Third party tools are a game design failing in a multi-platform game

[Larirawiel]

I'll drop the hot take at the start but third party tools are a failing in a multi-platform game and lack of any proper anti-cheat mechanisms on PC lets the entire player base down, especially PlayStation users.

And again, there is not something like a "proper anti-cheat mechanism". Anti-cheat-mechanisms are useless and dangerous. It is like anti-virus-software. Does it protect you? No. Does it open new security holes into your system? Propably yes.


Cheers

[UkcsAlias]

And again, there is not something like a "proper anti-cheat mechanism". Anti-cheat-mechanisms are useless and dangerous. It is like anti-virus-software. Does it protect you? No. Does it open new security holes into your system? Propably yes.

They are not useless, it deters players from using cheats because detection can have consequences. Without any detection, people would abuse any tool available and break the game massively as result.

The problem is that they are generaly not as effective as you want, and usualy this means that only the users that have an outdated version get banned as a result. But at the same time, it also prevents large platforms from being effective, because the dev themselve can actualy pay for such cheat, make detection for it, and then cause a large scale ban (and this is actualy common to happen).

The main issue starts with rootkit based cheat detection (because a lot of cheats also are rootkits). Rootkits are a security risk by default, a risk that for a cheater is not as bad as for a large company. But at the same time, other rootkits are detectable to exist using a rootkit. And while its hard, when you know how a certain cheat works, you can focus on detecting that cheat. Emulation through a rootkit is difficult, and no company has ever managed to perform this well enough for games, which is why even cheats have this as a weakness).

Thats why its important to take the effort! Even if its not a 100% ban guarantee, just the risk itself makes a lot of people not use it. Even more when reputation matters this can have a heavy impact. This is why your VAC status is shown on steam!

[Klytania]

[...] It is like anti-virus-software. Does it protect you? No. Does it open new security holes into your system? Propably yes.


Cheers

LOOOOOLWut