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Comment by pkulak | Hacker News Reader

Just reading through these comments, I had no idea the current state of PC gaming. Just so I have this right, you pay for a game, but you are running the entire thing locally, so your machine knows everything. Like, people behind walls, it can auto aim at people who aren't, etc. So, now you are also forced to install these spyware-like sidecars to the game that monitor you and try to figure out if you are doing any of this?

What a nightmare. I have huge cleanliness issues with my machines. I don't even like using anything that needs an installer to run, and tend to run things I don't totally understand and trust in VMs. I don't think I could do this.

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Games are very un-'clean'. They can stop working just a few years after release and they don't support any kind of developments in the platform (framerate limits, resolution limits, OS support). Understandable, there's no financial reason to support a game that won't sell anymore, except they're also hostile to passionate users who would do it themselves if things were opened up a bit.

> So, now you are also forced to install these spyware-like sidecars to the game that monitor you and try to figure out if you are doing any of this?

I'm pretty sure the anti-cheat is just a library/module/etc. that's installed with the game. I can't imagine that it's a completely separate program that you install (unless it happens to be the game launcher).

They're usually shipped with the game, but often will _remain after you uninstall the game_.

Some install permanent rootkits that are completely uninstallable (see: GameGuard‡, XIGNCODE⸸, AhnLab Hackshield†)

⸸ God awful basically malware. Sends a ton of data home to bare IPs overseas. No TLS. Incredibly invasive.

† This one was particularly interesting, malware could use the rootkit to hide their files based on specific names. It is horrendously shittily written. AhnLab itself is also interesting, as the founder tried to run for president of South Korea or something, and SK either still does or used to mandate some of their "anti keylogging rootkit" software as required by law. Sends a ton of data home to bare IPs overseas. No TLS. Incredibly invasive.

‡ This does not uninstall after you uninstall the game, it runs persistently, and would make windows non-genuine or toggle on unsafe mode for unsigned force-installed ring0 drivers. Sends a ton of data home to bare IPs overseas. No TLS. Best part: did not sign version updates or demand they be higher. Cheaters could run a webserver on localhost with empty 0-byte signature detection files, and it would "patch" itself down to uselessness at launch and detect nothing. Incredibly invasive.

Some anticheats are separate binaries/executables. Punkbuster and maybe Blizzard's Warden and its successor. They're usually packaged with the game, but run separately.

They often run when the game is inactive.

They're usually rootkits that are auto-installed by the game. They end up in Services and while they typically don't auto-start (i.e. the game starts the service and stops it at shutdown) they basically have full kernel-mode access to your PC for the stated purpose of "catching cheaters"

In the past these anti-cheat modules have caused compatibility issues or had security vulnerabilities, which is fun. DRM packages tended to be similar.

If I check my Services pane right now, I have Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye listed which are both anti-cheat services installed by steam/etc video games that run with System level permissions. IIRC PunkBuster also uses a system service.

Because these are system services, they stay installed even after you remove the game. There are ways to manually remove them of course but the moment you launch a game that uses them, they'll get reinstalled.

Exactly my thoughts as well.

This year I'm celebrating 20 years of being Game Free, after almost flunking out of college freshmen year due to an addictive spell of Ultima Online.

Sometimes I happen across videos of what games look like today, totally blows my mind, and I get the urge to indulge a little bit. Then I read stories like this and feel completely elated.

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