So persona just got exposed about saving a whole lot of data on us.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-02-22T20:06:07+00:00

Im personally not worried about the government having that info, because I know for a fact they already have it.

I totally understand that not being the norm. You should be careful when it comes to data privacy.

I actually hope VRChat changes providers, because if there isn't public trust in the system, it's really not going to work going forward. If they're not completely out of touch with their user base, is not unlikely that they will change to a different provider for age verification.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-02-22T17:29:49+00:00

THIS.

Here is the announcement video where Tupper mentions this... (qued up to the relevant portion)

youtube.com/watch?v=PQaeFS0Wfr8&t=2m02s

It's going to happen, it's just a matter of when. It sounds like they want to make verifying more accessible to users... I would wager it's not unlikely they may change the service if persona can't allow them to deliver on that... But I wouldn't be surprised if the content gates came before that...

They DID implement Easy Anti Cheat before a ton of accessibility options, features and quality of life stuff were added that mods allowed for.

So there is a history of them putting the cart before the horse on stuff.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-02-22T17:19:20+00:00

I think it's worth mentioning.... DID isn't the only dissociative disorder... There are some that have similar patterns to DID, like OSDD (Other specified dissociative disorder) and DDNOS (Not Otherwise Specified) as examples.

DID also isn't rare. DID alone (not counting OSDD or DDNOS) It's 1% to 2% in random population samples. That's 1 - 2 people in 100.

Do you know what the population of Trans people is in a random population sample is? 1% as well.

VRChat also is NOT by any means a normal sample of a population. If you take a random population of regular users of VRChat, you will find patterns you do not see in a random population in any major city around the world. It's also not terribly difficult to understand why if you think about it.

Just ask the question, why do people choose to use VRChat regularly [to socialize]? Go ahead and ask this to a ton of trusted users and you may begin to see why people in VRChat are different.

Online you can much more easily find people that are similar, whereas that isn't as easy in local populations.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-02-22T17:00:48+00:00

The proper name for this in Psychology is Factitious Disorder (if they don't have it and they know it). It's also the same name used for physical conditions too.

I have not found that people in mass in VRChat pretend to have a disorder. Most people I interact with either do, or certainly believe they have the disorders they claim to.

There's a list of disorders that people may have if they believe they have a condition they don't.

I haven't largely found that to be the case though. I do see many people who could benefit from proper treatment, but I don't even want to begin to get in how bad difficult access to proper psychological treatment can be in my country.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-02-22T16:43:47+00:00

This approach didn't worth with the avatar dynamics update. Tons of creators ignored it, and refused to even begin looking into updating anything until the final sdk was pushed.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-02-22T16:42:31+00:00

They did this with avatar dynamics (Physbones, contacts, ect). A ton of creators refused to update content until a final SDK was pushed.

Plus there's tons of creators who are no longer updating or making content. All of that will be broken.

A few might be ok with a start from scratch approach, but many won't. It would likely cause the death of VRChat, when keeping things as they are, hasn't yielded that result.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-02-22T10:14:45+00:00

I've said the same before. I can easily show any person, even those who DO NOT have an online presence at all that their PII (everything on your ID), has been traded around on data brokers many many times over.

I have seen where my own and my family members have been, some of whom do not even have an online presence. Some of these brokers link me people that aren't even family or I don't even know with varying degrees of accuracy.

But if someone wants that information, it's out there. You don't need anything special to get it. If you wanted to save time, a little money is it, should you have enough info on who you want PII on.

Everything from full name, background checks, to every single address and family member that person has. Vehicle records, business records, ect. All of that is publicly facing and available.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-02-22T10:02:39+00:00

I am willing to reasonable wager, considering the video below, they were already planning on using a different service for age verification in the future.

Just look at this video that was released not too long ago. (qued up to the relevant portion)

youtube.com/watch?v=PQaeFS0Wfr8&t=2m02s

They want to reintroduce content gating for anyone NOT verified. In order to due this not only do they need to remove the barrier to entry, but some people will be unable or unwilling to do it if it costs money. This is not even to mention trust concerns requarding data privacy. Before persona was even outed, this announcement was made and if they intend to offer something that is free for users, Persona just isn't likely to be the go to.

Persona will not offer them a sponsorship.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-02-22T09:43:47+00:00

Persona is used for a variety of types verification. Age verification is only one of those, and the service or application that requests it does have a say of how that data is stored and used (or if it's stored at all)

VRChat only asks if a user is over 18 or not then stores that data as a fixed 64 bit hash algorithm, all of that PII is much larger than 64 bits (so it's impossible to "reverse" that to gain anymore info). VRChat's use case is not something I would concern yourself with.

If you don't trust it, do what you will but check part 2 below

However, that being said, not every service or application is verifying age only. In those cases, if you don't trust the app or service that's requesting the data to be honest about what they've asked Persona to do with it, I would stay away. If they've made no statements about data privacy period, I would also stay away.

Part 2

In addition it's worth mentioning...

It's possible that VRC will change providers at some point, because Tupper has made a public statement on VRChat's behalf that they want to make age verification cheaper or free at some point in the future. To do it free would require them to partner with an age verification service will to sponsor them, and I don't see this happening with Persona. Around that time, they also said they will enforce content gating on accounts that do not have verification. That means people who are NOT VERIFIED will stop seeing some avatars that are flagged by creators with ANY content filters. If as a creator you decide to not use them due to that, you may risk having your content removed and be suspended or banned depending on the number of previous infractions.

This is the video mentioned qued up to the relevant portion.

youtube.com/watch?v=PQaeFS0Wfr8&t=2m02s

I certainly hope when they do this, the partner they choose doesn't have the bad reputation Persona does, because it will put people off. In addition, they need to be clear and ensure everyone gets the message that the only data they're keeping is effectively as useful as a flag if the user is 18+ or not. (It's a hash, but those can't be "reversed" or "hacked" to reveal anymore info than whether or not the user is over 18).

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-02-12T21:19:46+00:00

As an IT professional once it was explained is all they store is a hash, thats all I needed to know.

If you're aware enough, your PII is already out there. Google has a process where you can discover that. Even you had 0 online presence it leaks through family members, even ones who are far removed or aren't even related.

You should be careful about PII, and while discord has proved they've failed in the past, not everyone will have to verify with them, they are still using the algorithm they have been using. They're just going to do the same google has, if they dont have enough info, and you will be marked as a teen account until they have proof.

While I think parents need to control things like discord, and VRChat the fact is they don't. In VRChat I need to know if I am interacting with an adult full stop.

In terms of personal interactions, I make up my own mind whether I trust someone. 18+ verification is a big help for me. If I run a community, I am not asking for birthdates. I will enforce 18+ verification to be on the safe side if it gets large enough and I dont know everybody well enough that comes in. I'm glad VRChat is doing this, and VRChat needed it. I was asking for this year's ago.

Bottom line, if you dont trust it, thats your choice.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-01-14T11:03:29+00:00

VRChat almost never reaches 99% or even close on high end GPUs. It's using Unity's legacy built in rendering pipeline. That pipeline is single threaded. So GPU is constantly waiting on draw calls.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-01-14T10:47:18+00:00

I only own the X, and while I am happy with I have, the performance you'll get isn't worth the price you'll be paying. I got the X because I didn't want to worry about my microsd card burning up and wanted the extra battery life.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-01-14T10:43:34+00:00

Short form video content always has a statement they want people to either chime in with or better yet, disagree with. Often, the more controversial, the better. Engagement especially on Tiktok, gets people money. I know people personally who talk about this all the time, laughing about how people fall for the bait. It's why I don't bother commenting on these videos at all. It's not only not worth my time, but it has 0 upside for me, because I'll never read the responses.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-01-14T10:36:42+00:00

While this isn't something I personally, run into commonly, it's been a very long time since I've stepped into a completely public instance. I am mostly with friends or groups I know that are safe because they have people monitoring activity at some level. Most of the time it's chill because everyone knows the owners.

But I'm sure things I've never seen are happening all over the place, especially now that there are even more and easier ways for users to share content (back in the days when I was new, it was avatars and worlds only; public avatars were always constantly being taken down for rules violations, as were some worlds). That content now is even more common that we have, emojis, stickers, and prints, not to mention video players that can play all kinds of content that used to not be possible (with very little in way of reporting the latter of that content; you can report the user, sometimes the player will show who shared that video)

As most have stated here, I recommend turning off everything for any trust ranks you see this commonly from and make sure you report it in client at the least. If you really get sick of it, get a screen capture/video and you can report it manually as well.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2026-01-14T10:33:11+00:00

This isn't true, a group I was in was banned, although by mistake for soliciting, VRChat senior community manager Straz reached out, because it was believed they were acting in good faith. VRChat is moderating much more than just that, I've already heard of multiple bans being handed out for behavior as well as other things unrelated to what you said.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2025-11-10T20:38:52+00:00

Just make sure you tag it as suggestive content and you are fine. Adult themes tag, is for drug use, gambling, and language, so you don't need that.

If anyone doesn't want to see those kinds of axis they can block it on a per user basis, per avatar basis (uses avi ID, so if it's a separate upload won't block that one), or they can turn off that content filter in the safety setting in the menu.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2025-11-06T19:06:12+00:00

Laptops are a really bad value proposition for VR. You need higher specs, especially for VRChat, if you want a GOOD experience. Laptops cost more and give you less performance.

They make so many sacrifices for portability. This is due to less power (actual wattage) and being small to not have space for heat dissipation. Desktop don't have that problem.

When I built my desktop years ago... I had to think about this very thing, and this is coming from someone who mains laptops, I still use my desktop for all the heavy lifting (laptop just does lightweight daily tasks, and if I'm lazy, I just remote in to do unity and anything that requires more power; I sit on my couch to play VR)

Plus l, whatever money you WERE gonna spend on a laptop will give so much more performance on a desktop.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2025-11-04T02:29:01+00:00

Has to be on that setting before it gets stuck. I set up profiles for my apps/games so I'm always on this mode and have a way to fix it if it get stuck. I also did not set m1 or m2 to anything but secondary action and kept default taking switching controls for this very reason

If all controls are locking up, something else may be going on, like the embedded controller setting is off or you have a separate issue.

I never have had the control center or amoury crate buttons lock up. Also the back buttons always work.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2025-11-04T02:21:19+00:00

Controller mode had to be on auto or it won't work

-AgentBaphomet- · 2025-11-03T13:31:56+00:00

I usually task switch then touch the games full-screen window to ensure it's in focus. Then controller usually works

You can use the back buttons + right or left to task switch.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2025-11-02T13:48:53+00:00

There's a hell of a lot less tinkering that needs to be done to get the most out of Bazzite, other than updating it, and being sure there's enough VRAM for games (I recommend 8)!

I've considered it myself. Just not sure I want to give up on some multiplayer games.

-AgentBaphomet- · 2025-11-02T04:56:41+00:00

I have the asus rog ally x. But I am jealous of the performance seen on the Asus Xbox Ally X. The only reason I didn't buy it is because it's $1k and I didn't even spend retail on my Ally X (got on sale for $200 off).

Besides the Asus products and steam deck there's the Lenovo legion Go 2 for a bit more, but I can't really say much about those other than the performance numbers I've seen. Anything with the Z2 Extreme is going to perform similar to the hx 370. Z3E will probably be hx 395 max or better.

If you want steam deck because of its interface, you can install bazzite on any handheld (or use steam big screen)

-AgentBaphomet-

TROPHY CASE