Vanguard, the controversial anti-cheat software initially attached to Valorant, is now also coming to League of Legends.

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.

      • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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        10 months 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.

  • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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    10 months 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.de
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      10 months 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.world
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        10 months 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.world
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          10 months 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.

  • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    10 months 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

    • Lev_Astov@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Good cheat prevention needs to be part of the game’s fundamental design, not some virus as a band-aid.

      • fatalError@lemmy.sdf.org
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        10 months ago

        While I do agree with you, some cheats manipulate the memory itself so you would need some elevated privilages to dectect them as the cheats themsevles run with these privileges

  • Rakonat@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I was gonna care until I read league of legends. Clearly people already hate themselves and despise sensible choices and alternatives. Otherwise they wouldn’t play lol.

    • erwan@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      Everything bad about LoL is it being a MOBA. I think you can’t prevent toxicity in a MOBA.

      In a team with randoms, if you start losing you’re stuck in an unfun game where you get crushed by the ennemi for half an hour.

      What’s not to love?

      • Rakonat@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        MOBA is possible to be good and have come back games but LoL is entenched in shitty game design choices from 15 years ago and largely survives because its free to play and anyone interested in MOBAs has heard of it and played it. I’d argue games like smite or monday night combat do the MOBA genre better and advance from crippling rts controls on an action oriented game, but those never caught on cause the moba crowd hates change and innovation.

        • tagliatelle@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          You must not have paid attention to the smite “pro” scene if you believe that game is in a good spot.