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Re:Guild Wars 2 distributed spyware in order to detect cheaters by digi_owl on Monday April 16, 2018 @01:58PM (#16851163)
One thing to note is that one of the programs they flagged accounts for, Cheat Engine, is basically a memory modifier similar to what you find in console emulators (or what GameShark or similar used to do).

It should have limited effect on any competently written online game as the game state would be decided by the server, not the client.

Re:Guild Wars 2 distributed spyware in order to detect cheaters by dogma1138 on Monday April 16, 2018 @04:58PM (#16852706)
Cheat engine can be used to automate various in game actions either directly via macros or by identifying the memory addresses involved which you can then abuse via other means.

So in essence it can be constitute as cheating even if you don’t break any game mechanics directly but simply automate actions which most online games prohibit.

Re:Guild Wars 2 distributed spyware in order to detect cheaters by v0x on Monday April 16, 2018 @02:32PM (#16851503)
Well, yes, online games should be resilient to memory modification, but few are coded perfectly to prevent this (and many games, even AAA MMORPGs like WoW, let the client get away with way more than it should).

The smart thing to do is to look for when tools are actually injecting themselves into your process, not just looking for the presence of the process itself. That is just a completely inept way of going about it.