Virus from a game?

[Demon_Skeith]

Ever get a virus while trying to find a game to play on your PC?

 

[Uncrowned Guard]

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a virus or malware from a game itself, even back in the old days when some of the download sites were definitely sketchy. As long as you weren’t grabbing random EXEs from who‑knows‑where, it usually wasn’t as dangerous as people made it sound.

What’s funny is that modern anti‑cheat systems are starting to look worse than the malware we used to worry about. Kernel‑level access, constant system scanning, harvesting hardware info, usage logs… all just to play a single‑player game in some cases. That’s the part that bothers me way more than the idea of a game giving me a virus.

And the irony is that after all that invasive anti‑cheat, you finally hop into multiplayer and half the lobby is cheating anyway. So you end up giving up more privacy than you’re comfortable with, and the protection still doesn’t work.

So no, I’ve never gotten a virus from a game, but I’ve definitely had games behave in ways that feel more intrusive than any virus I’ve ever dealt with.

 

[TheRavenfreak]

I never got a virus from downloading a game before. I've got one a few times trying to download music from Limewire though. xD There was a Sonic fan game that had a keylogger in it, simply because one of the devs didn't want people to steel his work. When word got out that a keylogger was in the fan game, he was suspended from Sonic Retro for a bit.

 

[froggyboy604]

I haven't gotten a virus from downloading a PC game.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a virus or malware from a game itself, even back in the old days when some of the download sites were definitely sketchy. As long as you weren’t grabbing random EXEs from who‑knows‑where, it usually wasn’t as dangerous as people made it sound.

What’s funny is that modern anti‑cheat systems are starting to look worse than the malware we used to worry about. Kernel‑level access, constant system scanning, harvesting hardware info, usage logs… all just to play a single‑player game in some cases. That’s the part that bothers me way more than the idea of a game giving me a virus.

And the irony is that after all that invasive anti‑cheat, you finally hop into multiplayer and half the lobby is cheating anyway. So you end up giving up more privacy than you’re comfortable with, and the protection still doesn’t work.

So no, I’ve never gotten a virus from a game, but I’ve definitely had games behave in ways that feel more intrusive than any virus I’ve ever dealt with.

So true on the anti cheat programs, kind of wish there were better systems in places but people will go the extra mile for free stuff.