VR Chat Security Update Results in Mass Protests by Playerbase

 
By Bixyl Shuftan

In the past few years, VR Chat has enjoyed an increase in numbers. They've gone from 9,100 active users in February 2018, when the Newser gave a review, to 42,500 in December 2021 (link). These are numbers that have made it a true rival to Second Life in contrast to the various Opensim worlds. The world has gotten both praise and condemnation. Early in its history, it was documented that several players came to the aid of another who suffered an epileptic seizure (article). More recently, there were allegations that younger teen users were being "groomed" into sexual acts (article). 

This week however came a move by the development team that resulted in both pushback from many users plus fewer people getting online in the world. 

On Monday July 25, the developers announced a security update (link), the largest change being the installation of "Easy Anti-Cheat." "If you’ve played Apex Legends, Fortnite, Gears of War, Elden Ring, or many more," they stated, "you’ve seen Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC). EAC is the industry-leading anti-cheat service. It’s lightweight, effective, and privacy-focused. In short, for any game or platform looking to prevent malicious users from breaking the rules, it’s a powerful solution."

The reason for this security update, they stated, was because of problems with modified viewers being used to grief other users, "“Modified clients” are a large problem for VRChat in a variety of ways. Malicious modified clients allow users to attack and harass others, causing a huge amount of moderation issues. Even seemingly non-malicious modifications complicate the support and development of VRChat, and make it impossible for VRChat creators to work within the expected, documented bounds of VRChat."

The problem is, EAC will not just block harmful mods, but ones useful to players. Some help in avatars being more interactive. Some help enhance the experience, such as VRC-CC which allows closed-captioning for deaf players so they can see movies inworld. 

https://twitter.com/TheFoxipso/status/1551640725455982593

Apparently, there's been an "unspoken culture," as Alexandra Hall of Kotaku describes, of mods being tolerated "unless they flaunted their upgrades or otherwise caught moderators’ attention." The result has been a "thriving underground mod scene" that allowed players to enjoy the game in ways not intended by the developers and for disabled players to get around the platforms shortcomings many say the developers were slow to adress. Some were also made to help protect players from malicious mods, "oftentimes unofficial mods have been the only means by which to access certain features, ranging from support for exotic hardware like advanced trackers and networked sex toys to addressing accessibility concerns like closed captioning and text-to-speech. Also popular were mods that tried to protect against malicious 'crasher' avatars, mods that helped to increase framerates in the notoriously sluggish, Unity-based game, and mods that allowed avatar searching, a basic-seeming feature that VRChat still lacks."

The development team acknowledges there is a problem, "we hear you and see you saying that many of the modified client features that are being lost due to this are extremely important to you, or in some cases allow you to use VRChat at all, when in regards to modifications that added accessibility features that VRChat currently lacks." But are going ahead with it, "we are going to be releasing this update, and we do not have plans or intent to revert or roll it back." 

The result has been numerous complaints, including many angry ones, from a number of VR Chat's users. The Steam page was full of recent negative reviews. "The latest update introduced Easy Anti-Cheat which has turned the game into garbage," wrote a Yifrick, "This was an amazing social game but now the developers have gone and ???? on it and everyone who loved this game by including this spyware under the pretence of making the game 'safer' for users, when it does absolutely no such thing, and actively harms the community." "Many hours i played and some years on it," wrote an Appie_Dude, " but when I heard of the new update, no (I) am done, am out. ... the devs won't listen to people and go for the money now. You ruined a game, goodluck." "You literally just destroyed your community who heavily relys on mods for quality of life improvements since you are so slow to do it yourself," wrote a Smackdatmoney, "What a actual shame that you continued and STILL went through with it anyways even after massive community backlash. ... you've just became another one of those companies who see their own community as 'idiots who dont know what their talking about'. ..."

In one review by a Soulful, "there's not a lot to be said here about the state of VRC. I've had issues for a while, game has serious optimization issues for folks who play through virtual desktop, has pretty much no graphical optimization implemented in any capacity, atop of compounding problems with lack of communication, community engagement, and a huge lack of understanding with their userbase's needs and wants. I lived with these issues, in hopes that these features would be implemented sometime, having relied on modding and even Steam's own built in VR stuff to help with these problems, which has been a godsend for those times when there's more than a handful of folks around ... For a long while the VRC team either would ignore a lot of these posts of critique and even real complaints of issues, or directly missing the point of something being brought up to begin with, it was nothing new, now though they're showing their ugly heads when it comes to something as big as adding an anti cheat. Normally I'd be for them implementing something into the game to help with dealing with malicious users doing things like code injecting or script kiddy nonsense to harass and disrupt other people. (But) to destroy something as big and as fundamental as the modding community, the Steam community, and even just plain ol Meta/Quest users on Virtual Desktop ... outright shutting down all sorts of background apps and taking snapshots of your PC if it even suspects even a little bit of something 'suspicious' or 'malicious', and is already VERY well known for not playing well with lots of 3rd party software used in day to day services, including VR services, and from the statements they've been handing out, and lots of the other things going on with VRC itself lately in terms of monetization, it's very clear where they lie in terms of the future of their platform. And it's not to be user friendly, not to be community friendly, and definitely not to be true to the spirit of a social platform to push any envelopes in the VR industry."

Someone named Keith complained the update didn't really stop malicious users, writing, "EAC was defeated in less than 2 hours after it hit the Beta Branch. This means that any malicious actor who wants to continue to use mods to cause problems can do so unimpeded. ... even if EAC was a perfect anticheat with no way around it? That wouldn't stop 99% of crashers, rippers, and account hijackers. The VAST majority of those people utilize completely vanilla clients because VRChat's code is just that insecure. ... at the end of the day EAC is a pure negative. There isn't a single pro about its presence in VRC. It will only make the crashing and other issues worse as it strips people of community made defenses, it takes away many accessibility features disabled folk relied on to be able to participate, and without the community driven QOL options many people use, VRChat just becomes an inferior platform compared to other options."

In the past few days, upset users have "review bombed" VRChat. Its recent reviews were ranked "Overwhelmingly Negative."

"Disabled players are feeling the brunt of this update the most," stated an article from Eurogamer that appeared in senegalbgs.org, "They say they are now stuck with a game they cannot play, with no guidance on when the game will be made accessible to them and no guaranteed way of making sure their needs are being listened to. ... this is a huge setback, particularly considering the work that is going into accessibility options in high-profile games . They say they now find themselves stuck in an ecosystem that has taken away the tools that allow them to join in without providing a sufficient alternative."

Not everyone is complaining. Talking to Marusame, who started out in Second Life, but appears much more often in VRChat now, he stated he didn't use mods, "Most people are just (complaining) because they can no longer use mods that give you power like flying around, crashing people, messing with things like turning off mirrors or making things move around or generally being a nuisance. ... though this doesnt get rid of crasher avatars. Imagine if in Second Life someone could whip out an avatar and crash a sim?" She also thought people had plenty of time to get ready, "I've known they was gonna do something like this for MONTHS. I've hanged out with some of the devs and one works on security. ... so for me, this change didnt do much other than lobbies are filled with less crashers now and they are more chill. (It) reminds me of the Second Life Windlight UI thing where everyone said they'd go to Opensim because of it, and a month later everyone came back."

So what to do? There are calls not to get on VRChat for a week so the drop in numbers will get the attention of the development team. There are also calls for those who signed up for VRChat Plus, a $9.95 USD a month subscription service to cancel. 

I had a few words with Johnny Vulpine, who was "a longtime SL user and also a VRC user." He recommended using a couple alternative clients to get onto VRChat, Neos and ChilloutVR, "If you are looking for something similar to VRC where you can hop in, throw on or upload an avatar and go socialize. ChilloutVR might be more your speed. Like VRC, it's easy to get in and just go. Content creation is done outside of the game and uploaded in. If you are looking for something more like SL but in VR, I think you will love Neos. Neos is a VR social app just like VRC and Chillout. But like SL, it has a full range of building tools in-game, you have an in-game inventory which already comes stocked with some basic things. Or you can upload content built outside the game. I will add that the learning curve for Neos can be a bit daunting. BUT you do not need to learn every aspect of building and content creation to enjoy the game. There are already TONS of avatars (many of the same ones used in VRC) that you can pickup and use for free."

Marusame was less enthusiastic about the alternative clients, saying ChilloutVR was harder to use, "the api is fried, also the sdk is janky was harder to upload an avatar than vrchat especially to get material toggles and has a harsher public avatar upload review process." But went on to say they are "doing a lot of hiring so maybe they actually want to do something. Neos VR I hear is more complicated and you can build in world, very Second Lifey experience. But development is dead at the moment with people leaving and infighting."

So what are Second Life users thinking of this development? There was one meme of two sailors getting disciplined by their captain. One was a VRChat user, complaining this was cruel and unusual punishment. The other was a 16 year veteran of Second Life, who was taking things in stride, and looking to the VRChat user and asking, "First time?"

Erron Kelly in Venturebeat would comment that there was something about VRChat that reminded him of the early "Wild West" days of the Internet, which while offering an unexplored frontier also had bad guys such as trolls using racist language, "VRChat taking steps to sanitize that stuff? In the long run it’s probably good for the software. But every time the Old West gets settled it’s a little sad. That’s just me being nostalgic about how I grew up. The people losing access to genuine quality-of-life mods? They’ve really got something to complain about."

Sources: Vice, PC Gamer, Venturebeat, Steam, Eurogamer/Sengal, Kotaku 

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Anthropomorphic Influences

By Nydia Tungsten

 If you look at the games of the past you will find very little in the way of anthropomorphic influence anywhere other than cartoons of the late 60's early 70's. But then it faded just a bit, then exploded, but again it was mostly confined to childrens' cartoons, you would have the rare commercial, but even there it picked up.

But in the last 15 years of gaming you can see the influence grow, I think the first mainstream MMO to introduce a character would be “World of Warcraft”with the “Dranei” also refered to a “Space Goat” by more than a few. Then they introduced the “Worgen” which were “furrier” anthros and drew some complaints about the lack of tails. They have a very angry werewolf appearance and a great back story. Then WOW added the cutesy “Pandariens” the panda race with the strong Asian influence.

  Each time they released one of these you could hear the anti furry rhetoric screamed from the rooftops! But.... the fanbase for them were there, and NOT just the furry fandom.

Then came more and more Fur based games “Amerillo” “Nekopara” “Elderscrolls Skyrim” just to name a few, and then we get into the mods available. Skyrim, one of the most popular single player games ever made, has the Khajeet right out of the gate. But with the right mods you can be a deer, a fox, a wolf, even a rabbit.

But not just Skyrim can be modded , “Left 4 Dead 2” “Minecraft” Even the game “Ark Survival Evolved” offered you a mod to be something OTHER than human. There are many many more game that are full Anthropomorphic or have partial anthro capabilities and of those that don't have available mods to suit your taste, there are more and more getting those abilities.

 And let's not forget “Second Life.” I myself belong to one of the largest furry communities, and the choice of avatars is staggering, and yes, each one has mods available. So people choice is almost limitless.

So keep an eye on future games, and see which ones you think may have got some inspiration from the furry fandom. If you know of more games not mentioned here please feel free to mention them in the comments for others to find and maybe enjoy, either way, Have fun with what ever you play and remember “I's only a game and meant to be fun so...

ENJOY!

Nydia Tungsten

Elder Scrolls Skyrim

by Nydia Tungsten

   I am not going to go into a lot of detail of the storyline because that is fantastic on its own, but instead, talk about the possibilities.

   Skyrim came out eight years ago, and it took off like most new games do. I didn't get it right away, but not too much later, I fell in love with it. Most games when new, build a big following and a few years later, they fade into history like Pogs. But Skyrim GREW. On year five, it was still growing, not all by new players, but by current players that have beat the game and all side quest and all the endings...etc etc. And then there are the mods.

Mods for Skyrim exploded onto the scene and the game grew years after it's release. There are LITERALLY thousands of mods. For everything from new race mods and realism mods to down right silly mods made just for the laughs, and there can be a lot of laughs when every dragon is turned into Thomas the Tank Engine. You can have more than one companion with you with some of them, I currently have sixteen running with me, and all but two are Khajiit, (A.K.A. Cat race) and I have fun listening to them talk.

I have player homes, player businesses, and I also have one that modifies outfits. I have over eighty-eight mods in my game, a lot of those are realism mods. And, the thousands of mods I was talking about... don't include all the...sexual mods those alone... make up a good chunk of what you can get it you want them. So depending on the mods you get, Skyrim can become a whole new game with new challenges to over come and new twists on the story line, and once you beat it again, you can change out the mods again for a whole new experience.

     Okay okay okay... I can hear a lot of you saying, "I don't have the money to keep throwing at mods for just one game!" Fear not monetarily challenged gamers, I have the answer for you, because 99.9% of all the mods you can find for this game are FREE! That's right, I too am among the monetarily challenged  and in no way shape or form could I afford to keep up with all the mods I have thrown in and out of my game.

    BUT... IF you have never played the game before and are new to the experience, I HIGHLY recommend doing your first play though with NO mods at all so you can truly experience and appreciate what the mods can do, for me, like with "White Run" has large tall trees everywhere, and not as barren.

 Can you guess who has the Higher armor rating?

    Some of you may not be able to play with a lot of mods installed so one or two will be just fine. And if your system can't do that, no biggie, it is STILL one of the best games I have ever played and continue to enjoy years later.  So if you have the game, MOD it, it you don't have the game, get it, and either way, ENJOY IT!

 I hope I was able to help your experience in some little way, if you have a favorite mod, list it below for others to try and enjoy.

   And remember, games are to be fun SO ENJOY Ans I will see YOU in the grid!

Nydia Tungsten

Ark Survival Evolved Update: New Map, New Version, and Lots of Mods

By Bixyl Shuftan

My friends play some games for a short while, and it isn't long before they lose interest and move on to something else. Ark Survival Evolved isn't one of them. After over two and a half years and a number of changes, they still like returning to an island filled with prehistoric creatures, braving the dangers, and making things with the resources there.

Those whom haven't played the game before may want to check my previous articles in July, August, and September 2016 and February 2017. The basic premise of the game remains the same: that of a human waking up on the beach of an island populated by dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, with nothing but his wits and two bare hands. You won't be able to do much at first, and it's best to avoid even the smallest carnivores for the first few levels. So many creatures see you as a snack to chase down and bite and claw to death. But you'll soon get stronger, faster, and with learning new skills comes clothes, equipment, and the ability to make a home base. Complicating things is the kind of server you're on. Public PvE or Player versus Environment servers often have huge tracts of land claimed by others simply so no one else can use it, which can make finding a place to settle hard. Player versus Player servers, the people you'll run into can vary greatly. Some will help you. Others will wreck your place, steal your stuff, and skewer you just for giggles. Having no patience for the "PvP kiddies," many of my friends tend to stay in private servers, such as the one Nydia shares with her friends.

So much has changed since I last wrote about the game over a year ago in February 2017. For one, there's a new map: Ragnarok. This place is about two and a half times the size of the original map, also known as "The Island." Like The Island, there is a mix of terrains. But unlike the original area, there's a large desert area in the south, dominated by the "Deathsands" that can cause heatstroke and eventually death if you stay too long there. In the interior are some high mountain and plateau areas, with ice and snow, parts of it having super cold temperatures that can rapidly sink your health without cold climate clothes. Appropriately enough, the Ark Wiki calls  the areas "Murdersnow." On the northern part of the map is a barren, scorched area. One has to be careful in parts of this area as it's home to Fire Wyverns (first seen in the Scorched Earth map) that can set you, and any mount you may be riding, ablaze.

The recommended starting places are in the northwest and north-central areas, with temperate climates. In addition to the dilos that use blinding spitting attacks, players on the beach will have to contend with the thieving pegomastaxs and ichthyornis. Pegomastaxs are annoying, but as they're ground animals can be pursued and knocked out, though if they get away, the player will have lost an item, possibly a valuable on. I found ichthyornis to be more trouble as they swoop down on players from above, robbing them of food. While they don't steal items, they do knock tools and weapons onto the ground, and will attack players again and again, which is both irritating, and for a low level player dangerous as they have less HP to spare as it's attacks damage some.

A deadlier danger is the eurypterid that while usually on the sea floor occasionally comes onto the beach. Nicknamed "Larry the lobster" by my fellow players, this ancient aquatic arthropod can sting with a strong poison that will quickly knock out players, leaving them helpless as it eats them alive. Ranged weapons are recommended in taking these out, as it may get a lucky couple of hits on a player using a pike, which will be enough to knock out a medium to low-level player. Solo players with only melee weapons should avoid pairs. As dangerous as "Larry" is, one can find pearls on them, including black pearls. So some will brave the dangers, or use a lot of bullets. And then, there's the Giganotosaurus. These are rare, which is good as these monsters are several times larger than rexes and eats wyvrens for breakfast. Their size combined with their rage makes them a predator best avoided.

Fortunately, not everything new is necessarily out to rob, peck, and eat you. The cute jerboas from the Scorched Earth map are here. These critters do have a use besides being adorable fuzzballs. As Ragnorak gets hit by sandstorms, even in the north,their ability to detect weather can alert you to one. Appearing on The Island several months ago, and on Ragnarok is the otter, which makes a great and practical pet for both the warmth it provides and it's ability to get fish and pearls, including on occasion black pearls. There are other creatures from Scorched Earth here as well, Wyverns having a new variety: Ice. Like all wyverns, they are very dangerous opponents in a fight and valuable mounts that are tough to beat. They can only be tamed if raised from eggs. The mythological griffin has also been introduced. As one might expect, wild ones are best observed at a distance as they will attack. If one goes through the trouble to tame one, they do make a prize mount that can carry two people.

Resources are also easier to find. On The Island, metal was uncommon, as were oil spots, and I could find obsidian and crystal only in a few places. On Ragnarok, metal can be found all over, and obsidian and crystal can be found in more places. On the beach, one will find occasional loot crates that contain random items useful for beginning players, such as stone hatchets, bows, or if they're lucky an iron pike.

While The Island had a few occasional ruins that weren't always easy to find, Ragnarok has some large abandoned structures. One of the most prominent is the castle visible from Viking Bay that's located on a high plateau east of it. But as the place is filled with bats and spiders, it's highly recommended one bring armor, a gun with a lot of ammo, and plenty of friends. Safer but further inland is an abandoned bridge that's starting to crumble. Exactly who was using these structures is not yet known.

With Nydia and the "Furry Gamers" getting back in Ark, we got a private server with a Ragnarok map, or "Rag," as we sometimes call it for short. We set up a main base in a cave in the northwest with one of the three obelisks on the map just to the west. With over a dozen in the tribe working together, it wasn't long before the most active were strong enough to start taming some powerful beasties, such as some of the wyverns after grabbing some eggs. We made some notable structures, such as the "Hotel Bunnytickle" in Viking Bay which stood over a dozen stories high. We made a number of bases along the north coast and a few in the interior.

But there was more than a new island to explore and build on. Over the past year, Ark has encouraged the building of a number of mods. These can be mildly useful tweaks, to new maps, to new ways to build things, and more. The Ragnarok map got it's start as a mod. Structures-Plus, also called (S+) gives you more structure parts to build, as well as new versions of the old which you don't have to destroy to remove, but simply take down and either store it or place it elsewhere. S+ foundations are stackable, so one can make a really strong stone or metal fence. It can also allow you to build an underwater base, which is not exactly the easiest thing to raid in a PvP server.

The Eco Decorative and RP allows you to create plants, bushes, glowing crystals, and huge trees. The Castles, Keeps, and Forts Mod allows you to build medieval era-structures. As dinos are sort of like dragons, this allows you to make places out of fantasy novels, complete with jousting matches, on dinosaurs. The Steampunk mod allows you to use steam technology, which can allow you to build things out of a Jules Verne novel. Among which are huge skyships. Pimp My Home allows you to decorate your home base in new ways to make it feel more like a home. It can be a little surreal to have a dino in a kitchen with modern appliances, but here it is. Conquer the Seas allows you to build a number of boats, as well as a small airship. The dredger can get you resources from the ocean bottom, and fishing boats allow you to get both certain resources, and of course fish. The Crystal Isles Mod gives you a new map in an area filled with crystals. The area is beautiful, but Ark being Ark can still be quite deadly.

There's too many mods for me to mention, others including the useful Dino Tracker and the amusing Dodo Rider. Butthey've allowed Ark players in private servers a world of possibilities. One small problem: a lot of mods may lag some players. So they're not for everyone. You can find a list of the mods on the Wiki (here). Twinfinite also gave a list of thirty mods, ranging from very useful to mildly interesting.

Then there's the Tek technology. Appearing last year, these an a space-age/alien tech element to the game. The engrams and the material "element" needed to make them are available only by killing boss creatures. Tek armor can make you very difficult to defeat in a fight, with jets to make you fly, and energy weapons. You can also get Tek armor for tamed animals such as the T-Rex and sharks ("Dinobots" and sharks with frikin lasers anyone?). There's Tek equipment, such as a replicator which takes fewer materials to build things than in a fabricator or smithy. There's a cloning chamber, which you can clone a creature if you have enough element. Teleporters allow you to teleport yourself, and other people or creatures close by, to another teleporter, but unlike beds you can keep your clothes and inventory. And there's more, including tech windows and doors which open when you're nearby.

Needless to say, Tek technology does scare some who play public servers. Raiding parties with machine guns and explosives are bad enough, but rocket jets and energy weapons gives people the idea of raiders whom can smash up a well-defended base with impunity. So there are some PvP servers that are labeled Tek-free.

Scorched Earth has also been joined by a second alternative version of Ark: Aberration. Players find themselves in an "Ark gone wrong." Somehow the Ark has been damaged, and the surface is bombarded with harsh radiation during the day, driving all but the most resilient life forms underground, which live in lush biomes. There are a number of kinds of mushrooms, the larger which chopping can give you fungal wood, which can be used like regular wood. There are smaller kinds of mushrooms, some providing small benefits when eaten, but others can cause hallucinations and temporary inability to breathe. There are gas vents one can harvest congealed gas balls from, but be careful as you could suffocate by inhaling the gas. There are gems you can harvest. Earthquakes can rain down resources from above such as stone, regular wood, obsidian, and crystal, but can also damage your base or knock you down when climbing a wall.

The radiation has created new creatures that can help or hinder. The bulbdog is a friendly creature that can be a source of light as well as a pet. The goblin-like nameless are a constant threat in many areas, but can be held at bay by light sources. Ravagers are a kind of canine that can really hurt you as they're usually in packs, but a valuable ally if tamed. Rock drakes are large creatures that can climb walls, glide distances, and have a stealth ability that can allow them to sneak up on you, and possibly make short work of it's target. But like wyverns, they can be tamed if raised from an egg, making them a powerful mounts. Reapers are dangerous alpha predators that low and medium level players don't have a chance against, and queens can "impregnate" a player with their young, which if left untreated will eventually burst from the player like the creature in "Alien." It's *possible* to tame the young, but very difficult.

It is possible to transfer creatures from single player games to private servers. One of my friends brought over some rock drake eggs, of which I ended up with one resulting "rocky." With no hostile players around, there's no need to camouflage, but it's fun to glide around and climb walls. With this creature well over level 100, he makes lunch out of any T-Rex he encounters. He's the best fighter at the base I stay at.

There are more survivor notes to discover, the latest from a woman from Medieval Japan and a man from Ancient Greece. It seems the activity in the PvP servers was a factor in their stories as the woman describes most of her encounters with others as hostile, some trying to kill her on sight. The Greek man in one entry describes himself as waking up away from his house on the beach, without items, and finding his home broken into and robbed - he'd been raided and killed, and somehow came back to life.

There are also some tales going around of a developing plot. One youtube I came across, the narrator says he had heard stories that it was becoming clear that the Ark was a kind of alien experiment in which extraterrestrials had been preserving dinosaurs and other ancient creatures in hopes of improving them, and were recently abducting humans with the purpose of hoping to improve them as well. Right now, this should be taken only as an interesting rumor. There's also a rumor that eventually the game will have a way for players to return to Earth.Time will tell.

The Ark as an alien experiment? Who knows what they would think of those PvPers who kill for the sheer pleasure of it in contrast to those who give helping hands to neighbors in need. As always, this survival game seems to bring out the best and worst in those who play it. But unlike "Rust" which looks like it's set in the abandoned runs of some once populated area, Ark at least seems to have the potential for a better tomorrow with it's shiny technology.

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And finally, there's been a few songs done about the game. Among them, "Survivor Evolved."

That's all for now from Ark. Stay safe, watch your back, always know a line of retreat in case trouble shows up, and it never hurts to have friends.

Source: Ark Wiki , Twinfinite, Steam
Image credit: Nydia Tungsten

Bixyl Shuftan