League of Legends and Valorant Players Being Forced to Run Closed Source Low-Level Software.

Summary:

The article discusses Riot Games’ requirement for players to install their Vanguard anti-cheat software, which runs at the kernel level, in order to play their games such as League of Legends and Valorant. The software aims to combat cheating by scanning for known vulnerabilities and blocking them, as well as monitoring for suspicious activity while the game is being played. However, the use of kernel-level software raises concerns about privacy and security, as it grants the company complete access to users’ devices.

The article highlights that Riot Games is owned by Tencent, a Chinese tech giant that has been involved in censorship and surveillance activities in China. This raises concerns that Vanguard could potentially be used for similar purposes, such as monitoring players’ activity and restricting free speech in-game.

Ultimately, the decision to install Vanguard rests with players, but the article urges caution and encourages players to consider the potential risks and implications before doing so.

  • Commiunism@lemmy.wtfEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    I’ve been playing League casually from time to time on Linux, and it’s just a shame that they’re adding Vanguard to the game since that kills any compatibility it had under wine. Though, knowing League community, a lot of players on Linux are so addicted to the game, they’ll switch their operating systems for it or buy a second computer just to play.

    That being said, even for Windows users with older PC’s this is bad, because you need TPM 2.0 support for Vanguard to even work (not 100% sure about this one so correct me if I’m wrong), and one of the main draws of League was that you can play it on older systems just fine.

    • bitwolf@lemmy.oneEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      That’s another problem. So few will vote with their wallets because they’re so addicted to the game they’ll just deal with it.

  • Darkassassin07@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Nope. Take your rootkit and go fuck yourself with it.

    There’s absolutely 0 reason a game should ever have kernel access. Ie unrestricted access to every piece of data on the system.

  • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Kernal level anti-cheat means I ain’t gonna play it

    I don’t care where the company is based no game should be requiring kernal level access, that’s just opening the door for security concerns

  • tabular@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Is there an open source MOBA? Players need an alternative, even if it’s not as good to begin with.

    • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Not that I know of, the most popular open source games I have heard of are Space Station 13 (and its newer release Space Station 14 on steam), and Beyond All Reason which is an RTS.

  • Horsey@kbin.social
    0·
    2 years ago

    It really confuses me why people would want to play a competitive video game that is balanced around profit. Riot openly admits to buffing and nerfing based on skin sales and champion releases.

  • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    We totally won’t harvest your data.

    Ignore the fact that we have political, state, and financial interest to do so, and that you would have no way of verifying or detecting if we did harvest your data, but you can trust us.

    Just trust us.

    • Contend6248@feddit.deEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      It’s not only interests of the chinese government, they HAVE to oblige legally if they are asked to. So even if the company has the best intentions, the government overrules.

      And don’t make that a chinese bad guy argument, as if western companies aren’t doing the same, they just don’t do that officially, which one is shadier is yours to decide.

      All you can do as a company or anyone is to stop harvesting data and don’t plant blackboxes/backdoors in customers systems

      • Chev@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        Edward Snowden showed that the US is spying on their citicens but nobody seems to care. But when China is doing it, everybody seems to lose their mind.

        • yamanii@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          2 years ago

          I don’t get why they are so afraid of spyware from a country they don’t even live in, it’s the US that can prosecute you for anything they don’t like on your computer.

              • 1ostA5tro6yne@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
                0·
                2 years ago

                that’s a matter of dialect, both spellings are widely used and recognized as correct by english speakers the world over, versus “anglification” being entirely made up by one joker trying to flex how smart they are.

                as an aside I really don’t understand the pissing contest over minor spelling variations between the two major dialects of English (a large part of which, a devoted pedant must note, is merely bastardizations of French words), what gets me is stuff that’s the same word for totally different things depending on where you are like chips, biscuit, thong, napkin, pants, etc.

        • BaardFigur@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          2 years ago

          Maybe you do, but remember that Tencent is an evil corporation sending all your data to the chinese government. Not something I wanna stand anywhere near

      • ryannathans@aussie.zoneEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        Riot games official statement was that they were okay with linux players and actively went out of their way to make sure they didn’t get banned unjustly. They didn’t support linux as a software platform, which is why wine was required, but they did support linux players.

  • PlexSheep@feddit.deEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    This really saddens me. LoL is a game that will forever connect me to some of my best friends, I played hundreds if not thousands of hours, even through I have not played nearly as much over recent years. We even did go to public viewing of the world’s finals.

    If they force this on us, then it will mean that my last game of lol was played months ago.