Now if only they could more clearly communicate when games are playable offline.

    • saltesc@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      They do this with Early Access and people still lose their shit about empty content and unfinished graphics in a game they paid $10 for.

    • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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      24 days ago

      If only they let you filter out games from being seen on your store page or showing up in recommendations using this as a criteria.

    • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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      24 days ago

      Gamers don’t care

      If Valve was against this then they would block them from their store. This is avoiding legal consequences

      • DreamButt@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        “”“gamers”“” aren’t a monolith

        Some people clearly care bc they are currently discussing it

        • FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org
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          24 days ago

          Well to be fair, we’re like 1% of all gamers. Most gamers don’t give a flying fuck and will gladly buy these products anyway. So the companies don’t really have much incentive to give a shit.

          • pressanykeynow@lemmy.world
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            24 days ago

            That’s why it’s a big disturbing banner where most gamers don’t understand the text but know that big disturbing banner is bad. Will it affect the sales? Not at all. But it will raise the problem(mostly Linux anticheat) to the higher standing people in the gaming companies than before because now they require those top level managers to make a decision is it big disturbing banner or Linux anticheat.

            • FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org
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              24 days ago

              I highly doubt this will do anything at all to sales. But I’m just guessing. Maybe it will. Hopefully! But I still applaud the change by Valve. I think it’s great.

              • pressanykeynow@lemmy.world
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                24 days ago

                I don’t think the point is to do anything on sales. Valve profit from sales. It’s to raise the problem so now the managers have to decide on a scale how much they abuse the players. Before it wasn’t even a problem, now it’s Valve: “maybe you shouldn’t wink wink”

        • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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          24 days ago

          “””gamers””” aren’t a monolith

          That’s why some people discussing it aren’t going to do anything to dissuade the practice

          • kopasz7@lemmy.world
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            24 days ago

            Games have been buried in negative reviews for less. We can’t tell in advance.

            But implying you know, and can speak for all people who play games is just bafflingly ignorant and conceited.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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    24 days ago

    However, it’s only being forced for kernel-level anti-cheat. If it’s only client-side or server-side, it’s optional, but Valve say “we generally think that any game that makes use of anti-cheat technology would benefit from letting players know”.

    I will always love Valve for their ability to use corpospeak against corpos.

    Your game has anti-cheat?

    Wonderful!

    I’m sure that always only results in an improved experience for all gamers, lets let them all know!

    =D

    • Joeffect@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      How does vac play into all of this then …

      Edit: I was talking about them labeling vac games as being anti cheat… And wondering if they were going to pull some double standard… I didn’t know they label them already and still don’t know if they do…

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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        24 days ago

        VAC is not kernel level, because surprise you don’t actually need kernel level to do anti cheat well.

        VAC games would just get the standard AC message banner, not the scary yellow kernel level warning banner.

        … I am pretty sure VAC games have indicated on their store page that they use VAC for well over a decade.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    23 days ago

    I wonder if you phrased it the way the Play store does: This game wants permission to:

    • send SMS messages
    • make calls
    • know your location
    • stalk your family
    • raid your fridge
    • access, read and upload files
    • manage and add contacts
    • cup your balls
    • go through your trash
    • irritate your boss

    etc.

    Think anyone would install them?

  • sonymegadrive@feddit.uk
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    24 days ago

    Easy Anti Cheat - requires manual removal

    Wait, so this sketchy, privacy-invading stuff remains even after a game is uninstalled?! I had no idea.

    How is this stuff not classed as malware at this point?

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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      23 days ago

      Oh it was initially classed as insanely intrusive malware when kernel level AC was introduced about a decade ago, by anyone with a modicum of actual technical knowledge about computers.

      Unfortunately, a whole lot of corpo shills ran propaganda explaining how actually its fine, don’t worry, its actually the best way to stop cheaters!

      Then the vast, vast majority of idiot gamers believed that, or threw their hands up and went oh well its the new norm, trying to fight it is futile and actually if you are against this that means you are some kind of paranoid privacy freak who hates other people having fun.

    • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      Do you remember when Sony released cds that when inserted into Windows computer auto ran an installer that installed a rootkit that made it impossible for Windows to see any processes or files that started with a certain sequence of characters instantly turning any malware that named its files or processes similarly powerful rootkit. Oh and it installed a cd driver that made it impossible to copy their music.

      Suggested removal was a full reinstall of windows.

    • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
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      23 days ago

      I’ve been shouting from the rooftops for years that this stuff is malware. I’m not the only one. No one listens.

    • yamanii@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      Plenty of games use it, if it uninstalled with each one then others would stop working.

  • TommySoda@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    I feel like they’re doing this because they are going so hard with steam deck. Regardless, good on Valve for doing this.

    • yeehaw@lemmy.ca
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      21 days ago

      The steam deck is also amazing, such a nice piece of hardware. I’ve been gaming on Linux for years and I’m surprised how well it works. Feels like a console.

    • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
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      24 days ago

      Adding kernel malware after the fact should entitle every single owner who requests one to a full refund no matter how long has passed.

      • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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        24 days ago

        I’d really like Valve to take an official policy on post-release changes that break games, but for what it’s worth they have not given me any hassle with refunds in these scenarios.

      • TipRing@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        Full agree. I do want some kind of policy for games that introduce anti-cheat both during early access and after release. Bricking a game you paid for should offer some sort of recourse.

  • vordalack@lemm.ee
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    24 days ago

    Any program having kernel level access is spyware. This is getting ridiculous.

  • ThermonuclearCactus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    23 days ago

    I bought Sea of Thieves about 5 years ago. Recently, they added kernal-level anticheat (which does precisely fuck-all to actually stop cheating). While that is annoying, I’m not particularly worried because the studio that makes that game is owned by Microsoft, and like all Microsoft products, it was banished to my windows partition with the rest of the spyware.

    • MoonHawk@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      Well… kernel level software can access everything on your computer. That includes other partitions and unmounted drives

      • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        Only if those other partitions are not encrypted. Sure, it could still wipe them - but that’s something that backups are good for, and something you would certainly notice immediately :)

  • Chozo@fedia.io
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    24 days ago

    Probably a pessimistic take, but I don’t expect this to have any discernable impact on sales, or any other effects that would discourage publishers from these practices. The average user doesn’t care about or understand how these things work; they’ll see an anti-cheat warning on the store page and think “Okay, tell the colonel I’ll be on my best behavior then” and continue to buy the game.

    • snooggums@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      It will benefit those that care and won’t negatively impact the experience for those that don’t.

      Win, win.