[lockemx]

Interestingly, the game doesn't run as admin for any good reason. The first thing I did was only let the launcher and game run as the user with RunAsInvoker. The anticheat alone is allowed RunAsAdmin. At the same time, I don't trust any anticheat. It's probably worse than useless, but it is what it is. I thought Microsoft would clean this up after the Crowdstrike incident for all kernel-level code, but I guess there's no incentive for them to only let game companies request runtime analysis / reports rather than run code. As for the anti-cheat industry, they should focus on patterns of user behavior to help game companies moderate the players as much as neccesary.

[zwily]

I have a related question for you... my kids like Marvel Rivals, but I also use Microsoft family tools to limit their screen time so they don't have Admin accounts. However, the Marvel Rivals anti-cheat makes me enter my password every time they launch. Is there any way for me to create a shortcut or something so Rivals will launch without my password?

I'm not a Windows guy and trying to figure this out has been extremely frustrating...

[voxic11]

You can make a on-demand scheduled task that runs Marvel Rivals as admin then create a shortcut that invokes the task.

Full instructions https://chatgpt.com/share/67a13960-c1b4-8002-a699-7b547c759c...

[sandyarmstrong]

I just had to fix this for my kid over the weekend. https://steamcommunity.com/app/2767030/discussions/0/5962604... was very helpful:

You can also skip the UAC prompt without editing the registry, by adding the following to the game's launch options in Steam:

cmd /min /C "set __COMPAT_LAYER=RUNASINVOKER && start "" %command%"

[zwily]

Wow... thank you so much. I actually couldn't get that way to work, but adding RunAsInvoker in the registry worked for us. I can't believe all it took was one registry entry.

[kevingadd]

I tried to get Microsoft to stop signing kernel mode anti-cheat drivers with no result. Even when a vulnerable driver is found the vendor is given way too much time to deploy a fix while the vulnerable build is out in the wild with a valid signature. The signature should be revoked as soon as an exploit is found, it's an anti-cheat driver for video games not essential business/government infrastructure.

[EA-3167]

If anticheat worked then it would be an interesting, perhaps tolerable tradeoff for some. The reality however is that games are absolutely packed with cheaters, there's an international industry in creating cheats for popular games, so what you get is an arms race that as usual only punishes honest users. It's like DRM, pirates don't seem to have much of a problem, but it sure can hurt the rest of us.

Unfortunately both the executives who buy into these things, and the average consumer, are simply too... simple, to understand or appreciate that.

[maccard]

> Unfortunately both the executives who buy into these things, and the average consumer, are simply too... simple, to understand or appreciate that.

With all due respect, it’s ironic that you’re calling everyone else simple.

Something doesn’t have to be. 100% effective to be a massive deterrent. Cheat prevention is a game of cat and mouse and anti cheat is one of the levers. Here[0] is an example of a popular game with no anti cheat which was completely ruined by cheaters. Did putting EAC into the game stop every single cheater? No. But it did make the experience better for a significant number of players who were having their games destroyed by cheaters.

[0] https://www.pcgamer.com/fall-guys-adding-anti-cheat-in-the-n...

[EA-3167]

The line that stood out for me in that article was: "There is no in-game reporting system." On a somewhat amusing note, I searched for stories about cheating on Fall Guys these days, and one of the first results was... a vendor for cheats. Literally the third result. Another result was a Reddit article from last February talking about the ubiquity of cheaters. There are similar articles in a similar time frame on Steam and elsewhere. TikTok at that same time has collections of videos of them.

While I'm sure that Easy Anti-Cheat is... easier than a reporting system that would require numerous humans working it, I don't think it's the best solution for the player. It's "just enough" at best, and at worst... well see the article we're all commenting under.