Summary of “Anti Cheat at Embark Studios” prensentation by Embark Studios Senior Software Engineer Tom van Dijck, at devcom in Germany on August 24.
… Linux presents an even worse situation. Because users can custom-build the OS kernel, embedding a cheat directly into the kernel and compiling it makes it nearly impossible for a game to detect its existence. “How do you detect that?” van Dijck asked, adding that while support for SteamOS and Proton will remain, platform requirements will become stricter.
Though he mentions anti-cheat on Linux being more challenging to implement that on Windows, he doesn’t seem to think that it’s impossible. He goes on to talk about “undetectable” cheating hardware becoming cheaper, which sounds like a bigger problem, but he sounds optimistic about being able to detect those as well.
IMO “platform requirements will become stricter” could mean something like only allowing signed kernels with anti-cheat module built in + secure boot.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but those games didn’t track official player rankings. Which is perfectly fine, and doesn’t make a game any less competitive, but official rankings is a legitimate feature that some people gravitate towards.
To be extra clear: I’m mostly with you, I think every multiplayer game should at least offer the option of self-hosted servers, and I backed Stop Killing Games to force them to do so (after official servers shut down).
Though to be honest… My opinion on this topic isn’t worth much. As I said, I don’t play any competitive games. So it’s very likely I’m missing some important info in my perspective.