Shapeshifters and Doppelgangers

Doppelgangers. Screenshot by Cheese.

It seems that a new type of challengers has approached VRChat. As you may know, today our newest foe and a possible threat to VRChat in general is the group of anonymous “shapeshifters,” some of which are impersonating others by using other people’s avatars and similar names.

“Well, I got robbed yesterday,” stated Nova, one of the victims of avatar theft/robbery. “I kinda didn't expect it and didn't remember his nickname. Just ran into a guy with the same avatar. The avatar is unique.” As Nova mentioned, the avatar had custom-made clothes, so it’s really hard to call such thing a coincidence.

Dozens of other users reported witnessing a few of those people as well. “Well, the guy just ran around us and became us, and then he just jumped into space,” said Toshio. “He was basically just there to be funny. He was called a copycat and had the avatar of a ditto. He switched to his ditto, then flew away.”

And even though there’s more evidence showing that something’s going on everyday, VRChat development team refuses to share their comments and details with the public media. So far, the best we could use from the VRChat staff and volunteers would be a response we received from our Discord chat moderators. “If you remove your avatar from your uploaded content and reupload it, they'll lose it,” Ruuubick explained, “and if you report them to us, they'll lose everything.” After his advice, we received another suggestion from Ishrine, “Also, create yourself a basic plane as an avatar with a sign that says ‘I steal avatars,’” she said. “Make that your replacement for that ID.”

However, some users say those are just copycats and there’s nothing to be afraid of. “They copy your appearance,” Dreamlicker said on Discord. “I don’t think they actually take your model.”

And yet, we’re still waiting for some sort of explanation from the VRChat staff who, as always, keep their work in secret. For now, make sure you contact our moderators with any major issues in VRChat.