VRChat team speaks up on player harassment in open letter

The developer of VRChat is aware of and trying to tackle a “percentage of users that choose to engage in disrespectful or harmful behavior,” according to an open letter published on Medium.

VRChat Inc.’s open letter goes over a few of the core problems facing the game’s community right now, ranging from players’ inappropriate behavior to server problems. The developer noted that “one of the biggest challenges with rapid growth is trying to maintain and shape a community that is fun and safe for everyone.

“it is our top priority to address the quality of the VRChat experience, especially for new users, and our team will continue to work toward improving that,” the team wrote.

Recent weeks have seen rising concerns over how players are using 3D models, like those that star in the popular, problematic ”Ugandan Knuckles” memes, and harassment as the game has gained notoriety. On Twitter, a game designer from Oculus posted a two-minute clip of her own experience with harassment in VRChat, beginning the minute she logged on.

Other VRChat users have spoken about just how frustrating and uncomfortable poor player behavior is in-game affects their own experience. This isn’t a new issue for the platform, as VRChat Inc. has addressed how players should handle trolls in the past, but it is a growing concern as more players join.

VRChat Inc. is working on a better moderation system, according to the open letter.

“We’re working on new systems to allow the community to better self moderate and for our moderation team to be more effective,” it said.

Polygon has reached out for additional comment on what the new, aforementioned tools look like and when they will be implemented. For now, however, the team reiterates that the best plan of action for players is to use the mute and blocking features included in the game. Players are encouraged to use the “Mute all Toggle” feature, which “will mute everyone except those you are friends with.”

While harassment and inappropriate content in-game are its biggest concern, the team also addressed the game’s server issues. The VRChat team attributes server problems to a massive increase in user growth.

“Our server team has been very hard at work attempting to fix all the issues and improve the quality of connections for everyone going forward,” the letter reads.

VRChat Inc. said that “most of our growth began at the start of the holiday season,” which means that VRChat has received huge increase of players in a very short time.