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The VRChat pattern
3 years ago
General
Item 1: This story begins with the merger between Unity and "IronSource", a company considered by many to be a malware/adware "publisher". This was a rather unpopular move that made a lot of folks unhappy and/or nervous.
Item 2: Seems like just a few days later, in apparent response to the resulting negative press, that the CEO of Unity (and formerly of EA - Yes, it's that wildly unpopular Riccitiello guy) made a statement in which he called Unity developers who don't aggressively monetize their projects "[expletive] idiots".
Item 3: Eager to prove that statement correct, VRChat added "Easy Anti-Cheat" to their software just a few weeks later, blocking every quality-of-life mod, anti-crash mod, security mod, accessibility mod, and other mods created by the VRChat community over the years. This, too, was a very unpopular move that made a lot of folks very upset. Also, several concerns were raised about the trustworthiness of EAC, the negative impact on performance and privacy, that sort of thing. (A few anti-virus programs complained as well.)
Item 4: Almost immediately, a screenshot began circulating around a few Discord servers showing VRChat advertising a job opening for a "Compliance Operations Manager", whose role would focus mainly on "virtual economy/financial regulatory compliance". The listing (which is still up and publicly viewable) contains multiple references to a "virtual economy" and "virtual currencies", and the word "blockchain" appears a few times too.
This is all part of a pattern. And I don't like where it's clearly headed.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the following is an incorrect extrapolation... Or maybe VRChat thinks EAC will protect them (it won't) when they suddenly go cryptobro and try to repeat the mistake that nearly brought down NeosVR.
In any case, VRChat is no longer compatible with my system. I've had to uninstall it. Later I may look into dismantling my account there.
In the meantime, anyone who currently has me friended on VRChat (or is interested) is strongly encouraged to look for me (same name) on the suddenly-popular "ChilloutVR" instead.
(I might consider NeosVR in the future as well if they ever kill off NCR for good and/or fix their "wat"-inducing use-right-button-for-everything desktop UI.)
Item 2: Seems like just a few days later, in apparent response to the resulting negative press, that the CEO of Unity (and formerly of EA - Yes, it's that wildly unpopular Riccitiello guy) made a statement in which he called Unity developers who don't aggressively monetize their projects "[expletive] idiots".
Item 3: Eager to prove that statement correct, VRChat added "Easy Anti-Cheat" to their software just a few weeks later, blocking every quality-of-life mod, anti-crash mod, security mod, accessibility mod, and other mods created by the VRChat community over the years. This, too, was a very unpopular move that made a lot of folks very upset. Also, several concerns were raised about the trustworthiness of EAC, the negative impact on performance and privacy, that sort of thing. (A few anti-virus programs complained as well.)
Item 4: Almost immediately, a screenshot began circulating around a few Discord servers showing VRChat advertising a job opening for a "Compliance Operations Manager", whose role would focus mainly on "virtual economy/financial regulatory compliance". The listing (which is still up and publicly viewable) contains multiple references to a "virtual economy" and "virtual currencies", and the word "blockchain" appears a few times too.
This is all part of a pattern. And I don't like where it's clearly headed.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the following is an incorrect extrapolation... Or maybe VRChat thinks EAC will protect them (it won't) when they suddenly go cryptobro and try to repeat the mistake that nearly brought down NeosVR.
In any case, VRChat is no longer compatible with my system. I've had to uninstall it. Later I may look into dismantling my account there.
In the meantime, anyone who currently has me friended on VRChat (or is interested) is strongly encouraged to look for me (same name) on the suddenly-popular "ChilloutVR" instead.
(I might consider NeosVR in the future as well if they ever kill off NCR for good and/or fix their "wat"-inducing use-right-button-for-everything desktop UI.)
Such a shame because I liked the Unity engine as a creator but oh well what can you do? Evil be evil.