Hi. I made a support request recently voicing some concerns I had about the upcoming implementation of Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) and was recommended to make a forum post in this channel. I am not the most vocal of people when it comes to being part of the community but I feel as though it would be against my principles if I didn't at least try to reach out. Allow me to preface this by saying I don't cheat, nor do I condone cheating; I feel as though the foundation of this community is based on good-faith engagement in the world that we share. I started playing in 2020 and have accumulated nearly 2000 hours across all aspects of the game; I love this game and am saddened with the decision that Rare has made to implement mandatory kernel-level anti-cheat. The purpose of this post is try and bring awareness to the community and to Rare that this is the wrong decision not just for the game but for the overall PC-gaming community as a whole. I hope that at the very least, I can convey enough that would inspire you as a reader to perform your own research and make a more informed decision when it comes to whether or not you are personally OK with this decision. I will also include some links at the end that you could use for educational purposes.
There are better resources out there on the Internet than the forum post of some nobody on the role of the kernel in modern day operating systems, but a rather simplistic perspective is that it is the most protected part of your system. Access to the kernel is highly restricted and for good reason, it has complete control over your computer. This is the reason that the kernel has become the target for anti-cheat developers - bear in mind that this is not out of malice on their part - having their software run at this level of authority allows complete surveillance of your system's memory processes. This can be leveraged to identify if anomalies are present in the memory space for the game and figure out if your application has been modified to enable cheats. From a consumer's perspective this presents a severe and ever present vulnerability. It would be paranoid to suspect that anti-cheat developers themselves are intent on hijacking the systems of their clients, but this vulnerability can be exploited by malicious actors that stand to gain an ever increasing payday. With how ubiquitous these kernel-level anti-cheat solutions have become in modern day, the number of people that compose the vulnerable population is massive (10s-100s of millions of people) and a malicious actor stands to gain more the larger this population - this constitutes incentive to attack the implementation. I'm not suggesting by any means that someone you sank in hourglass is going to try and hack you because of some grudge they carry, I'm saying that someone who compromises the proprietary software employed by the developers of programs like EAC will have the means to exploit everyone that has the software - these are the prime conditions that enable a successful massive scale cyberattack. As PC gamers, we have seen time and time again that these kernel-level anti-cheats keep reappearing as a 'solution' to a 'security' problem (cheaters); there is no one in the supply chain of these products that truly has your security in consideration - it's just you. I have complete confidence that Rare is not making this decision in order to compromise their player base, but it's a consideration that they need to account for. We as a gaming community should not be OK with companies employing any software at the kernel level because accountability with regards to data breach will always be on us. We are the ones that stand to lose the most in this transaction. This was a reality with the anti-cheat solution employed in Genshin Impact - bad actors utilized this to exploit victims in order to kill their antivirus processes and employ ransomware en masse (video linked below). In the following section I will give a few points as to why the solution that is being employed by Rare is not appropriate for the Sea of Thieves community.
Competition: Sea of Thieves is not a competitive game; aside from tournaments that are established by segments of the community (which are fantastic and reveal a component of the game that the community in whole should be proud to host) the vast majority of the community is not whole-heartedly dedicated to refining the technical skills required to play at the upper echelon of performance. This isn't to say that people don't try to get better at the game nor that there isn't satisfaction in sinking your opponent at the end of a long winded hourglass match, its just that there really isn't anything to lose. Losing in this game sucks, yes, losing to cheaters sucks even more, but you'll get a new server, a new opponent, a new bit of loot to argue over, its not the end of the world, you don't lose any significant matchmaking rating, and there isn't some leaderboard on who is the most successful pirate in the game. Every incredible feat of PvP prowess can be attained by anyone dedicated enough to the game. This still isn't representative of the community as a whole though, most of the people playing the game will boot it up, vote up a quest, sail to the island, finish the quest, sell the loot, and log off. Would their day be really much different if they were attacked by cheaters or someone who just finished their streak in hourglass? People will play the game for the components that they want to play, with or without cheaters, the game will play the same at the end of the day. The lack of a true competitive scene and active support for it from Rare weakens the argument that such drastic implementation measures are necessary for the game, especially when community events are so well curated to a selection of the player-base - if they cheat, don't let them into your tournament.
Point of Sale to Now: I bought the game in 2020 and have nearly 2000 hours in it. There are many players that have significantly more time in the game than I do. When I purchased the game, there was no kernel-level anti-cheat, it wasn't even a thought to me that such an issue could have been realized. I am going to uninstall the game, I don't want that software on my system, I don't want to be victimized, I don't want to be part of the vulnerable population. I'm sure there are players more dedicated than myself that will likely be having the same cognitive dissonance that I'm struggling with and I ask, why? It feels unfair. I love this game, I love this community, I love the random encounters with wacky people on the seas, I love the developers that pour their heart and soul into the game that has evolved so much over the time that I've played it, but it doesn't matter, because I have to stand by my principles. I won't be reinstalling the game until I find a means through which my mind can be at ease while I play. Rare, this is for you, please don't take this game away from me and the other potentially more silent minority of players that care passionately about your game but can't accept these measures as our new reality.
Community Outcry and The Player Base: People in the community have been crying out about cheaters in this game for as long as I can remember. Any legitimate player that has an appreciable amount of time in the game has likely been accused of hacking. I think that the impact of cheaters on this game has been vastly overstated. I think that it has been sensationalized because its harder to accept defeat from a legitimately skilled player than it is to claim that your opponent bested you through unfair means. YouTube videos titled 'We Sunk Cheaters' or 'Keg Hacking Player Tries to Sink us' attract a lot more attention than a YouTube video of a relatively new crew trying to control their boat while fighting another boat that doesn't realize they can raise their sails. The reality is that most encounters in the game have no one with an unfair advantage, most of the players that best other people have more experience with shooting their weapons, aiming their cannons, and repairing their boat. It is rather subjective, but in my collection of hours I've only encountered 2 cheaters, I've participated thoroughly in all aspects of the game: with countless hours in adventure, I have also grinded out Legendary/Triumphant Sea Dog in Arena, and have reached over 300 allegiance (I know its not as high as a lot of players, but I'm still dedicated to the game-mode and actively trying to improve). Both of my encounters with cheaters were in adventure mode. I think we can all agree that a significant majority of the player base isn't cheating, but its been represented and sensationalized in that way. I'm sure that Rare has more insight into the matter, but I feel as though exposing the large population of good, honest players to these countermeasures in order to target the small group of individuals that are intent on disrupting the community is rather extreme. I'd liken it to exposing an entire population to doses of radiation in the hopes that the few in the population with cancerous tumours will be cured. Although the risk to the individual is small, its unnecessary considering that the effectiveness itself may be questionable. Why should the majority of the honest playerbase be added to the vulnerable population because of a small collection of malicious actors? It just doesn't make sense and further establishes the dangerous precedent that has evolved since the conceptualization of kernel-level anti-cheats. This is the main problem that Rare needs to consider - Do they have a duty to keep their players safe? Are they responsible for the ramifications if a cyberattack is realized through this platform? Is this the institution that they want to support? I think that a hard stance against cheating is appropriate, but I think that Rare needs to find their own solution to the problem - they could still take a stance against cheating and ensure that the gaming community is aware that they care about the end-user's security above all else. I think that delivering a product that has the end-user in mind is far more important than getting rid of the cheaters that the EAC implementation will actually catch. This brings me to my next section.
Does it Work: Of course we won't know until its implemented, but I suspect that people will still be complaining about cheaters. Does this mean that the cheaters haven't been banned? While there will be some that slip through the cracks, I suspect the majority of issues are spawned from perspective, not from reality. EAC has been employed in a collection of different games and has demonstrated that it can weed out cheaters that utilize distribution based software. Anyone that is competent enough to generate their own cheats will just have another hoop to jump through before they can ruin someone's hourglass streak or hurl obscenities at a streamer. Kernel-level anti-cheats work to target these distributions of cheats but can be overwritten by cheats employing kernel-level drivers. This evolutionary arms race between cheaters and preventative measures is just going to lead to more sophisticated cheats and more intrusive anti-cheats - the common factor is that the only person truly being punished is you, the legitimate player that is trying to enjoy their favourite game. I think that a different approach is required from Rare (and all developers for that matter), one that could weed out cheaters and avoid compromising their genuine player base - if Rare could more adequately define the behaviours expected from genuine players and weed out the exploits and bugs that deviate from this behaviour, they could employ an anti-cheat solution at the server level rather than on individual users. Rare you've already had success with this approach before, the instarepair cheat comes to mind, implementing time between repairs and proximity to the shipwright as mandatory elements of the game practically stopped that cheat in its tracks. I urge you to consider making your game more robust to resisting cheats rather than issuing compromise onto your legitimate player base. I will include a list of games that employ kernel-level anti-cheats in a link below, anyone that is part of these communities could likely shed more light on the effectiveness of these anti-cheat solutions in a given game, but at the end of the day, no matter what measures Rare takes, we'll still have cheaters in our game.
I don't want to lose this game, I don't want to lose the part of me that it has cultivated over the last 4 years of my playtime, but I can't in good conscience continue to play with knowledge of the ramifications of the approach that is being adopted to combat cheaters. Rare I petition you to reconsider the course that you are steering this game, a game that has been about pursuing the freedom of the Pirate's Life independent of personal history and the complexity of the world that we live in. To say that this game is special is an injustice, it is truly unique and has cultivated a diverse player base that unites in their ability to pursue their goals with not but the skill and cunning they've developed over the course of their adventure. I want the game to be healthy, free of cheaters, and available to everyone so that they can experience it as I have, which is I why I'm making this post. Please, find another way to solve this issue - stand up against the standard that is being pushed on the gaming community that disregards the security of your player base. Take the high road so that you can establish the trail for other developers to follow in the future. For any other players that bothered to read this wall of text, I urge you to seek out your own research and educate yourself on the matter as best you can, engage in good-faith, and have your voice heard - if you agree or disagree with my perspective, say something, because its the only way that anything changes. No solution is perfect, but there are other solutions to this problem that wouldn't put the onus of vulnerability on the player base. Thank you for reading my post and I hope that it isn't lost to the red sea. I know I'm only one voice, a drop of water in a Sea of Thieves, but I love this game and don't want to lose it over this.
Links for anyone seeking more information - I'm sure you could find more online about this issue throughout the history of other developments:
The only other forum post I could find on this matter
A list of games with kernel level anti-cheat software
This video discusses the kernel and the vulnerability of anti-cheats - has to do with Riot Games/Vanguard anti-cheat
Also has to do with Vanguard and Valorant - potential language warning
Genshin Impact kernel level exploitation - advertisement warning
Reddit post by kernel dev discussing EA's anticheat solution
Article discussing Doom Eternal and the controversial anti-cheat that was going to be implemented
