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I agree with the sentiment here, but it's worth pointing out that most AAA games now come with an incredibly invasive anti-cheat suite that violates your comput

I agree with the sentiment here, but it's worth pointing out that most AAA games now come with an incredibly invasive anti-cheat suite that violates your computer's security and thoroughly violates your privacy. That's precisely because they're allowed to by the OS If phones were more open, we'd be free to mod our own games and back up our own save files, but we'd have to live with every random crap app we download being able to take over the whole machine permanently any time.

jamespo 4y ago
How does that work re: the Steamdeck which is running Linux or other game consoles?
- izacus 4y ago
  Many games with those invasive rootkit DRMs simply don't work. Some publishers actually did remove the DRM just for the Deck version proving that DRM maybe isn't all that necessary when there's a will and manufacturer that doesn't bow down to ridiculous requirements :)
- smileybarry 4y ago
  Anticheat-protected games just don’t work on Steam Deck (usually just refusing to connect). A few anticheat engines support specifically Steam Deck after working with Valve, but even then each individual game developer has to opt into it. (For example: Destiny 2 uses EasyAntiCheat which is Deck-compatible but Bungie still refuse to whitelist it on Deck/Steam OS, and warn you may get banned if you try to sidestep the block) Modern DRMs like Denuvo actually do tend to work in Proton/Wine (aka Steam OS’s compatibility layer) because they’re a wrapper around the game instead of a driver/debugger+game setup.
yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
> If phones were more open, we'd be free to mod our own games and back up our own save files, but we'd have to live with every random crap app we download being able to take over the whole machine permanently any time. It's possible to give the user full control and the ability to give apps more permissions, while still sandboxing apps by default. Consider, for example, flatpak, which can make the host filesystem totally invisible to apps but also allows the user to pass in files via the file picker or to totally expose paths by overriding its filesystem context.
- Firmwarrior 4y ago
  Yeah, that's true To be fair, even Android apps are reasonably locked down while still making it possible to install a proscribed emulator or Firefox or whatever
JohnFen 4y ago
> it's worth pointing out that most AAA games now come with an incredibly invasive anti-cheat suite that violates your computer's security and thoroughly violates your privacy. Which is why I stopped playing AAA games. I'm fine with avoiding them and having a machine I can actually control.

jamespo 4y ago

How does that work re: the Steamdeck which is running Linux or other game consoles?

izacus 4y ago
Many games with those invasive rootkit DRMs simply don't work. Some publishers actually did remove the DRM just for the Deck version proving that DRM maybe isn't all that necessary when there's a will and manufacturer that doesn't bow down to ridiculous requirements :)
smileybarry 4y ago
Anticheat-protected games just don’t work on Steam Deck (usually just refusing to connect). A few anticheat engines support specifically Steam Deck after working with Valve, but even then each individual game developer has to opt into it. (For example: Destiny 2 uses EasyAntiCheat which is Deck-compatible but Bungie still refuse to whitelist it on Deck/Steam OS, and warn you may get banned if you try to sidestep the block) Modern DRMs like Denuvo actually do tend to work in Proton/Wine (aka Steam OS’s compatibility layer) because they’re a wrapper around the game instead of a driver/debugger+game setup.

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago

> If phones were more open, we'd be free to mod our own games and back up our own save files, but we'd have to live with every random crap app we download being able to take over the whole machine permanently any time. It's possible to give the user full control and the ability to give apps more permissions, while still sandboxing apps by default. Consider, for example, flatpak, which can make the host filesystem totally invisible to apps but also allows the user to pass in files via the file picker or to totally expose paths by overriding its filesystem context.

Firmwarrior 4y ago
Yeah, that's true To be fair, even Android apps are reasonably locked down while still making it possible to install a proscribed emulator or Firefox or whatever

JohnFen 4y ago

> it's worth pointing out that most AAA games now come with an incredibly invasive anti-cheat suite that violates your computer's security and thoroughly violates your privacy. Which is why I stopped playing AAA games. I'm fine with avoiding them and having a machine I can actually control.