Aww, no alien empires yet

[stevebowers]

The entities simulating us might be future versions of ourselves, or our descendants; they could be very, very different from us, but they would not be xenosophonts.

The 'simulation scenario' is one of many, many possible solutions to the Fermi Paradox; if we exist in a simulation, then the VR designers might simply have decided not to include aliens in this particular version.