Comment by pxc
15 hours ago
> you should only use kernel anticheat on a dedicated machine that's kept 100% separate from any of your personal data.
Correct. Unfortunately, what you've just described is a gaming console rather than a PC. This problem fundamentally undermines the appeal of PC gaming in a significant way, imo.
> This problem fundamentally undermines the appeal of PC gaming in a significant way, imo.
Yes, game publishers are trying to turn PCs into a gaming console, which IMO will always be a futile effort, and is quite frankly annoying. I don't game on PC to have a locked down console-like experience.
Just embrace the PC for what it is and stop trying to turn it into a trusted execution platform with spyware and rootkits.
Look at BF6 - for all the secure boot and TPM required anti-cheat they stuffed it with, there were cheaters day 1, so why abuse your users when it's clearly ineffective anyway.
That's what gets me! If these rootkit anti-cheat systems actually stopped cheating then maybe, just maybe, I'd accept them as a necessary evil. But every game that has these things... still has cheaters! So as a user, you're consenting to ripping a security hole through your system, and in return you are still playing games with cheaters.
The game companies keep saying these things are necessary, yet they don't fully do the very thing they claim to do on the label.
I can't put a finger on it but that tastes like the copyright/DRM situation in reverse.
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How are the cheaters getting around it?
Some use dedicated custom hardware, or a second PC, like this:
https://www.dma-cheats.com/
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Honestly, if consoles were willing to accept KB+M (and gyro aiming for that matter), I’d be completely proposing that competitive live service titles mostly abandon PC, except for a small “probably infested with cheaters” base.
It’s happening! https://www.dualshockers.com/battlefield-6-will-support-keyb...
XBox consoles do in fact support KB+M, though not all games support it.
a) are they now supporting any KB+M peripheral?
b) should’ve specified this is the bigger problem. glad to see from the other comment bf6 is coming on-board, but VALORANT doesn’t and that’s probably the quintessential title for this.
Stream console output to pc, use AI to detect enemies, manipulate mouse and keyboard input to aimbot, even consoles aren’t safe
Somehow Xonotic manages to be both completely free/open software and not have cheating problems like this. It's never been clear to me how they've done that although client-side stuff like these kernel anti-cheat things were obviously never going to work.
Combination of niche/low user base, community servers encouraging user-based enforcement of norms, and the lack of a unified ranking system. People don't cheat if it doesn't psychologically reward them. (at least en masse)