The Quest works in both standalone and PC connected modes. A gaming PC will give you a different game library and way more rendering power, but PCVR is nearly a

The Quest works in both standalone and PC connected modes. A gaming PC will give you a different game library and way more rendering power, but PCVR is nearly an abandoned platform these days. Most VR money goes into standalone and PlayStation VR. You will need internet to download games, but it can operate in offline mode as well if the game supports it. You do need an account, but it can be a Meta account not connected to your Facebook if your choose. They are not hackable in any way and there are no custom firmwares. In fact, the software side of these devices is incredibly complex (tracking, lens correction, very low latency rendering and control pipelines) and replicating the work that FB has done would be an effort for a large team of VR engineers. If you dig into some of the details of how they work you will realize they are a technological marvel to rival the iPhone.