VRChat

VRChatPublisherVRChat Inc.VRChat Inc. operates VRChat, one of the largest social-VR platforms, built on user-generated avatars and worlds. Its 2022 addition of Easy Anti-Cheat, meant to stop crashers and account theft, broke the modding ecosystem and the accessibility mods disabled players relied on, a defining anti-cheat-versus-community episode.1 game in this family → is one of the largest social-VR platforms, where players meet as user-created avatars in user-created worlds, built on UnityEngineUnityUnity Technologies' engine powers a wide range of PC titles, from indie projects to large multiplayer games. In the competitive-shooter space, Escape from Tarkov is the notable Unity-based title.8 games in this family → and usable in a VR headset or in flatscreen desktop mode. VRChat Inc. released it into Steam Early Access in 2017, and it has grown to around 120,000 concurrent users on a typical weekend. Its content and much of its culture come from its creators, who build and share avatars and worlds.

Installing VRChat on PC means a kernel-mode anti-cheat that loads when the app runs. External tools that do not modify the client, such as overlay and play-space utilities, were stated to keep working; what stopped working were the modified clients and the mods built on them. If you relied on a mod for an accessibility need, the honest state of things is that VRChat's answer has been to build those capabilities natively over time rather than to allow the mods back. The anti-cheat runtime is EasyAntiCheat_EOS.exe.

In July 2022, VRChat added Easy Anti-Cheat in an update it called the Security Update. On Windows it uses the Epic Online Services variant of EACAnti-cheatEasy Anti-Cheat (EAC)Easy Anti-Cheat is one of the most widely deployed kernel anti-cheats in PC gaming. Founded by Finnish company Kamu in 2006, acquired by Epic Games in 2018, and bundled with Epic Online Services. The kernel driver loads while a protected game is running. User-mode daemons EasyAntiCheat.exe and EasyAntiCheat_EOS.exe are catalogued in the Field Guide's processes section.18 games in this family →, whose easyanticheat_eos.exeProcesseasyanticheat_eos.exeEasy Anti-Cheat for Epic Online Services (EOS variant)Open plate → daemon is catalogued in this guide's processes section, and it installs a kernel-mode driver that loads with the game. What makes VRChat unusual is the threat it was aimed at: not aimbots, but malicious modified clients used to crash other users, to harass, to steal accounts through keylogging, and to rip other creators' avatars and assets. The trust ask is the standard kernel-anti-cheat one, scoped to when the app is running; the controversy was about what else the change swept up.

The 2022 rollout is a landmark case of anti-cheat colliding with a community. Because EAC blocked the modified clients, it also disabled the large ecosystem of community mods, and the Steam rating fell to Overwhelmingly Negative with tens of thousands of negative reviews. The part that deserves the most care is accessibility: VRChat shipped few native accessibility features, so deaf and hard-of-hearing players had relied on community closed-captioning mods, and players with motor disabilities on mods that let them open menus while lying down. EAC removed those. The most-upvoted accessibility request objected that the change disproportionately affected deaf and hard-of-hearing users, and a VRChat spokesperson told Kotaku the accessibility mods had been caught in the crossfire and that the studio wanted to rectify it. VRChat kept EAC rather than rolling it back, and committed to building native versions of the features mods had provided. Sources include PC Gamer, Kotaku, and Road to VR.