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.
I’ve been playing League casually from time to time on Linux, and it’s just a shame that they’re adding Vanguard to the game since that kills any compatibility it had under wine. Though, knowing League community, a lot of players on Linux are so addicted to the game, they’ll switch their operating systems for it or buy a second computer just to play.
The TPM 2.0 (and secure boot) requirement is only enforced if you’re running Windows 11.
As if I needed another reason not to ever use Windows 11.
Thanks for the correction, I’ve removed the section from my comment.
I don’t fully know how these kernel level anti cheats work, but is it possible to setup a VM or some other container solely to run games like these?
in theory yes, but vanguard is very good at differentiating between VMs and real hardware
In theory yes, in practice, it’s a great way to get banned if they want to crack down
To add to this, if you VM, you have to find a way to hide the fact that your VM is a VM. Often, the GPU is the number one problem doing this, so a passthrough is enough.
That’s another problem. So few will vote with their wallets because they’re so addicted to the game they’ll just deal with it.
Gaming (compatibility) is the only reason I’m not on Linux. I have tried it before and if all my games were possible to play on it I wouldn’t even look back.
It’s pretty close right now, especially since steamdeck and proton. Take a look at protonDB, see if there’s a critical mass of your main games to try again?
Thanks, I’ll take a look but AFAIK Valorant still doesn’t work properly and smoothly on Linux.