Recently there was a thing where VAC would erroneously flag AMD’s antilag+ feature as cheating, and issue a ban.

AMD then quickly disabled the feature by default but now Valve also patched detection for it and is now, at least according to these patch notes, reversing the bans.

  • leave_it_blank@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    The creepy thing is there is a possibility you can loose everything you bought in the worst case, maybe forever, without you being at fault. This time it ended ok, but who knows what’s on the horizon.

    With GOG I have all my games backed up thanks to DRM free policy, but with Steam…

    • DV8@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Vac bans mean you can’t play on vac secured servers. Nothing happens to your other games. For a competitive multiplayer game some anticheat detection is wanted. People changing their dll’s to gain a competitive advantage is cheating. AMD making and distributing this unintentional cheat doesn’t change that.

      I agree that buying directly or through GoG and backing up your games is the best thing to do. But this incident isn’t really related to that.

      • 3ntranced@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Trade bans scare me. With thousands of dollars of virtual skins, if you get banned, you can’t sell anything.

      • PixxlMan@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        By that logic buying a better pc is cheating because it gives you an advantage. We need some nuance here. All modifications to game files are not cheating, (even if not allowed in any case), because well, not all modifications are cheats. This is a great example actually, because AMD sanctioned, graphics card driver latency reduction isn’t a cheat. Obviously the way it was implemented was clearly very problematic and should’ve never been greenlit.

        However, this isn’t an unintentional cheat and detecting it as such is incorrect. It is, however, a modification and those are reasonably disallowed, it is totally fair to disallow that.

    • berg@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      I think a VAC ban only bans you from that one game, at most from other games with VAC. I got VAC banned in modern warfare 2 10+ years ago, but it hasn’t had an impact on my account/other games. More than a notice on my profile that it happened.

      … just to add, the ban was justified. I went into a game and just held down the shoot button with a plethora of cheats on to see what it was like. It took all the fun out of it and cost me a game I liked. Not recommended. : )

      • Maalus@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Depends on the game iirc. If you get banned in a Valve game, you don’t get to play multiplayer in any Valve game.

        • berg@lemm.ee
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          2 years ago

          Sure, there’s a possibility. But since it hasn’t happened in 10+ years I doubt it’s a problem.

          • BirdyBoogleBop@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 years ago

            My friend can’t play Hell Let Loose because of a game ban on a completely different game. Different anticheat, and different publisher. So. I would be shocked if a VAC ban wouldn’t cause the same issues.

    • beefcat@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      anti-cheat and drm aren’t the same thing

      complain all you want about anti-cheat, i would rather play a game that has it than one that does not

    • Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      A VAC ban is only for online games that use VAC, and even then I think they can still use community servers.

      It doesn’t lock you out of your account or anything.

      • BirdyBoogleBop@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 years ago

        Unless they are VAC secured

        Even if it’s an entirely different game by a duuferent publisher, you might get premtively banned from playing because the ban is visible on your account.

    • histic@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 years ago

      sorry to break it to you but gog no longer has a no drm policy big example being cyberpunk

      • leave_it_blank@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I played Cyberpunk and the Add-on directly from the installer without Galaxy and had no problems. What am I missing?

        • LFR@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          I think you have to be logged in in Redlauncher to get some extra stuff (missions, cosmetics, etc.). Also some Twitch exclusive stuff.