GameDevs Working Against Linux Users For Reasons

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If you recently abandoned, or maybe even never used Windows, you might be like me, in that, you don’t get to play the likes of Fortnite, or especially games like Valorant, and Call of Duty. Maybe for some, this is a net positive, or you just don’t care either way. For me, I feel like I have enough to fill my time that missing Call of Duty and Valorant isn’t all that much of a thought. But, these things aside, some of the studios behind these games deploy an especially egregious type of anti-cheat via the kernel.

If you ask me, using the kernel as a method of stopping cheaters should be illegal. I mean, just look at this thread over on Linus Tech Tips where users are talking about how safe it is to have this kind of thing invading your PC, and what you can do to protect your data. Some suggest going so far as to having nothing but your games on said PC.

That is … fuckin’ nuts.

No gamedev studio should have that much control, whether it actually stops cheaters, or not (and whether it’s really all that effective is legitimately up-in-the-air).

But … it happens anyway. Do we blame the cheaters? Partially. But, we also have to blame the studio and the developers, or, maybe even the publishers, too. And maybe even a little bit of the blame should go to streaming platforms, and sweaty streamers, who have solidified this idea that you can get rich streaming Fortnite and Call of Duty. An idea that has inadvertently skyrocketed the seriousness of online competitive gaming.

Do you remember back in 1999 when the worst that happened to cheaters in Quake 2 was that they’d just get a permaban from a server? Pepperidge Farm remembers. And do you know how those cheaters were detected?

… the admins of a server would just actually watch footage and make the decision themselves.

A wild got-dang concept.

All of these things combined, though, have created an atmosphere where cheating must be stopped, has to be stopped, at all costs, even if it disadvantages you, the player, who’s just trying to chill, and have a good time. Because there’s no elementary school lesson more ingrained in our society, than punishing everyone for the actions of a few.

You can see an example of this, where a studio didn’t even deploy kernel level measures. They just dropped support for Steam’s Proton, and booted all Linux users from their player-base in a move to “stop cheaters”. Yep, I’m talking about Apex Legends. Because, it’s not like anyone on Windows is using software hacks and cheats, it’s those pesky Linux users. It’s gotta be, what, with their custom window managers and desktop environments! Argh!

I just love when a studio decides to punish millions of potential customers and players, because someone who’s bad at games uses the same operating system as the rest of them.

I guess we’ll just ignore the fact that Windows is a hot-bed of spyware, bloat, and also cheats and scammers!

Anyway, this pretty much brings me to why I’m even writing this today.

I didn’t even know, until now, that FromSoftware was releasing another title, but now I do.

Elden Ring NightReign comes out on May 30th, as some kind of … standalone Elden Ring co-op title. I don’t really understand the need for this, because, why not just have it be an expansion to the actual Elden Ring? But, apparently, they redesigned the mechanics … or something.

That’s not what I really want to write about.

The issue, is that ERNR will, allegedly, be deploying … kernel level anti-cheat.

You’re probably thinking, “Why the FUCK do they need something like that, in a co-op game?”

Your guess is as good as mine, dude.

I mean, cheaters are a little rampant in Souls-like FromSoftware games. Corrupting files, becoming invincible, and so on, and so forth. And FromSoft has sort of a track record of questionable bans, where anyone who even so much as accidentally joins a session with a cheater, could end up being banned, themselves.

So … we’re just going to have to deal with this new title, and maybe even possibly future FromSoftware titles utilizing a method of anti-cheat that, again, should be illegal … because, we just can’t figure out how to make our games hacker proof, without tampering with every single user’s system, violating their privacy, making their data vulnerable, and also effectively barring Linux and Steam Deck users from playing our game.

Okay.

Seems logical.

Seems like I just won’t buy anymore FromSoftware games, huh. Just like I’ll never load up Apex Legends again, and Call of Duty is a distant memory that I’ll only touch if its on a console.

Maybe ten years down the line when we have a government interested in regulations, we can see something being done about this. Or, maybe Microsoft, as much as I hate them, will solve the problem themselves.