Plot twist: Theres still hackers in multiplayer even with all that crap plus rootkit they bundle with.
Way I see it, there’s two ways to address the “cheating” issue in multiplayer online games.
First, let’s establish that game cheats typically involve using another application to modify the game’s running code while it is loaded in memory.
Historically, anti-cheat has largely taken a “reactive” approach. Try to detect the hook / modification taking place, ban the player if it is detected. These systems and bans were often circumvented. There are entire games that I stopped playing because the experience was ruined for me - GTA Online and the late stages of Titanfall 2 are standouts in my mind.
With how the Windows device security landscape has changed In the 2020s (MacOS has had something similar for ages), there’s now the option of taking a “proactive” approach by preventing application memory from being tapped in the first place. These technologies, notably Secure Boot and TPM, help mitigate rootkits and malware that might steal sensitive information from application memory, as well as paving the way for other protection measures like disk encryption.
And that’s the main part they’re interested in - by ensuring the entire process up through the kernel cannot be tampered with, the anti-cheat is going to be highly effective at pre-empting anyone from attempting the cheat to begin with.
It really sucks that, in the curent landscape, that means there are a handful of games that I can’t play on my Linux devices. But it also makes sense - Proton runs with many layers beneath it, which would make it trivial to tamper with memory and engage in cheating.
I’m hopeful that we’ll someday see a solution that opens up the opportunity for the same degree of integrity protection in Linux so that anyone can enjoy any game on the operating system of their choosing.
Regardless of what others have to say about EA or the franchise (and boy do they have their issues), Battlefield has always been a beloved series for me. I’m having a blast in Battlefield 6 and I have yet to encounter any cheaters. Previous entries in the series would see me hopping to a new server whenever I encountered one or, on some occasions, ending my play session out of frustration. Anecdotally, the cheating felt much more prevalent before.
I have a lot less time to game than I used to, so that time is sacred to me. While I’d obviously prefer another way, maintaining a Windows system and enabling two BIOS settings (well, leaving them enabled - they’re on by default) has been worth it for me.
Its gonna be really funny in a few years when we learn that TPM2 / Windows’ Specific Implementation of SecureBoot has a backdoor for the NSA, just like how the Kinect did.
And uh, no, it doesn’t matter if this happens intentionally via collaboration, or not, through incompetence.
Welp, doesn’t run in proton. Next on the list…
I got tired of Windows pulling this shit with my 4th gen Xeon and 6th gen Core i7 (laptop) that, when they died, I replaced them both with Macs. Always wanted to be a Mac user. Now I am.
I know, “Apple isn’t much better,” but at least I can say I voted with my wallet. Just buying another PC, even if I could find one without a Windows license, and installing Linux, would not have been enough of a shift. Plus I feel I would have just came back to Windows anyway.
What game is this? so I know what company to never buy from again.
Call Of Duty Black Ops 7, however im hearing Battlefield 6 is also in the same boat.
Want some nostalgia? Plutonium for Black Ops 2 is still relatively alive with a crap ton of modded servers. Game is still fun to play.
Battlefield 6 by EA, which is now privately owned by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
You mean if I play EA games I will be supporting a murderous regime that engaged in the largest terrorist attack on US soil resulting in the massive loss of our rights?
Oh darn, I guess I won’t be missing much.
I know all about EA’s sellout.
One that obviously isn’t worth playing.
i wonder, is there a good way to simulate that?
Lmfao at this one dude literally losing his shit and defending this repeatedly in the comments like a fucking Microsoft white knight
He once got killed by a hacker and lost all his marbles.
Nice of Steam to warn you though.
They check the other requirements too, presumably
True
That’s what’s pissing me off. People still cheat. It’s not that they have these invasive and stupid ways of anti cheats, but at least they work.
Just play an indie game, these games will only enshittify more and more.
Exactly, and you’ll save tons of money too. ETS2 goes on sale for $5, stardew valley for $7.50, vintage story doesn’t go on sale but it’s only $22. All games that are way more fun, way less buggy, and have way more replay value than every piece of triple a junk i’ve played
“enshittification” and it’s toggling two things in the BIOS, with one of them being literally required already by Windows 11, and the other being important for security to the point it should be toggled on anyways.
the tpm does not add any security whatsoever for windows 11, and secure boot is being used to lock your control out of your own system. secure boot enabled with machine owner keys wouldn’t be enough either for these games
secure boot enabled with machine owner keys wouldn’t be enough either for these games
They should be able to check which signing keys were used for every part of the boot process. Unless they want to be colossal assholes and check the MOK as well, they could still verify what they need without flagging Linux Secure Boot dual-booters as cheaters.
secure boot is being used to lock your control out of your own system
Care to elaborate?
these games only accept the secure boot setup where the root key is that of microsoft’s. that means that you either need windows with a pre-approved configuration in some regards (notable difference: any foss kernel drivers are nono because they won’t ever be signed) or a linux system for which microsoft gives a secureboot shim with whatever further restrictions.
the consequences are more obvious if you look at android as an example. It’s not called secure boot there, but android verified boot, and the turning off of it is called “bootloader unlocking”. very few phones support installing your own signing keys so you can’t take advantage of it with a bloatless android distribution. but even on phones that do, there are many apps that require a locked bootloader with the factory keys, including banking apps, nfc payment apps, government apps (including those that are required to access the online government account), entertainment apps with strict DRM, …
these games only accept the secure boot setup where the root key is that of microsoft’s.
I have a PC where I could actually test this. Custom MOK but with all the MS signatures in the database. I can boot into Windows through the BIOS using only the MS-signed bootloader instead of GRUB or any chain loader, and Windows itself considers Secure Boot to be enabled successfully.
Do you know if it would immediately reject the game from launching, or would I be flagged and banned later as some kind of ban wave?
The latter is something I would prefer to avoid.
Literally NOT “required” by Windows 11. You can install 11 without TPM2 support just fine.
Indeed you can!
If you enable the core isolation and memory integrity features, which rely on the TPM, the system will slog down to less than potato speed.
Sure, but do you think the average user will actually take their time to find ways to do it unless they REALLY want to install it and their computer doesn’t support it?
No, because:
- the comment was about how it’s not “required”, not how easy it is (thanks to Microsoft hiding the toggles).
- Anyone who cares enough is just going to install Linux instead of a tweaked Windows piece of shit.
Yeah I dont need to play any game that requires me to allow spyware.
I hate the idea of software/hardware that can prove that the user does not have control over it so much
Welp, vote with your wallet. Money is the only thing these companies understand.
You say this as if we weren’t inside a big echo chamber of turbonerds right now. Everyone here already knows it. The actual way is to convince your less tech inclined friends and family.
the problem is that the overwhelming majority of gamers are short sighted little gremlins who need constant access to new shiny to feel validated.
Sure, they come on the internet to yell and scream about the horrid injustice of it all, but the second the vile evil company that they’ll never again support releases their next game… they are at gamestop preordering the 800 dollar super legendary edition.
There are people who actually do follow through, I am one of them… There are several companies on my shit list that I will never buy from again, and in over a decade have not bought from them. . . but people that actually follow through on it are too rare to make a difference.
A lot of gamers tend to also be teenagers/young adults who just want to play a game with their friends in their social group. I was a kid once too after all so its understandable. However its the “just want to play with my friends” crowd that enables the industries worst practices by being consumers who think of yearly video game release hype cycles as vehicles of social interaction instead of caring about games as an art form thats being slowly degraded by corporate cuckery over time.
You are fighting the LORD’s cause, son, the LORD’s.
I just won’t play such games. Simple as.
Those “features” are not about security. They’re about uniquely identifying the system without using, “personally identifiable information”.
Is everyone in this fucking thread Twitter-levels of paranoid to the point you could rival H.P. Lovecraft??? What are ya’ll even saying. Please get some tech literacy. You cannot identify a system through Secure Boot/TPM 2.0. Microsoft and every gaming company with anti-cheats can do that by simply checking all of your hardware’s signatures.
rofl you ask for tech literacy, yet have no idea how TPM uniquely identifies a computer… Irony is an understatement.
You’re the exact kind of overconfidant, beligerantly stupid user these corporations pine for. What do you think is included in those hardware signatures? How does Apple use a TPM chip to sign off on what other components are allowed to operate in the machine?
If you cannot answer those two basic questions, then it becomes very clear which one of us needs more tech literacy, because they’re not only used to uniquely identify your hardware.
This was funny to read, can’t deny ur right
The games that require secure boot/tpm already are installing kernel level “malware” so they can do much more with that than they can by knowing if you have tpm or not (which you do because you are playing, so 100% of their userbase will have it).
Ironic comment
