There’s a game on Steam which is probably known to even those who haven’t played it, and it’s experiencing quite the rough time right now in terms of community sentiment and review bombings. It’s called VRChat, and as its name suggests, it’s a virtual reality game which serves as the go-to social setting for those who dabble in this virtual space. The developers, VRChat Inc., recently announced that they’d be adding a controversial feature to the game with the introduction of the Easy Anti-Cheat software that’s used in other games, and the community has responded in kind by absolutely obliterating the game’s score on Steam.
While largely effective and popular among different games ranging from Apex Legends to Elden Ring and more, Easy Anti-Cheat sometimes causes problems with hardware or software players were already using and also can cause complications with mods. People are therefore often hesitant to embrace it when it’s added post-release, but that’s exactly what the VRChat creators are doing.
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“‘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.”
To remedy this problem, VRChat Inc. said it’d be implementing Easy Anti-Cheat.
A quick look at the game’s Steam page shows how well that announcement has been received. The “Recent Reviews” section shows the game has an “Overwhelmingly Negative” reception with 21,847 reviews posted just recently.
“VRChat plans to add Easy Anti Cheat in the next update. What will it do for the game? Well let me show you:,” one review says before listing off several ways they feel EAC will negatively impact VRChat.
“The uninstall button works Great!!!!!!” reads another satirical review.
Similar negative reviews have trickled onto the Oculus site to a lesser degree. The Viveport site has not yet been visited by the review bombers.
So, what do the devs have to say about this? Among other things, they said that EAC is still coming no matter what.
“Let’s follow that up with the hard part: we are going to be releasing this update, and we do not have plans or intent to revert or roll it back,” the creators said plainly in an update on the game’s site.
However, it’s not implementing this system with a blind eye to what’s going on. the devs said they’re looking into “addressing several accessibility concerns in VRChat” and are speaking with “VRChat communities and community leaders about the changes and additions that they want most.” More news on that is said to be shared later, but for now, EAC is on the way regardless of any negative reviews.
[H/T PC Gamer]
