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.

  • @[email protected]
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    1210 months ago

    If you meet someone playing these games then they are the dumbest people you have run into

    Hello, nice to meet you. I am trying to get away from it, but it’s hard. Sunk cost fallacy and all that. BUT I am playing at lot less. Having to dual boot to play one damn game is gonna help too.

    • Ook the Librarian
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      410 months ago

      Dual boot would only protect you if have your other side encrypted or are monitoing it to make sure the other partition is never mounted.

      What you need to play games like this is a side-piece computer on its own LAN.

      • @[email protected]
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        710 months ago

        If you believe the game to be malware you should not play it. Even if it doesn’t have a kernel-level anticheat.

        A binary on Windows can do pretty much whatever it wants.

        • Ook the Librarian
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          210 months ago

          Agreed. But I was more highlighting what lengths you need to go to protect yourself from a rootkit. I thought the parent mentioned dual booting as a sandboxing measure. I could have been mistaken.