They still make a big impact on culture and social norms surrounding cheating. But you’re right. There is no fool proof anti-cheat. Software or hardware. Server side authoritative or Peer to Peer. Even with streaming only (Stadia/GeForce Now). None of them are perfect.
It’s all about mitigation and not having a free for all.
Especially since a lot of games are live service, and banning a regular player who buys cosmetics left and right for bad behavior is detrimental to profits. It’s not about making sure everyone has a good time anymore, it’s about “Getting those couple of whales to keep paying.”
At which point you can’t even have a truly functional anticheat because any client side anticheat, no matter how invasive, can be defeated.
They still make a big impact on culture and social norms surrounding cheating. But you’re right. There is no fool proof anti-cheat. Software or hardware. Server side authoritative or Peer to Peer. Even with streaming only (Stadia/GeForce Now). None of them are perfect.
It’s all about mitigation and not having a free for all.
Especially since a lot of games are live service, and banning a regular player who buys cosmetics left and right for bad behavior is detrimental to profits. It’s not about making sure everyone has a good time anymore, it’s about “Getting those couple of whales to keep paying.”