they are that people really want some of these things.
Unfortunately, in the end, it basically can be translated as:
User: “Hey, I need this feature to be able to actually play?”
VRchat: “Yeah, whine about it.”
Let us also not forget, the overall dismissive manner in which they have communicated with the community, and often ignored most feedback on the Feedback board.
Follow that up, with the fact that this update was scheduled to release within 24 hours of it being announced. A shockingly small time to process, and attempt to comment on such a massive change. Clearly intended to prevent any chance for the community to comment or complain.
----Community Response------------------
Rage.
Given how much many people depend on, and love Mods- given how the game is based entirely around freedom of creativity, and expression- the backlash was immediate. For many, it started out fairly civilized, a push to organize, and make our voices heard. Tens of thousands signed a request to reverse this mod ban, and not push forward with the launch of EAC.
This was done not only on their Feedback Board, but on Twitter, Facebook, and Discord. Even VR Youtubers, V-Tubers, and some News Outlets began to cover the community's disagreement with the developers.
As the devs refused to respond to this, and given the short timeframe until this was scheduled to go into effect, people were understandably rather passionate. At times likely too passionate- When faced with such an apparently uncaring, and disconnected developer--- who doesn’t appear to understand the kind of game they ended up with…. I cannot blame people for being passionate- but threats of violence are still a shameful, and unacceptable thing.
But- the passion people feel, that I feel, is surely understandable given what is being lost.
----Developer Response------------------
Unfortunately, with over 20,000 votes for them not to move forward, and who knows how many other forms of communication urging them to back down from this odd choice. They doubled down.
When asked if they had expected this much of a pushback- they answered in the affirmative… and a nice big Smiley Face. . .
They knew, this was going to be bad, and went ahead anyway. In fact they said they had been preparing this update for over a month.
(07.26.2022) They announced that they have heard our feedback, but instead of listening, would use it, once again, to change what they worked on next. Let me remind you, these are notoriously slowly working Devs. Something that isn’t really a problem, when the community basically makes the game… which will not be a bigger problem, now that the community is being prevented from working on the game.
What did they say about what people actually wanted?
“we are going to be releasing this update, and we do not have plans or intent to revert or roll it back”
A no- even after a huge swath of their community voiced strong disagreement, they make it clear, they will move forward. They don’t care.
*They don’t care.*
----Real Reasons?------------------
We know, given they claimed this update was because “We’ve been listening to you cry out for a solution to being harassed, griefed, and constantly crashed,” --- then promptly ignored our “cry out” for them to stop this update, that they are not doing this for their user base. This cannot be denied.
So, it makes you wonder, if they are not doing this for the “security” of the community, and to help the people playing their game- why are they doing this?
Unfortunately, at this point, we don’t know, and can only speculate…
“Why are they doing this?”
Well, on July 1st, 2021, Forbes reported VRchat received 80 million in funding, to help create a “Digital Economy.” Such a thing obviously won’t work as well, if people are modding their client, and in doing so, maybe leaving other exploits for manipulating or ignoring your false economy.
Maybe now, just over a year later, they finally had all the pieces in place to begin making this push. To begin removing mods- to maybe fully crack down on NSFW content, even though they have a tagging system for such things when they are being uploaded?
Maybe shortly begin cracking down on how easily, and freely people upload and share content?
----In Conclusion------------------
I’m angry, but more than that, I’m heartbroken.
VRchat set me free, more than any amount of alcohol, or convention hopping could have. It gave one endless freedom- and allowed me, and so many others to explore the worlds of our dreams.
Unfortunately, even if I was willing to play the game without mods- this experience, more than anything, has proven that we can’t trust the devs. They have proven they don’t care. That even if the community makes a utopian paradise, with a developer reaping the rewards of it- at any moment, for no known reason, they may burn it all to the ground. Probably for greed, maybe for spite, or maybe just because they don’t understand the beauty that exists in the game they created.
Thank you for your time, maybe I’ll see you in ChilloutVR.
