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Comment by thewebguyd | Hacker News Reader

> 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.

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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.

Not even in reverse, this is literally DRM.

Can't help but ask myself sometimes... why would users want to pay in the first place, for the content of someone who invests more money and leverage that some people see in their entire lives, in delivering user-hostile technical countermeasures that most of the time are ultimately futile?

What is the so valuable thing that one is supposed to get out of the work of someone who treats their audience this way, awesomely as their stuff might've been made? That's what doesn't make the most sense to me. But then I remember how most people aren't very intentional about most of their preferences and will accept whatever as long as it's served by an unaccountable industry into everyone's lives at the same time in a predictable manner, and I despair.

Yeah. Anticheat systems are the "think of the children" of DRM. It's the one scenario where you can sell users the hostile takeover of their own computer as actually beneficial for them - because cheaters in multiplayer are a genuine annoyance - while ignoring anything else.

Of course the argument falls flat on multiple levels: It ignores other ways to prevent cheaters, like server-side detection or maybe developing a gameplay that is not based on channeling masses of anonymous strangers through the game world. It ignores that it doesn't actually solve the problem of cheaters. And it ignores that many games use anticheat for reasons that don't have to do with multiplayer at all, e.g. to keep players from bypassing in-game purchases.

Funnily enough, there is also the exact opposite discurse in the US regarding firearms; where one side says: that firearms need to somehow be restricted and and it needs more checks to buy a gun. But then the Industry tells the story that in that case only the 'good guys' get restricted, since the 'bad guys' don't really follow the law anyways.

Where with Anti-cheat and DRM only the 'good guys' get hit, since the 'bad guys' don't follow "the law" anyways.

How are the cheaters getting around it?

Some use dedicated custom hardware, or a second PC, like this:

https://www.dma-cheats.com/

The amount of effort, time, and money people put into cheating is honestly insane.

A 14 year old who installs an autoclicker to mess with friends or randoms online I can get. But there are fully grown adults who dedicate their time and substantial amounts of money (whole second computer) just to win in online video games?

What's the motivation/justification for spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on cheating hardware and software? Are these just super-rich people who have more money than sense?

A bit of both. Some very clever people, often in Russia or Philippines or Venezuela etc where incomes and legal risks are low make the cheats, and sell them to idiots in the west.

> What's the motivation/justification...

No doubt there are various reasons, some more understandable than others. There are some fascinating historical cases, like the one explored in "The King of Kong" :

https://youtu.be/_4v15X8Px34

Which is well worth a watch, if you're curious.

I haven't paid much attention to any of it, as I don't really like multiplayer games anyway, but I always just assumed many people figure out how to cheat simply as a meta-game. I mean, how can you ask what the motivation to cheat is without asking what the motivation to even play the game in the first place is? Barring professional competition, both playing and cheating are largely meaningless activities outside the simple enjoyment.

do you not have any hobbies? cheat development is insanely fun

Of course I have hobbies, and they cost me money. I just make sure my hobbies aren't ruining the fun for everyone around me.

Developing a cheat does not ruin anyone's fun. The same goes for guns, knives, anything that could be used as a weapon. It's all about how you use a tool, and in this case creating the tool is fun. Unless you think that everyone who fires a gun for fun, or creates a knife or even just a baseball bat, is a murderer?

So people develop cheats only to not use them in public games, and not distribute them to others?

No idea what other people do, you'd have to ask them.

Seems like they all develop cheats to cheat

You don't neeed DMA hardware btw. Just find a signed driver that's vulnerable to run whatever you want... Also, not hard at all. I guarantee you have a driver you could re-purpose on your windows machine right now.

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