FauxLiving
@FauxLiving@lemmy.world
- Comment on What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews. 4 days ago:
The language about collecting and using data have been in TOSs for basically every online service since the early '00s.
I’m not saying that this is okay. The data that these services collect, which we’ve given them unlimited rights to, has only become more valuable and the incentives for these companies are always for them to gather more data about you.
You can use archive.org if you want to look at older policies from the same company. But, if you pull up any other game with an online component you will see that they all are essentially “Don’t cheat our services or hide your identity, We’re going to collect your data and use it how we want, and you have to enter into binding arbitration” with various levels of detail and verbosity.
- Comment on What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews. 5 days ago:
I’m sure I believe a lot of nonsense from reading the Internet.
That’s okay, we’re just human. The problem is when people try to ‘inform’ people of things that they ‘know’ from reading social media. That’s how these situations are created, so many people believe this because so many other people believe it and then repeat it as fact without themselves ever checking.
It’s like a feedback loop of ignorance, caused entirely by people who care more about getting social credit for talking and less about saying things that are true.
- Comment on What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews. 6 days ago:
The point is that the license agreement for this game and others owned by this company didn’t say this shit before, and now they do.
That’s just not true.
Here’s a Reddit user trying the same kind out outrage farming 7 years ago using Take 2’s TOS and implying it allows spyware: www.reddit.com/…/take_two_a_spyware_apocalypse/
If you look at Valve’s TOS or any other game developer who has games with an online component, you will see the exact same language regarding data collection. The language being added is to comply with laws, like the GDPR, which requires specific language indicating what data is collected and how it is used.
The data that is being collected is the same as it was 10 years ago. There’s nothing new here, just a YT video that got a lot of views and social media being full of people who don’t fact check anything.
- Comment on What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews. 6 days ago:
Thats a windows thing so it can put files in “protected” folders like program files
The unfortunate thing about the UAC prompt is that it gives the software permission to put files in protected folders, but it also gives the software root permission so it can do literally anything else without prompting the user. Except, I believe, if it tries to install unsigned kernel drivers, then the user has to click a new prompt… but you can completely compromise a machine with the permissions that users routinely give to executables that they download from the Internet.
- Comment on What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews. 6 days ago:
They added spyware to it.
No, they didn’t.
Just because something sounds outrageous, doesn’t mean it is true.
Borderlands 2 hasn’t been updated since 2022:
Borderlands - Last updated: 3 August 2016 Borderlands 2 - Last updated: 4 August 2022 Borderlands 3 - Last updated: 8 August 2024
No Borderlands titles include anti-cheat: areweanticheatyet.com/?search=borderlands
Here is another person, 7 years ago trying the exact same outrage-based engagement farming strategy of linking a TOS update and implying a nefarious intent: www.reddit.com/…/take_two_a_spyware_apocalypse/ It’s exactly the same “Take two is spying on you!!!” content and yet, none of the Borderlands games have added spyware and none have added kernel anti-cheat.
Also, if you read the 2018 and 2025 TOS you will notice notice that the information that they collect in the 2025 TOS ( www.take2games.com/legal/en-US/ ) is exactly the same as it was in 2018.
TL;DR - Just because you read it on the Internet, doesn’t mean it is true.
- Comment on What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews. 1 week ago:
It is also worth nothing that no Borderlands games use anti-cheat, much less kernel anti-cheat. I’d even go as far as to say that no Gearbox, Take2 or 2k Games use kernel anti-cheat.
This is boilerplate language for games which include an online service component. Publishers often use the same Terms of Service across all of their games, so they include language that is often irrelevant for any specific game.
The only thing that’s different about this is that there are a bunch of bored people who consume engagement farming content, which often make outrageous claims in order to earn money from engagement farming. This “story” is not an actual story, but it is a great example of how a mob can be summoned with some creative writing and a credulous audience.
- Comment on What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews. 1 week ago:
So…if Steam is running in a Flatpak, and Borderlands is launched from Steam, how much can they even see…really?
Without using exploits to escape the container, not much. A very empty Windows environment with a single game installed, your network interfaces and any directories that the Flatpak has access to (usually just the SteamLibrary directories).
The TOS (www.take2games.com/legal/en-US/) changes are mostly related to data that they collect via their interfacing with Steam and through their website. This idea that they’re requiring you to agree to a root level access or installing a spyware rootkit are just nonsense.
- Comment on What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews. 1 week ago:
Shh, the kids don’t want to hear about the dark side of free things (oh hey, a new Meta service!)
/s
- Comment on What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews. 1 week ago:
He said it
That not misinformation…
It is misinformation if the things he said are not true.
So, let’s look into the claims.
Here’s the TOS:
www.take2games.com/legal/en-US/
There is nothing about root level access.
In addition, if you look at the patch history for Borderlands 2 on SteamDB, you will see that the last update for the game was 4 August 2022.
So, to be clear:
There is nothing in the TOS that requires you to submit to a rootkit and there is no spyware that has been added. The comment in the OP is simply wrong.
This is what happens when you simply read social media and repeat what you’ve heard without checking to see if you’re spreading misinformation.
- Comment on What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews. 1 week ago:
console
If you’re worried about personal data collection then I have some bad news for you…
- Comment on What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews. 1 week ago:
No, it’s misinformation and people who uncritically repeat things without verification.
I’ve had the game installed for years and have to manually apply updates, there hasn’t been one.
All they’ve done is make their TOS universal across all of their games.
- Comment on 'Andor' Season 2 Debuts to Nielsen Viewership High With 721 Million Minutes 3 weeks ago:
It’s an old code, but it checks out
- Comment on 'Andor' Season 2 Debuts to Nielsen Viewership High With 721 Million Minutes 3 weeks ago:
Same, I only committed to finish Season 1 after the Season 2 hype. Then I binge watched both seasons over the weekend (and am pulling down Rogue One to watch again)
- Comment on 'Andor' Season 2 Debuts to Nielsen Viewership High With 721 Million Minutes 3 weeks ago:
Rogue One is basically Andor Season 2.5
- Comment on 'Andor' Season 2 Debuts to Nielsen Viewership High With 721 Million Minutes 3 weeks ago:
Your loss
- Comment on Messing up my weekend schedule 1 month ago:
It’s frustrating enough to make you lay colored eggs 🤔
- Comment on We never outta tweakers 1 month ago:
Lil bro was tweakin’
- Comment on Bees don't have lungs. 1 month ago:
My yard is surrounded by pine forest, nature does a good job of keeping it from spreading too far. No flower beds, decorative plants in pots.
It’s low maintenance and looks good enough for the backyard and I don’t have neighbors close enough to complain about rhizomes.
- Comment on Bees don't have lungs. 1 month ago:
I certainly agree that the texture of Poa Pratensis is much more pleasurable. However, being in zone 8 and not wanting to seed my entire lawn every year, I’m more familiar with E. ophiuroides and Zoysia japonica.
- Comment on Bees don't have lungs. 1 month ago:
My aunt Bee had lung cancer
- Comment on Bees don't have lungs. 1 month ago:
Some commenters here really need to go and come into contact with Eremochloa ophiuroides
- Comment on Proton 2 months ago:
He tweeted once and is therefore canceled because social media doesn’t understand nuance or context
- Comment on Proton 2 months ago:
It’s literally a nothing situation that social media, in its drive to find outrage in every single thing, has blown completely out of proportion.
- Comment on Give us your craziest ocean facts. 🦑 2 months ago:
…so far
- Comment on BACK OFF FELLAS, SHE'S MINE 2 months ago:
New Nichole just dropped
- Comment on What is anti-propaganda? 2 months ago:
I started using anti-vaxx propaganda tactics satirically.
The goal is to show how the tactic is manipulative by applying it to something obviously not dangerous.
Water is easy, start insisting that “dihydrogen monoxide” is dangerous:
Celebrity just died? “They had dihydrogen monoxide before they died, maybe it killed them”
“All traffic fatalities in the last 5 years were link to people using dihydrogen monoxide”
“Dihydrogen overdoses kill people every year”
“Why is dihydrogen monoxide in everything? Why is big dihydrogen monoxide putting this in everything, what are they trying to do?”
“I bet Trump was on dihydrogen monoxide when he thought of his tariffs plan”
Etc
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
Social media users love to clutch their pearls.
Treating it like it’s exploitative let’s them get their little dose of outrage, it doesn’t matter if it matches reality or not.
Despite the fact that, as you pointed out, to do so often requires that they assume some pretty offensive things (like, “a 19-20 year old is only good for sex and housework”).
- Comment on Why Do Sites Keep Shoving Features We Don’t Want Down Our Throats? 2 months ago:
It’s the power of defaults.
1 person will hate the change but 100 others will be affected by the default and not care. The net result is more as revenue even if the first user cancels their account.
- Comment on Why Do Sites Keep Shoving Features We Don’t Want Down Our Throats? 2 months ago:
Exactly this.
You’re not the customer. Google is an advertising company, their customers are people who buy ads.
People who watch shorts watch more videos so there are more slots to put ads in. So, you’re going to watch shorts.
- Comment on How to love 2 months ago:
It’s like being a kid again 🤩