cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10958052
Vanguard, the controversial anti-cheat software initially attached to Valorant, is now also coming to League of Legends.
Summary:
The article discusses Riot Games’ requirement for players to install their Vanguard anti-cheat software, which runs at the kernel level, in order to play their games such as League of Legends and Valorant. The software aims to combat cheating by scanning for known vulnerabilities and blocking them, as well as monitoring for suspicious activity while the game is being played. However, the use of kernel-level software raises concerns about privacy and security, as it grants the company complete access to users’ devices.
The article highlights that Riot Games is owned by Tencent, a Chinese tech giant that has been involved in censorship and surveillance activities in China. This raises concerns that Vanguard could potentially be used for similar purposes, such as monitoring players’ activity and restricting free speech in-game.
Ultimately, the decision to install Vanguard rests with players, but the article urges caution and encourages players to consider the potential risks and implications before doing so.
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Just don’t buy it. It’s very simple.
Meh just another crappy rootkit game that doesn’t even fully prevent cheating at the cost of undermining system security. But for worse or worse, the entire playerbase doesn’t care about their data being bought and sold for immense profits they get 0% of.
Will their future MMO have this trash?
It’s likely, but I do really hope it’s not put into the MMO as I would love to play a Riot MMO. I won’t be installing it if it uses Vanguard.
Same. I miss the IP (especially Arcane) & the friends I made playing LoL—and I think I could have a good time living in the world, but not at the cost of compromising device permissions. Same reason I refuse to use my shitty banking app if they try to tell me what software I can & can’t run/install or how to operate the device I own.
Oh. Now I remember why I have never played League of Legends.
You’ve never played League of Legends because they just now introduced kernal level anti cheat? That doesn’t even make sense.
My biggest issue wouldn’t even be the kernel level access, but the fact that the stuff is written and tested by no one in particular. The possible bugs are the issue for me.
If that thing would be bullet-proof, hackers trying for years to break it without success, yeah. Ok. I could be convinced. If it is cracked after two days already… Then nope.
Kernel level? Hahaha. No thanks.
Riot Games Now Requires Kernel-Level Anti-Cheat Software
In other words, a Chinese rootkit. Wouldn’t want a Chinese backdoor in my kernel, but that’s just my personal opinion. If you want one, go ahead, install this garbage.
You already have NSA backdoors in your device.
Well, if you install this Riot Games rootkit, you now also have a Chinese backdoor.
What is your point exactly ?
I don’t support this existing, but does the nsa collect and sell all your data to third parties and make a shitload of money doing so? Because everyone else definitely does. I don’t know how difficult it is now, but some number of years ago you could request a copy of all the data some of the social media sites have on you and it’s fucking scary especially with how much is deduced, presumably from piecing together info from your entire social network.
More like Anti-Linux Software since the cheat works great.
since the cheat works great.
I’ve heard that cheaters are very rampent in Valorant, so not really effective anti cheat software.
You know, Valve once considered making an entire OS to prevent cheating. I’d assume something like SteamOS, but incredibly locked down and designed for playing Valve games. Obviously that never got past the idea stage, but disregarding the truckload of issues with that idea, one big one is that you could use either physical cheating tools, by messing with the direct hardware inputs, or run it in a VM. Basically, unless you have a player in a locked-off room, with a pc, keyboard, and mouse provided by you, and the pc running your own locked-down OS… well, someone’s gonna figure out a way to cheat.
That’s not to say that anticheat can be ignored entirely, but since there is no remotely reasonable state which could eradicate cheating entirely, you need to find a happy medium of not “infecting” the player’s pc with a new backdoor, because even if you’re not malicious, someone else will be, and nothing at all. Something that has a minimum level of invasiveness with a maximum level of cheating prevention, at least filtering out basic script kiddies.
The problem with that is, nobody cares. Basically nobody even knows what a “Kernel” is and what “Kernel-level” means and implies, so it’s just some weird anticheat for them. Also, as long as DRM doesn’t interfere with their playing experience, they don’t care either. Barely anyone will even notice if a few frames are missing, because Denuvo is chilling in the background, keeping the game “safe”.
We are a subset of privacy-minded people in a subset of somewhat knowledgeable gamers. Losing us as customers doesn’t matter in the slightest to the devs/publishers, and nobody else will make a fuss, or at least they’ll not stop spending money.
This has been known for years and it’s not different from the behavior of EAC, whether it’s good or bad.
Except that EAC doesn’t have to run from startup and can be started on demand. Vanguard has to run all the time.
But yeah, Vanguards shitty behavior is known since its inception.
This. An always-on rootkit is worlds different in terms of privacy and security than most conventional ones like EAC.
(Not like conventional ACs are good for these things either, of course. But it is many degrees less invasive.)Technically you can also start it on demand, you just need to reboot before and after 😅
While you are technically correct, this is a massive PITA to turn off manually every single boot and rebooting just to play a game isn’t very fun, ha. (It also breaks linux, where I play.)
