Be sure to claim it before the offer ends.

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[–] 135 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It also requires root level access and is listed as such in their TOS.

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  • [–] 31 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    How do terms of service give them root level access?

    EDIT: For the record, I've been playing through this whole series in the middle of when they rolled out these EULA changes, and I wish them the best of luck in getting root access to my machine, but I promise you they didn't get it via Proton.

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  • [–] 38 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    It doesn’t, installing the game does. The terms of service just let you know that you are willfully infecting your computer with spyware.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Then I suppose the loophole is to play on Linux.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Not in general. Typically, games with kernel level drm or anticheat just didn't work at all.

    Borderlands 2 specifically has a native Linux version though, and it may or may not abuse this fact. It isn't run in a sandbox-like environment like Windows games that run through proton, but according to protondb it does run through proton? In any case yes, it's probably better than running it on Windows.

    Edit: looks like running through proton is recommended, as saves aren't interchangeable (wtf?) and at least some dlc just doesn't work with native version (wtf do).

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    Yes, support for Borderlands 2 continued long after it was clear that Steam Machines weren't taking off, which means it's on a newer version than the Linux native one that Aspyr ported. You can still run the Linux native version, but if you want to play with your Windows friends or just get access to all the DLC, you need to run it through Proton.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    Are you running it as root for some reason? Cause if you are not running it as root, it doesn't have root access, absent some kind of major security flaw in Linux.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    No of course not, but if it's run under proton/wine it doesn't even have access to any normal files. When it's run natively it does (documents and all that). I'm not saying it's doing anything with this, or even that it would make sense.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I wouldn't even give them the storage space tbh...just makes other people think it's ok because they can claim 'big yuge numbers of players'

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago*

    It's Borderlands. They already had that claim. I don't feel good about it, but they made this change after I'd already started this trek. It's one more data point that gets me closer to only buying games on GOG, but I'm not all the way there yet. It's definitely nefarious that it's all good and legal to change the terms of the thing you bought after it's already been sold to you. However, I also don't see any evidence yet that it's actually getting root level access to your Windows machine other than someone's summary in a review, which is not exactly direct from the source.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    By indicating that root access is required to play the game, and that you agree to this by agreeing to the TOS. Without agreeing, you can't play the game.

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  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I don't mean to be disrespectful when I say this, but I can agree that gravity pulls things up instead of down and it won't make it so. I just skimmed through the EULA and didn't find anywhere that it said it needed root level access (though maybe I missed it), nor did the executable take any action to try to do so.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago

    People seem to not understand how TOS works. The game exe does not request admin permissions at all. There is no kernel level anticheat. It does not install Battleye or EAC or anything of the sort.

    The TOS is not specific to this game. It just means there is at least one game by Take Two Interactive that requires this (though when I skimmed through I couldn’t find mention of it).

    The game has not been updated since 2022 and I highly doubt it will get any more.

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  • [–] 78 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Be warned, these games have turned into literal spyware. Installing them gives 2K/Gearbox root access to your computer and collects a ridiculous amount of info.

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  • [+] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Technically, yes. WINE/Proton aren't sandboxed so it would be possible to pull some information at least. I've heard people install the flatpak version of Steam to isolate network calls using flatseal, so that's one workaround potentially.

    NOTE: I'm just talking about generic data collection. The DRM/anti-cheat stuff could flag you as using Linux and then the game just refuses to run. I know the new ToS talked about banning VMs so maybe they lump linux users into that (at least for online play).

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  • [–] 34 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Yes everyone go and claim your free spyware so whiny bitchford can data mine your PC.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Out of the loop. What did gearbox do that time?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    The reason its free is because they added a data miner with root level access.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    The game executables haven't changed. All they did was add a generic TOS. That doesn't magically give the game the capability to get kernel level access.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    You are forced to agree if you want to play it, this is how shady companies operate. Now that you have agreed to it there is nothing stopping them from adding it in an"update".

    If you think a shady ass company like epic wouldnt do that you are very naive.

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  • [–] 27 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Good thing 🏴‍☠️'d copies exist of before the malware.

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago

    Don't claim it is a free trojan

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    We should have the Lenny version of a subreddit where we just post what games are free this week

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago