Please Don't Ever Install These Games...

[@johnhunt1813]

If a game needs you to turn off your antivirus, you know something is wrong. Imagine buying a washer for your home, but it requires you to keep your front door open at all times. Don't worry, the washing machine makes sure only representatives of the company use your front door. Oh, also, you're not allowed to use your back door anymore, either.

[@4.5th_impact]

Your name is John Hunt

[@mysticbreadstick9608]

Perfect analogy fr

[@billyhatcher643]

yep games asking u to turn off the anti virus is just really sus for sure

[@SAINTJAMESOFFICIAL]

Yep

[@commandertaboo7734]

sounds like Amazon

[@S_K_Jacob]

Gonna install it

[@Cumbustor]

Ok

[@jopsi-5073]

Ok

[@perfectroad3351]

Ok

[@never.sleep.ever.3415]

Ok

[@Delective]

Ok

[@tomh6010]

Remember kids, it doesn't matter if you trust the company, a rootkit is a rootkit and many people/organisations pay HUGE sums to find vulnerabilities in these things.

[@PainAmvs_]

That's why i dont play valorant

[@Maid2Skate]

@@PainAmvs_ there's a $100,000 bug bounty to the valorant anti cheat

[@jackhawk8997]

@@Maid2Skate Is it still going?

[@otysfg]

@@PainAmvs_ valorant failed to launch on 12th gen for me. Says TPM not detected even thought its enabled.

[@otysfg]

@@jackhawk8997 c

[@gamamew]

The most comical thing, is that security companies and their protection softwares doesn't detect and nuke this types of malware.

[@Hydridity]

Consumer grade antiviruses are basically just overpriced glorified checksum database, on the other hand enteprise grade XDR solutions like sentinel one in fact do detect and report those rootkits (anticheats) as threats and are blocking them unless you set the exception for them. and the worst thing is when capable security solution nukes the anti cheat for being too invasive it results in ban, just like my friend got banned on apex legends because sentinel one on his pc blocked EAC accessing kernel, he tried firing up an appeal, but EA doesnt give a s**t and all he got back as result is template response from EA stating that their decision for banning him is correct.

[@oCMSo]

@@Hydridity because he opened a case to the wrong company, EAC is owned by epic games

[@D0NU75]

those anti-cheating software only try to prevent cheating by limiting what you can do within your system when the game is open. Some do not even track hooks or external software running as overlay in your game.

[@user-to7ds6sc3p]

@@oCMSo did you read? He got banned from Apex Legends. That a EA game. Epic can't unban them, just because they made the anticheat.

[@user-to7ds6sc3p]

@@D0NU75 the problem is that the anticheats can be used by malicious software if it has any vulnerabilities. And anticheats have no limit it what they are allowed to do. And different anticheats run all the time. Genshin Impacts anticheat had both issues for example.

[@lsswappedcessna]

I've gotta commend Hello Games for how they've handled the multiplayer aspect of No Man's Sky. Basically they don't care if you cheat or mod, because your experience doesn't directly affect others'. You can use ReShade with plugins enabled, mods that alter planet generation, mods that alter certain graphical aspects of the game, even using a save editor to skip a lot of the early game grind won't get you banned.

[@FriesOnYt]

Haha found ya lenneeeeehhh

[@FriesOnYt]

@m “?ynneL”

[@baxkw006s]

@@FriesOnYt why yall so weird?

[@FriesOnYt]

@@baxkw006s what?

[@AdamKlownzinger]

Gaming companies deserve the constant and unrelenting hate they get from consumers because they make shit games that prey on their users in so many ways. At the same time, I think we as consumers also deserve the gaming companies we have because we continue to buy shitty games or predatory games even when we know they’re those things. I think the best place to start in trying to restore a decent gaming market, if you’re not a game developer, is to just take responsibility for what you spend your dolla dolla bills on, and particularly choose not to give your money to bad faith developers.

[@Chonkems]

There's companies that deserve it, and a few that don't. Capcom is probably one of the few good publishers we've still got. They literally removed Capcom Antitamper from every game they've ever released, just so modders can change the game easier, and the games run better without it.

[@vismattress5760]

Lots of companies and devs are fine

[@temst2561]

No, that's the point, most of normal people that buy these shitty games are unaware

[@zac-1]

so stop gaming and do something productive

[@voyager9959]

@@zac-1 Based but it hurts. 🤍

[@reddhood619]

Y'know what, that intro has made me realize that Mutahar actually has played a big part in keeping me safe online, so, thank you Muta!

[@accountid9681]

love the stolas profile pic

[@RhizometricReality]

Same

[@ihatecabbage7270]

I digress. I never been hacked before. Just being practical is sufficient. I however met way too many cheaters in multiplayer games, those games are pure garbage to play.

[@daedalus6433]

@@ihatecabbage7270 High chance to be compromised just by playing GTA Online lol

[@thenamescarter8279]

Booyakka booyakka?

[@spht9ng]

I hate kernel-level anti-cheat. It's just Starforce and Securom all over again.

[@johnathanmcdoe]

Man, starforce takes me back. I remember that bricking DVD drives. Straight up didn't work with my weirdo SCSI setup too. Absolute cancer.

[@LordSandwichII]

@@johnathanmcdoe Refused to work with my external USB DVD drive as well. Perhaps a good thing, given that the 20 year old drive has now outlasted every computer component that I own.

[@ЕкатеринаСеренкова]

I cant say not a decent word about starforce. But alot bad ones

[@hid4]

I love kernel-level anti-cheat

[@linuxization4205]

​@@hid4 Worst attempt to not look like a troll

[@SlavTiger]

Imagine if muta releases a program that automatically detects and removes a few known rootkit anticheats completely and calls it the muta uninstaller.

[@IceFire1800]

The Mutabomb

[@CommandoBlack123]

I think a database of anticheats, and how to remove each one would be better.

[@unnamed715]

@@CommandoBlack123 How is that "better"? That sounds convoluted and annoying.

[@residentgrey]

the MutaShunt

[@residentgrey]

@らてちゃん Nope. Perfectly possible and not convoluted.

[@Tyrian3k]

You know what people did 15-20 years ago to hackers? They got banned, be it by an admin of the server or a voteban. Things were so much easier in the time of dedicated servers.

[@Demon09-_-]

thats when you can tell they are hacking. with how easy it is to hack in csgo I assure you people hack that don't go blatant and never get banned. Its why faceit appeared where people were willing to pay money for a ring level 0 anti cheat to stop a lot of the hacking.

[@utfigyii5987]

@MirroredVoid you do not get a cooldown from a votekick. Only for disconnecting, or doing too much team damage, or too many suicides.

[@aleanddragonITA]

Yeah, Votecick are bad I was playing this FreeToPlay Game and i was always being VoteKickedOut Some time because apparently i was too good to not using Cheats (i am Noob at gaming so i never understood what did they mean) but other times because the Actual Cheater accused me (sometimes because i accused him first but other times it was at random)

[@falafelwaffle8785]

@MirroredVoid people will start a votekick if you are doing good because "oh man they must be hacking, no one does that good"

[@PedroLimaPTS]

If anything Microsoft should come and say: "Hey this piece of software that you put into the OS of the user can be exploited and it should be 'uninstallable' in a clear way, otherwise it would be damaging for consumers and therefore for us" They wouldn't do this because they care about users, but in a preemptive way to avoid any future damage to the company at least, imo.

[@jrmloh]

Doesn't it do that already if you download questionable files. It doesn't do this for all of them but you often get the warning/quarantined file until you go out of your way to restore it.

[@vardes8544]

@@jrmloh big problem also is that, you want to run/install any program with admin rights? 9000pop ups with shit like "YOU SURE????", while SHIT LIKE THIS gives no prompt whatsoever on run/install, despite not even running original game with admin rights...

[@PedroLimaPTS]

@@jrmloh Yeah I should have worded it better. What I meant is that, Microsoft as a company has the power to get to these companies providing these softwares and demand from them, really, kinda like: "Okay, we understand your concerns, but this rootkit that you are installing in our consumers' machines can be exploited, can become dangerous, should be acknowledgeable to the user (some are installed in sneaky ways without you knowing), and possible to be completely removed in a clear and transparent manner. If they remain in the user's machine and later, this piece of software gets messed with in any way, it may be liable to cause damage to us (in this hypothetical scenario, Microsoft) and to you as the developer/publisher/distributer of this game/app or software in general. So let's avoid this hypothetical possible future scandal or problem this so-important piece of software of yours can possibly, maybe, inadvertently cause to users and both of us, by making it clear to the user, and friendly to remove/manage?" Because imagine if this kind of stuff gets used by some kind of ransomware, per example, and thousands of machines are encrypted/locked. What is Microsoft going to say? They weren't aware? Good luck with that. So it would be in their _actual_ best interest to address this kind of stuff as is, before anything comes to happen. I admit that my wording up there was a bit lacking. My bad.

[@leonidas14775]

They should have windows defender automatically remove it.

[@fant64ez82]

Imagine if they sat down and cooked up a an idea similar to having a cautious security which warns you in real time of any modification that may occur within windows' crucial files, so you get a warning window pop up whenever a game ur installing happens to toss something in your system32 folder for example, that way you're at least aware what you got yourself into. This will at least boost up the average pc user's consciousness of what might be going on under the hood, the reviews muta showed were dropped by some people that manually checked their system folders, they would've portrayed a different ethical take on this particular company had they not literally manually taken a peek at their system folders post uninstallation, that would've been an intuitive and unconscious coverup for the company with a free degree of public advocation.

[@mu11668B]

Glad that there are big KZbinrs like Muta sharing the correct security mindsets. Anti-cheat should never get ring-0 access. Actually, anything other than hardware drivers and anti-malware solutions should never get ring-0 access. Higher permission only spells greater disasters. Remember the Sony DRM rootkit that eventually got abused to oblivion by attackers? Imagine if there's a mishandling of memory at the ring-0 level. Easy privilege escalation. Not to mention the extreme risks of potential abuses from these companies that heavily rely on monetization.

[@Galacticfungus]

There are ring zero cheats, only way to try and stop them is ring zero anti-cheats.

[@mu11668B]

@@Galacticfungus Then use server-side anti-cheats. Using cheats as an excuse to compromise the security of players' devices should never be acceptable. Such excuses are the direct result of either laziness of management or squeezing out an unreasonable amount of profit.

[@mu11668B]

​@@BauliusTorvoltos "Server sided AC's cant get a read on what players are running on their systems AFAIK." Honestly, you don't need that kind of information at all to prevent cheating. Moreover, trying to inspect what programs are running on players' devices is a blatant and atrocious invasion of users' privacy. No one should ever be allowed to do such things. To implement a working client/server pair, the server has to deserialize packets sent from clients and update the internal states of the player/server program. This is true in every single online game. Indeed, Checking every packet sent from a client is some heavy lifting. This is why I said not doing so should be seen as trying to squeeze out an unreasonable amount of profit. A great example of server-side anti-cheat is NoCheatPlus for Minecraft. It runs only on the server side and in most cases, it's working quite well. There are private server-side-only anti-cheat implementations such as the ones used by Hypixel. Hypixel is so successful that they even got a contract with Microsoft. Server-side anti-cheat is ALWAYS achievable, and any reason for deploying client-side AC is just an excuse to unethically cut mandatory operation costs.

[@heroclix0rz]

I expect steam to validate that the uninstaller works correctly. Leaving executables on the machine after uninstall is unacceptable.

[@dynamicworlds1]

This would be a great angle to apply pressure through, I think.

[@inund8]

I doubt that it was installed at download. Probably installs the rootkit on first launch.

[@xreverse_f1ash]

This is one of the reasons why I'm glad I grew up loving non p2w singleplayer games. Sure, there may be the rare few that do still have an anti-cheat, but for the most part, singleplayer games don't need anticheat in the first place and they usually already get their money from you buying the game.

[@ihatecabbage7270]

that's a simple, straightforward recommendation. Why people can't understand this simple thing.

[@darkmatter7713]

Single player pw2 exist? How you even pw2 by yourself?

[@0og]

@@darkmatter7713 pvz2

[@krob_]

@@ihatecabbage7270 because of personal preference. i enjoy the occasional singleplayer game but i'm mostly interested in playing competitive games. fortunately cs and quake exist. now if you are interested in casual pvp games you are out of luck.

[@Ripplistic]

@@darkmatter7713 What kind of question is that

[@certs743]

I am old enough to remember the fallout of Sony being exposed putting routekits on audio CDs about 20 years ago and it was a disaster that cost them a fortune. Now everyone just shrugs and puts up with it.

[@xbigbooshx4643]

It is that slowly boiling fog in a pot scenario. Things get normalized because there was a slow subtle creep on how much a person tolerates.

[@abadenoughdude300]

@@xbigbooshx4643 The same thing goes on with monetisation schemes. Companies try something extra greedy, scandal erupts, companies step back, time passes, companies try something even more greedy, scandal erupts, companies step back, rinse repeat. There really will come a time when we'll have to pay companies to even launch their games because "get on with the times, boomer".

[@chenchen6150]

@@abadenoughdude300 I used to see Gaming in the future is more advance and better especialy Mobile gaming but I did not expect it's this bad we are heading into and many player are just shrug it off for the sake of their hobby ignoring they litteraly ruining their hobby and integrity as consumer.

[@abadenoughdude300]

@@chenchen6150 I used to see the future in general in a lot more hopeful way, like we would have so many cool gadgets and conveniences, but instead of a hopeful Star Trek what we're getting is a cyberpunk dystopia. And everyone is casually agreeing to it.

[@Griggs58]

@@abadenoughdude300 I’d say a part of that is people accepting mediocre games and telling ppl it’s okay. Imo look at RE8 or the Remakes of RE2/3.

[@byte1bit]

It's sad to see games go down this path.

[@WatcherKoops4677]

good thing I still play and own older games

[@ineedtogetmylifetogether]

@@WatcherKoops4677 good thing im FORCED to play older games

[@OperatorMax1993]

It really is sad But atleast we have old games that don't have any of that garbage

[@supersam5802]

They only go down that path if you fund that path, if a developer/publisher uses anticheat, boycott em, make purchasing anticheat a black mark on them.

[@survivalcraftstudio]

not all games that have stood the test of time has fallen down this fait of doom

[@Laaonne]

There was an exploit in the Dark Souls series that allowed someone to completely take control of someone else's PC and the servers were shut down and "easy anti cheat" was added. :/

[@tecobel]

Dark Souls 1 still hasn't resorted MP an most probably never will

[@RaVeN1K]

Poor gaming company, if only there was a way to create their own anti cheat that isn't kernel based...

[@Jadty]

@@tecobel I think Remastered is back, but PTDE is gone for good. I might be wrong, I mostly play consoles.

[@Exotac]

@@Jadty You're correct. it's still up on Consoles but on PC PTDE's multiplayer was killswitched since the bulk and share of the community moved over to Remastered anyway.

[@MudkipMan97]

To be more precise, only Elden Ring has a "known" anticheat, EasyAntiCheat. Many (including me) believe that it wasn't meant to be implemented but the whole Dark Souls situation made them do it at the last minute... Btw, DS Remastered server opened again today 👍🏼

[@coooguy1]

Muta got me to switch to Linux and start sandboxing everything. I am now preaching this to my friends because it's unacceptable that anyone but the owner of the computer has root level access. I refuse to give some game company completely unrestricted access to my PC and it shouldn't need to be said to begin with.

[@bemusedlist9242]

No I think you are gonna wanna cough over that data

[@lorcanzo2498]

Tf is a sandbox?

[@accountid9681]

@@lorcanzo2498 slang for an isolated computing environment "nothing goes in, nothing comes out"

[@heilandjuan]

Yeah, I don't all the work that I should do buy at least I know that there's work to do. People who don't watch what I do watch don't have any idea of any of this.

[@chinh4thepro]

@@lorcanzo2498 clearly you've never watched a video from mutahar

[@Xeraga]

Anti-cheat is also standing in the way of Linux adoption for multiplayer gaming, like on a Steam Deck. A lot of major games aren't compatible because of their anti-cheat.

[@WeirdSmellyMan]

So just use windows

[@WeirdSmellyMan]

@GabzBoni Linux is trash

[@dziewiaty]

@@WeirdSmellyMan what a great idea! But please keep it to yourself.

[@amer2142]

@@WeirdSmellyMan keep it to your self

[@stanzacosmi]

@@WeirdSmellyMan windows runs very poorly on the steamdeck due to its bloated nature

[@kelly2631]

You should really make a video on the Respondus Lockdown Browser. It's literally a malware that most college students have used before, mainly since professors force students to use it during exams.

[@heeho2138]

There's a reason I used an separate laptop with that disgusting program for every exam through school. I refused to install it on my main PC.

[@ChrisBrown-dn3tf]

i think he has made a video on it actually

[@GamerBoy870]

@@ChrisBrown-dn3tf he did

[@ffwast]

Yeah I used a separate old laptop for that one.

[@itsdokko2990]

I can guess the point behind that program/malware. Calling it disgusting ain't enough

[@0PercentImagination]

As someone with a old and outdated pc I can't help but be bothered whenever I see a game has some sort of anti-cheat, just seen too many stories of badly implemented ones that negatively affect how well the games run.

[@WhipLash42o]

They do, a lot of them are resources hogs, and they don't even fucking work lmao. They're just there to satisify jackasses on the board that care more about their investment than the game actually playing well.

[@calebtheholyman545]

Me with my gtx670 pos computer

[@Boomalowav]

Denuvo moment

[@H56Nooc]

Damn man, my last card, before I got a 1060, was a 680. I know the feel. Hang in there. Stuff is hopefully gonna be a bit more affordable soon.

[@Zero254]

They way I see it you are all kings playing better games anyways.

[@Jamesthe1]

There's a motto I tend to follow: If you have a player that's exploiting a glitch, you should look at your source code, not at external software.

[@岦刐筽]

exactly my fucking thoughts dude, holy shit

[@bobboo101]

Unfortunately, even though I agree that invasive anti cheats are bad, source code can not be obfuscated enough to stop cheaters.

[@krob_]

how would you go about preventing someone from reading the games memory to extract enemy player positions? you can't really obfuscate this information, nor can you only send this information to the client when its needed (if the enemy runs into the field of view of the client for example) that would cause horrible delays. there's a reason cheating has always been a bigger issue in fps games than in other type of games. it's incredibly hard to prevent. you can't really prevent it by game-design and unless you constantly sink tons of money into the anticheat development, this becomes useless too. valve had some success in making cheating pretty unattractive, but it's still not really preventing it.

[@stanzacosmi]

@@krob_ in practice I'm not sure how easy it would be, but in theory, you could cull out the enemy unless they're in your line of sight

[@_danu]

@@bobboo101 what he means is actually properly securing how the online works with the game in the source code instead of depending on external software to let you use shitty code for network features

[@XDRosenheim]

I, too, have started to play more and more games as single player (Even going offline when possible). It is so frustrating that you have to agree to "Terms of Service" when playing a game, and if you do not agree to it, you simply CAN NOT play it. If they could just ask for when accessing multiplayer, that would be okay for me. But why am I not allowed to tinker with the game when I play it alone? Just sell me your product and then fuck off. But just like with microtransactions and online stores, I can not really blame them for doing these things, companies want to make money. Players need to skip out on the next instalment of X-franchise, just to let the companies know that we do not agree with these practices. _But that will never happen, because they just do not care._

[@Ch4pp13]

I remember people be super pissed that EA said Simcity 2013 "wouldn't work in an offline environment".... and then they made it work in an offline environment like a year or so later. Just proves that anti-cheat doesn't need your first-born as a sacrifice for it to work. ESPECIALLY if the only online components are "you'll see people in hubs" or thereabout.

[@ihatecabbage7270]

i didn't buy singleplayer games that required mandatory online only. And i am glad those games died horribly. Some EA games like Need For Speed Heat can be played offline, super happy and i bought them.

[@walrider]

We are at a point where people are so braindead that they think that companies are the ones that decide everything. People can't even keep themselves from buying and playing shit like that. If everyone, not just the few of us, grew a pair and a brain, stopped buying into this kind of things, they would literally stop this kind of shit in less than a year... At least I know that I didn't accept it, whatever that's worth. To end on a good note, thank you Muta for trying to inform and teach about security and privacy. And thank you for putting a strong emphasis on this.

[@elhazthorn918]

Muta, can you run through how to check our computers to see if we have any of the most common anti-cheats installed?

[@tbc1880]

There is a few catalogs of games with kernel level anti cheats you can check those and your games to see if they match at the very least.

[@Arixodia]

2024 update, Helldivers 2 uses nProtect so be aware of what you're giving it access to when you buy and install it.

[@moonasha]

really is a damn shame, game looks fun. I really don't feel like becoming a victim of a zero day though, not on this machine. I guess I could run it in a virtual machine, but still, what a pain...

[@RustedBuddy5192]

​@moonasha From what Ive seen Helldivers 2 Dev's have included a built-in uninstaller of nprotect when you uninstall the game. I've yet to do it since heh you know...... Liberty calls. But There were some youtubers who discussed it somewhere.

[@piotr7805]

It's so ridiculous for non-competitive PvE game to use it.

[@StæfDraca]

It will always amaze me how often muta always had new advice for us without seeming like an emotionless robot keep up the great content 👏 😊

[@subtractahandletocontinue]

mental outlaw another good channel for that

[@CharmineX]

Reading that makes me think about Charlie.

[@Hereshow2code]

@@CharmineX no.

[@brutalhowitzer1892]

“Muta: Single-player” is out now! Don’t miss this once in a lifetime, amazing, ultra-realistic Simulator Gaming experience!

[@NothingAfter]

I was wondering what this comment meant until I got a laugh from Muta's outro

[@GamingBlueNOOB]

I may be a year late, but Mutahar should come back to the whole nProtect GameGuard, specially considering the current stuff happening with Helldivers 2.

[@_Smokescreen_]

I just want to personally thank you Muta for instilling better privacy and security practices into me from an early point as well as many, many others. Love your videos man.

[@xKarma_411]

No one is personally safe online maybe you did improved on reducing your online information blueprint but the cold reality is personal information leaks,breaches, and hacks moved from brute-force tactics back to your traditional human on human call support and human error to give out your information.

[@_Smokescreen_]

@@xKarma_411 absolutely agree. It is never fullproof, but you can control a great portion from unwanted attention, and it doesnt mean it should be downplayed

[@AnimatedPixelsYT]

I don't normally comment on videos, but this one hit the nail on the head for me. I have been using Linux for about a year and a half now and have been loving it. The only issue is that I can't play games like Valorant or Rainbow 6, as you mentioned, because of the invasive anti-cheat software. Basically I have been duel booting Windows and Linux as a solution, but I noticed I only use Windows for Valorant and the odd game that can't run underneath Linux. I've been thinking about running Linux full time on my system for awhile now and I'm sick of having to deal with a root level anti-cheat like Vanguard. I appreciate the informative video. Keep up the good work!

[@niekgozer26]

Dude, you're making me more and more aware of stuff like this and probably many more people. doing the gods work tbh. When i build a new rig i might switch to linux and start taking this pc security shit super seriously. Shit i don't even have a vpn atm. Honestly pretty sure there's tons of bad stuff on my old pc already because I've had the harddrives that are in it since 2013 when i was 14 years old. Certainly downloaded some shady shit from pirate bay back then.

[@guitarhero01234]

Will let you know right now, unless you're either trying to hide stuff from your ISP or change your location for content streaming, a VPN won't help you with much

[@Ixarus6713]

Vpn's aren't nearly as useful for pc safety compared to Emulators. Muta runs a win10 emulator so he can game even on a Linux, if it gets infected he can just wipe that copy and make a new version.

[@utfigyii5987]

@@Ixarus6713 wine is not an emulator. Neither is a virtual machine. But yeah, VMs are much better for security

[@dreamrider7128]

Personally I stopped caring about competitive aspect of videogames a long time ago, in part because I was never really that much of a competitive person, also in part because I literally take the "escapism" thing in gaming, I enjoy playing single player games (and even MMOs I enjoy playing mostly by myself) and getting immersed into the game world and forget about the real world (that sucks a**, not being pessimistic, once you get to your 30s and have to work like a slave for a salary you'll eventually realize this). Back when I was in university, computer science, since basically everyone was into linux the few people that still were into gaming (and not into making the facebook killer and dropping out of university afterwards) used to say "if you still want to play videogames get a console, use your PC for coding"... sometimes it feels that route doesn't sound super crazy, then I look at the current console gen and I remember how ridiculous that statement currently is (sony being entire D-bags, PS5 very hard to buy in most countries where sony will raise prices and also scalpers not going away for 2 years now, not to mention that there are extremely few true exclusives : xbox not really being worth the purchase if you already have a PC with a RTX 3060Ti or better)

[@escapetherace1943]

this is the best way to play. Multiplayer = stress and the real world sucks enough. Much more cozy to play at your own pace and dive into escapism

[@deoxysandmew2162]

THIS!!! So relatable. I've been into games due to this also escapism from cold brutal world, where you gain minimum wage and barely have money to struggle through and games always were this warm comfort that no other thing could provide. Honestly, once these so called triple A games started to have lootboxes and other bs monetary schemes being slammed into your face, killed whatever warm comfort I had with games, turning into a skeptic that wonders if you should buy a game or not. Thank fuck, for old games of the yesteryear, remaining a good time. When it comes to anything competitive, its just nothing but stress and im here, just want to chill out and relax to it, not sweat my ass off. It only begs the question, if the games will return to their glory like back in the day. Legit miss times where I buy a game, and thats all I get. All content in one sweet package. Its not that much to ask, is it?!

[@escapetherace1943]

@@deoxysandmew2162 before lootboxes people always talked more too. Now nobody talks, probably because they can't even joke around without being banned or something these days. Competitive games will just prematurely age you anyways and/or give you carpal tunnel. All of them come to an end too where you no longer enjoy it. I'd rather play stardew or something and enjoy some coffee than play league or anything like that these days

[@OfficialDJSoru]

Gonna remind you Muta, Microsoft once put out a security update that plugged a hole that many rootkit tier DRM like SecuROM were taking advantage of. Maybe Microsoft should do it again for this kind of anti-cheat software

[@nikkehtine]

I think the biggest issue with Windows is that it lets programs have almost complete control over the filesystem and computer just like that, as opposed to Android and iOS that isolate everything and ask you for permissions that you can reject. If the OS itself was more secure we wouldn't need even less secure programs on our computers just to play a video game.

[@Bendilin]

I remember a chart from a decade ago explaining the difference in number of steps it took to play a game with uPlay legitimately as compared to just pirating Ubisoft's games at the time. It was a 15:2 step difference. I think it was the game Dust that had massive refunds before Steam's modern fefund policy because Ubisoft lied about the game having uPlay.

[@fallenmercury]

One of our discord friends tried getting into Path of Exile and was banned within 24 hours. Claiming he was hacking despite just starting as a new player. I mention this because the only other game he was playing at the time was Valorant. Did that games sus anticheat actually trigger a false positive for POE?

[@ForeignMadeIt]

Having 2 computers is a must nowadays. 1 for software & the other for sensitive stuff. Make sure u login as local user and never administrator as they have more advantage if ur infected.

[@CaffeinatedFrostbite]

in naraka bladepoint if you go to the ranks section you can find a player's location. I mean like precise location. Small towns and stuff. I would love if you covered this. If you play naraka bladepoint on stream or youtube people can use your in-game name to find your state and city/town.

[@Gorbigus]

RIP big youtubers that play it

[@CaffeinatedFrostbite]

@@Gorbigus FR. i lost my shit when i found that out. i love the game. but this is too much

[@rtyzxc]

Not true, the location badge is an OPTIONAL thing you can add to your profile, it doesn't show your location by default, and you can't accidentally choose to do it without clicking on the option that says your city name. However, if you are a streamer, you could be tricked to go into the menu that shows the selectable badges, but that's applies to any service with such feature.

[@CaffeinatedFrostbite]

@@rtyzxc how do I remove it then because I don't remember ever choosing this

[@rtyzxc]

@@CaffeinatedFrostbite Go to your profile, and below your name there is 'No. x Hero in Location', click and choose 'no title'. If it says 'no title' then your city is not visible in the first place, it resets to no title every week or so. Oh, and when the titles reset, you do get the pop that you are top of a region when you log in, so if you are a streamer, just boot the game before showing it.

[@gmt1]

I ignore games made by historically bad companies, anything P2W, multiplayer without local servers, and DRM or invasive anti-cheat. Now that I'm a Linux user I also only look at native/proton compatible games. When I still used Windows I ironically avoided installing rootkit anti-cheat because anything without local servers got ignored.

[@SuperSmashDolls]

"Microsoft should actually mandate these game developers remove their anticheat when you uninstall the program" They already did this, it was called Windows 8 apps (later UWP). So, for some context, apps dropping libraries into and becoming an unremovable part of the OS has been a thing since very early Windows. If two apps want to share the same library, they have to both install it and just be careful not to overwrite new versions with old ones. No record is kept of what apps need which libraries, so there is no way to safely remove unused code, even if it's horribly invasive. With Windows 8 they wanted to switch *everything* over to using the container model that iOS uses, where every app's code is entirely separate, apps *never* share libraries, and they have no admin access to the system. Problem is, this basically meant rewriting every Windows app; and for further insult to injury containerized apps were forced fullscreen because Microsoft wanted every computer to be an iPad. This is also why, even after Microsoft fixed containerized apps in Windows 10 (and rebranded it as UWP), they had problems supporting G-SYNC or Vulkan. Because those are all provided by third-party libraries shipped by driver vendors, and the rule of containerized apps is that they *only* load code that they shipped with or that is part of Windows itself. Since G-SYNC and Vulkan were *not Microsoft technologies*, they could not be used in containerized apps - at least until Microsoft deliberately relaxed this rule because nobody would buy games off the Microsoft store.

[@residentgrey]

You don't have to rewrite the apps. Only the container.

[@residentgrey]

I have a friend that made it possible to run windows and linux programs through an Amiga as if they belonged together. Much of that is through leveraging Workbench.

[@WhizWit.]

I’m glad I sat and listened to the entire video. This was great information and honestly, I feel the same way. Going old school with it and avoiding a lot of the big title multiplayers and focusing on single players. I miss the days of friends coming over on the weekend and that being the multiplayer aspect. Online world, although great at one point basically created a cesspool of nothing but cheats, whether it’s an in game glitch or really bad hack. Mods, cheats etc have become the standard. You can’t tell who’s cheating anymore and I know myself get frustrated, assume and just tell myself it’s a skill issue. Take care :)

[@dummyaccyfed5914]

I'm a big multiplayer gamer, and this is the reason I had to swap OFF of Linux on my persona/daily use rig. For instance, the new COD's anti-cheat was instant banning anyone who loaded the game up on a Linux system and people were having to just refund it.

[@JasmineBrowneyes]

All the more reason it's absolutely dumb that VRChat used "Easy Anti-Cheat" for their SOCIAL platform. There is no reason. They used it as a bandaid and ignoring the bigger issue that mods "had" solved years ago.

[@billy65bob]

Not to worry Muta, I would've seen the 3rd party DRM section and noped out of there faster than a 3-legged emu with a case of the bellyaches. While UNDECEMBER is an online game, many other aren't. Therefor I must implore you: Don't buy these games, don't pirate these games, downvote everything you see about these game, always sage when posting about these on /v/, etc; don't play it, don't be part of the hype machine. The ONLY way these companies will learn is if their games languish in complete obscurity. And there is no shortage of games you can play instead which treat you like an actual customer, and not as a consumer drone.

[@Zesmas]

gota love when u download a game, and it downloads a Anti cheat thats a Separate software that stays on your computer even after you uninstall the game that its supposed to be attached to.

[@hectatusbreakfastus6106]

You bring up a lot of very good points. Makes you wonder how many keystroke loggers are on our computers

[@Johngabana-t3v]

Well lots of software collects are data at the end of the day its about what they do with it and where it goes

[@sapphireaurora9634]

Anti-cheat is very important. See modern day TF2. But like, the anti-cheat should never stretch beyond the game within and programs that directly affect the game. Nothing more nothing less

[@WhatIsTheHeat]

TF2 bot crisis specifically is not that bad but yes the human cheating is pretty bad. Does tf2 even have vac anymore? The only problem with noninvasive anti-cheat that I have seen is R6 siege. So many private cheats and so many people using them. In oce there are so many or maybe there are like 20 on different accounts.

[@stormstudios1]

team fortress 2 or titanfall 2?

[@theblobconsumes4859]

@@stormstudios1 Team Fortress 2.

[@WhatIsTheHeat]

@@stormstudios1 as far as I know there hasn't really been a cheating crisis in Titanfall only DDoS

[@stormstudios1]

@@WhatIsTheHeat well that still has something to do with the anticheat

[@knavenformed9436]

It's pretty funny how Undecember could've snatched the upcoming audience of PoE Mobile and been a better option for Diablo Immoral. But for some reason these companies just can't stop screwing themselves by screwing their audiences.

[@residentgrey]

they could also be listening to the wrong people in that audience.

[@WDSimp]

Found out that I had it in my system from an old install and cleaned up a bit. Thanks for the tip. Will be more careful going forward.

[@AltPlus30]

My main complaints with modern ARPGs is they are: 1. Server-based and always online meaning you can't play it with no internet, you can't use mods and no cheats for you if the game becomes too hard 2. Free-to-play with in-game purchases. I don't mind skins being sold but I would rather buy a game for $60 so I can get ALL of the content and not just a small fraction of it "for free" 3. Make singleplayer experience almost impossible and while you don't encounter other players in story quests I'm not a fan of a bunch of random people in super flashy armor with wings hanging out in the main hub. I want to be a hero of my own story for once, you know? Not relying on servers being online, with no risk of kick/ban and without a company trying to sell me stuff all the time.

[@cursed_by_ghost]

The Easy anti cheat on elden ring fucked up my graphics card, I had to completely uninstall windows and reallocate my partitions and lost all my stuff on pc.

[@Retro_Ryk]

Im surprised someone hasn't made a video about games on steam that aren't the safest to download. As someone who just got his first PC now I always assumed Steam would be the safest options. Im afraid to download a emulator for Pokémon so I defaulted to steam for any gaming. After watching a few Josh Strife videos about MMO reviews with horrible files attached and now Muda im getting spooked, but more interested in the topic. Iceberg of the most invasive games on steam or something like that would be a nice watch.

[@Syndicate_LS]

For the fun of it you should discuss how predatory with micro transactions the featured servers for bedrock Minecraft. I play occasionally in ps4, and every time I do I’m reminded how bad it is. “Oh, you want to access the any portion of our server? Give us $20 for each” “Oh you want a special pick that’s consumable and uncraftable? Give us $10 over and over” “If you want to avoid paying that, you can get our VIP pass for $30 a month” It’s honestly not like this exactly for each, but every single featured server has some form of predatory micro transactions. The reason I mention this is because Java servers years ago that had zero affiliation with Mojang had gotten in trouble over micro transactions for features strikingly similar to this practice they’re featuring

[@markwalsh262]

Its because its pwned by Microsoft now, not mojang. So now Microsoft can charge you.

[@Syndicate_LS]

@@markwalsh262 I know. I’m just saying they really shot themselves in the foot by doing that. Mojang was adamant against it but are now this is happening.

[@bruhtholemew]

@@Syndicate_LS The only people who shot themselves in the foot were bedrock players for accepting the store and p2w servers. Mojang/MS get a cut from p2w bedrock server transactions, so it's no surprise why p2w java servers only get targeted.

[@Syndicate_LS]

@@bruhtholemew how did the player base shoot themselves in the foot? Mojang wouldn’t allow it on Java, so that when they made featured bedrock servers and did the same thing it’s the players fault? Think before you comment on god. They also weren’t pay to win. They were targeting servers who had VIP and other features from that like fly, custom commands, etc. they were pay if you want. It will make it easier but not pay to win

[@maestro-zq8gu]

I also hate how most games install crap to your appdata folder on your C: drive that doesn't get removed when you uninstall. Even if you give the installer another drive letter, stuff always goes on C.

[@sfisher923]

Same goes for the Documents Folder

[@rjbee8533]

As a computer tech I disable startup items. When I found out I started breaking games. Everyone of those games I hate it. Shouldn't have to start up with the computer to be able to run in the future

[@altair5001]

This is why when a new game is released either free to play, pay to play or popular ones and ask to install another application just to run it or requires additional privileges I just exit it and not bother on having it installed or play a certain games. Using Virtual machine on running games should not be an issue and I agree that some game companies uses those kind of anti-cheat and gets you booted for illegal use. It sucks how gaming had become right now instead of having fun, enjoying it and feeling safe now it is the other way around where we don't even notice that rootkits are being installed and they can just get away with it.

[@bobtheamazingsmith6203]

you should definitely do a full series about Virtual Machines

[@stanleybochenek1862]

SkyNet

[@nanopi]

If I had enough seperate PCs I'd designate some as single purpose PCs and one of those could be "only games that have bad anti cheat"

[@l_MaRf1Mm_l]

You know what makes this whole situation even funnier? At the moment, cheats work either through driver substitution or emulation (which gives the cheat kernel access, which is why the anti-cheat still cannot detect it), or cheats are used on external media (flash drive, disk) and after the cheat is injected, the external device is deleted from the system, making it impossible to detect it in any way

[@kuro19382]

Great video! I wish more people would speak up against it. Was expecting a mention about VRChat and their pointless implementation of EAC after I noticed the controllers.. That was, imo, the pinnacle of idiocy when it comes to anti-cheats. They claimed it was to "improve user security" and "prevent crashers", among other stuff, but in reality people are still cheating, crashing, and stealing avatar assets like there is no tomorrow. Now anyone that plays that game has to embrace a rootkit, and normal players can't use quality of life mods without paying for a private EAC bypass that might be infected, or at least get you banned, not to mention the price...

[@Art_Vandelay_Industries]

I'm so in love with Helldivers 2 and cannot get enough watching it. But I cannot bring myself to buy and install it because of it using nProtect :(

[@oluftheexplorer9476]

The kicker is, anti cheat systems don't even stop any cheating anyway.

[@triledink]

I trust games I have to pay for more than free games. It’s like somebody is saying to me” that’s it’s free to play, but there is a catch”, then I don’t touch it.

[@zondazerda2230]

Have you heard of GTA Online? Yeah me too, your IP address is literally tagged to your user name which means anyone who knows how to open the page code source can get to you. But you are talking about the browser, I'm sure the game is secure, right? Wrong son, your user name is also tied to your IP address and everything else, anyone with a mod menu can get to your IP address and then get your real life address. Have I mentioned GTA Online is a paid game? Being paid doesn't make it secure. I would mind very carefully where I step if I were you.

[@triledink]

@@zondazerda2230 I already know that, muta has already talked about that.

[@Drakezius]

Single Player = cheat everywhere all the time if that's your bag Multiplayer = volunteer to not cheat by default

[@ihatecabbage7270]

like people are trustworthy. NOT

[@r3zaful]

Well you can still get vac ban on steam if you cheat in single player game.

[@dannyway1111]

@@r3zaful Eh

[@Stormlywing]

We are Free to Pick what we want by default ( We will agree or we WILL agree ) That how the terms of use Work Exploit is users into agreeing onto something that may damage someone PC is like a contact by KZbin I will agree to follow all the RULES No: (NILL)

[@Drakezius]

@@r3zaful There are single-player modification software(s) that work with Steam. YMMV

[@kevinhu196]

GPU sharing is such a cool thing that I want to try but anti-cheat makes it impractical

[@HarunaKaiNi]

It's pretty useful on rendering videos My professor in my uni did it with library computers lmao

[@ChannelReuploads9451]

The Irony with Undecember using the 'Anti Cheat', is that their servers are PACKED with RMT bots spamming chat, so there is proof that the anti cheat HAS FAILED.

[@sidd_not_vicious2609]

I am 50 and have never played a multiplayer game. been playing since Atari do not believe I would care for it...solo is the way to be

[@LazerBrain5348]

I agree, a good single player experience is timeless. Cheers.

[@SuperPupperDoggo]

I’m curious what the anticheat drivers actually do and if it can be done effectively at user level or even in VMs

[@abadenoughdude300]

Mostly memory and process management. Don't have the exact technical details but from what I know they snoop through everything you have running (processes and operations) and flag everything they don't like. They do the same on a real system and a VM, just have added detection mechanism for VMs because they don't like those either.

[@carrops]

From what I've seen these types of invasive evolutions of anticheats seem to have diminishing returns. All it takes is one guy creating a cheat tool that works and then selling it to everyone else.

[@L9J7]

For the people of the future this vid came out at 11:22pm (GMT) November 8th 2022

[@squidwardtentacles7322]

Think of these anti cheats as the equivalent of forcing people in chess match to be without any clothes, with mandatory cavity searches for everyone, to "prevent cheating" 😆

[@12pu48]

You gotta make sure they aren't using anal beads to cheat like hans

[@zerotian5661]

Yum

[@ihatecabbage7270]

That's one of the dumbest analogy I have ever heard. If you have bacis knowledge of chess, is impossible to cheat with somebody face to face, unless you're allowed to. If you cheat online chess, you can be naked and there is nothing the other side can do but to report you for cheating.

[@genericpoke]

@@ihatecabbage7270 did you forget the b plug allegations of one chess player

[@ROBDEWAND]

like that one guy who was supposedly using anal bead to tell him the right moves ?

[@Toysourboy]

COD Anti cheat whenever it sees a hacker: *Looking away* COD Anti cheat whenever someone calls your mother fat: YOU HAVE COMMITTED THE HIGHEST FORM OF CRIMINAL ACTS AGAINST GENEVA

[@_Rabz]

@ the VM thing, it's a good thing in the grand scheme... Not allowing for VM gaming stops people basically pre-spoofing their hardware and MACID and allowing them to hack without repercussion.

[@Whytho2000]

Can you do a video showing how these things are being downloaded into our computers? Because I have no clue how to tell that something like this is downloaded to a computer.

[@Halopunk90]

What about helldivers 2?

[@JacksJunkDrawer]

Be like Valve, just have an anti-cheat in spirit alone.

[@filipepinho3319]

As a software developer myself, the only conclusion I have about kernel anti-chets are companies are lazy to find solutions to solve the root of our problems in the first place... I'm currently developing a game in my free time and it will be a multiplayer shooter, in it I'm also developing proof of concepts to solve some of the issues that lead to cheats like wallhacks, I've cooked an idea to solve that in my head already by combining raytracing algorithms tuned and optimized for the use case I want, but simple put if no enemy is found in your line of sight they also don't exist in the client side memory, sure some challenges I'm still need to overcome, but the point is this.... I'm alone doing a game and thinking of ways to solve this issues, I think big game companies with hundreds of resources should be able to do it! they are just lazy

[@zen_7748]

That's why I've eschewed PvP multiplayer games entirely. As an introvert and a misanthrope, it's not exactly a difficult choice to make. My mental well-being no longer has to contend with being aggravated by people both in-game and out of it. At least when I sit down to play games I'm free of human interaction that I don't much care for, and I've been fairly happier since.

[@OnyeNacho]

PLEASE list the games to avoid uninstalling in your description.

[@travis8106]

I didn't even know you could encapsulate your anti cheat like that

[@itsjustatemp-1642]

Hope this video gets the traction it deserves.

[@Arthera0]

i have conceded my pc's safety long ago. i just make sure that important stuff is backed up but if something happens it happens if that means i can play the games i enjoy

[@brakpseudonimu236]

I used to play Cabal Online when it was still at Gameforge, it was a security disaster. It's a 2d game, the map consist of fairly big squares (yes, the graphics is 3d and movements are interpolated so that it appears natural, but trust me) and somehow bots had superpower, they could walk through walls and attack quarter of a zone with 1 attack, instance hall of fames contained times faster than its possible to blink thorough without attacking anything, etc. No server-side security whatsoever. And it's the same for most Korean MMO's Black .. cough... Desync Online for example. The anticheat is just uselessware that causes problems for the user, meanwhile cheaters do whatever they want.

[@Shannon_Vlogs]

I so appreciate you covering this. I love to play some games, mostly MTG, and I agree that this is an issue and needs to be understood and fixed.

[@cavemantero]

uninstall arena shannon you'll be happier :)...if that's possible lol

[@Shannon_Vlogs]

@@cavemantero Heeeey! 👋 Hahaha, you’re right, I probably should but it’s a good time on a rainy day and November is full of them in the South

[@michaelholsgrove1396]

Gotta love it when mutah drops a new video

[@DanielWillen]

Here after installing Helldivers 2 lol

[@MsHojat]

Project Zomboid is a cross-platform DRM-free game that also does not bundle with system-level anti-cheat. It is a nice single player experience but also has fun multiplayer. I'm sure there's multiple games like this, but here's one so I suggest some people try it.

[@GMMReviews]

I put my C Drive on a small 100gb partition of my 2tb NVME, that way if Windows becomes a mess, and I need a clean reinstall, I don't lose anything meaningful, and can have a fresh reinstall of Windows easily whenever I need. I've had some of these Games listed installed, I didn't realise the anti-cheats don't get removed. Might be time for a clean install of Windows.

[@HouseFootwork]

Imagine using only virtual Keyboards because you are afraid of real ones😂

[@bruhtholemew]

Only a matter of time before Muta removes the "gamers" from the channel name out of security fears.

[@Minronis]

Yeah, its getting really stupid. Dead By Daylight players are advised to use VPNs when playing to avoid DDoS attacks, though only streamers are really in danger of that, its still a very possible threat even if you're not getting stream sniped.

[@D1m3nSi0nZz]

the worst thing about all this is that sometimes we as consumers don't even know about these things and then have to suffer the consequences of it

[@motozappa225]

Talk about the 2K launcher and the launcher problem in modern gaming and how it harms gaming as a whole and expecially Linux gamers. I don't want to make a Winblows vm just to play Bioshock. It's not just a penguin problem imo, it affects all of us (Broken saves, compatibility ecc)

[@motozappa225]

Btw 2K patched 8 yr games in september this year and now i'm locked out to play these games lol. Glorious Eggroll save us

[@ejazali4]

each game should just have it's own embedded version of the anticheat in its directory, should run only when the game is and doesn't hog resources - that way it's removed once you uninstall

[@legalobligations]

Hey - Doesn't work like that. The point of kernel level anti-cheat is having it run on kernel level as soon as the computer starts, so it can detect loaded cheat drivers. If it loads on game startup, you can simply map the cheat driver before the anti cheat driver actuates, making it hard to detect.

[@Jell0zz]

Muta, it would be great if you could go over your privacy setup and recommended steps us viewers oughta take

[@flintfrommother3gaming]

​@They're trying to weaponize it TOR is a better alternative with the cost of slower speeds.

[@Diego35HD]

Only thing that's touching the root of my system is Temple OS, no network at all means no one is getting into my computer.

[@rs07scapeNews]

Nice joke you dont use templeos. It has no purpose beyond novelty. Also your on youtube so you obviously are connected to a network.

[@Diego35HD]

@@rs07scapeNews Dammit, you got me

[@Ryftrr]

that chair squeak at the beginning >>>

[@dr.thunder9389]

I wish more people realized this... Thank you Muta! They need to find a better way or at least allow virtual machines. I completely agree and using a separate machine is definitely a good idea if you can afford it or use a cheap machine to do your sensitive stuff on. The only problem with that comes if you are putting your credit card info into it for the outrageous microtransactions which is something else that should be thrown to the wind. I know that almost nobody will listen but stop paying for microtransactions, it only enables them further. Question is what's going to happen next? The things described both in the video and my comment have only gotten worse over time. Support your indie games and stop buying from these juggernaut game companies that care less about their user's safety, experience, story and gameplay and more about what they can get from your wallet. Again, what's next? There needs to be a line drawn in the sand for these corporate entities, both in gaming and abroad.

[@Honza67382]

Have Easy Anti Cheat and been trying to delete it. Deleted some files of it and cannot find the files in the root. Wow64 amd sys32 (in drivers) apparently. But when I look at what services I have, it still says I have Easy Anti Cheat. Edit: fixed: go into cmd, give it admin and type "sc delete (eac service name)