Of course you can rate limit individual IPS/devices.
But that’s gonna turn your most avid players against you, as their game will stop working. The API requests can mimic in game behaviour, it just requires one person willing to make a decent script set up and distribute the script on a troll forum.
There might be an api key trick with steam I’m not aware of, but if they’re not careful anyone can just generate an api key
aksdb@lemmy.world 1 week ago
If the game uses the Steam SDK, they “of course” can at least check that the request comes from an authorized game (SSO via Steam). But sure, people who bought the game can still easily troll the dev, unless they also employ some kind of anti-cheat system. But from what it sounds like even then a troll could simply play the game excessively and then ramp up costs for the dev.