this raise the question of how much you want to give in order to play.

i myself am fine encountering the occasional cheater. it sucks but it's only a game. and to be honest, sometimes its lots of fun when all honest players gang up on the cheater on AoE2 :)

now, i won't put up with a closed code having to run as root. i gave up online gaming because of steam, which i consider a rootkit.

and the scary thing is that I'm so in the minority that university of California now does not even give you the option for paper tests in some classes. you have to install a rootkit that turns your webcam on and report back a list of all open and installed applications to their servers, while you take a online test. and of course, no Linux support and it tries (badly, thankfully) to not run inside a vm.

as a security expert i can run it in a vm with a fake webcam feed just fine. but everyone else will have to be subjected to this if they want a diploma subsidised by tax dollars. would you put up with it? the alternative is to book time on the few computers in the lab they allow this thing to be installed (remember, it denies vms, which is what the lab admins use to have always clean systems).

oh, and everyone cheats by leaving open books behind the monitor. this whole thing only serves the software vendor. just like the Korean cheating will only serve who actually uses cheats for monetary gain. as i doubt it wasn't criminal before if money was involved.