Update: A Valve employee took to reddit to counter what was said in the bug report:
Hi! Valve employee here. The bug report is incorrect. VAC will not ban you for simply having catbot in your user name (either your steam profile or on one or more of your linux accounts).
The bug report--and I suspect many of the posts in this thread--are a tactic employed by cheaters to try and sow discord and distrust among anticheat systems.
VAC has many different types of detections and we cannot discuss what they do publicly because doing so makes them less effective. However, one thing I can disclose is that all detections require that the detection occur while a user is actively cheating and connected to a VAC-secured server.
Linux historically hasn't been a problem for cheating--the base rate of cheating is significantly lower on Linux than it is on Windows. Unfortunately, a "healthy" community of cheaters grew up around catbot on linux and their impact on TF became large enough that they simply could no longer be ignored. Those banned users are very annoyed that VAC has dropped the hammer on them.
Kisak moderates many of valve's github bug repositories for us in an attempt to keep the bugs high quality and actionable. The VAC team asked him to close the issue in question and to indicate that github was not an appropriate location to discuss VAC bans. He did so, and we support this action.
For proof that I am a Valve employee, you can check my posting flair in the other subs I post on (/r/CSGO and /r/tf2) or a mod can message me and we can work on confirmation using my work email and PMs.
So in this case what Valve is doing is fine. They're getting rid of cheaters and that's how it should be.
Original article
Happy New Year! Let's start 2018 with a bit of a joke shall we: Knock Knock. Who's there? Catbot. Banned.
It seems one user came across an unfortunate issue playing Team Fortress 2 on Steam, as they were VAC banned for having their Linux desktop username contain "catbot".
I can certainly understand when a bot comes along, if it uses something so easily identifiable then as a quick temporary solution you could ban it like that until it's fixed. However, that's obviously not a good long-term solution and will (like in this case) cause an issue for users. It's not even a good short-term solution, considering how many millions of possibilities there are for a username to have "catbot" in there somewhere. Going by usernames just isn't a good idea, it's just not. Why is it not? Bots can just use random names, then this doesn't even become a temporary fix, it becomes useless.
This is what Valve replied with:
Good day, I've received word from the VAC team that this is intentional and not open for discussion on Github.
In general VAC issues are not handled on Github in any capacity and further issue reports on this may result in being banned from the Valve Software issue trackers.
Ouch. I get why they don't want their GitHub filling up with VAC issues (it's not the right place after all), but threatening a ban just like that, without any suggestions on what the user could do is a bit harsh don't you think? Considering this GitHub request is talking about bans, to then threaten a ban from the Valve GitHub trackers—come on.
Valve has done a lot of good for Linux gaming and continues to do so, but I think it's still important to highlight issues, even if they are on the stupid side.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: GuestI think you're a bit naive about this. Microsoft does not retain a desktop monopoly more than 20 years after Win95 because power is with the users in the end. Well, maybe "in the end"--as Keynes said about market equilibrium in the long run, "In the long run, we are all dead".Quoting: Mountain ManQuoting: GuestGNU/Linux users can afford to ditch Valve. Something else would fill the void, quite easily.It was literally decades before Valve filled the void in the first place. If we abandon Valve, how many more decades will we wait before someone else replaces them?
Valve only did anything as a backup plan. Gaming was growing before they did anything, even desura was there first. If Valve get uppity, I would simply go elsewhere. Power is with the users in the end, and it's good to remind companies of this sometimes.
Monopoly power exists. Perhaps equally important, network effects are powerful; every major network* that the Linux platform is shut out of reinforces its status as a second-class citizen. Steam is a very major network; deliberately shutting ourselves out of it would reinforce the status of Linux as a second class citizen. That would be a really stupid strategic move if one wants Linux use on the desktop to prosper.
Not that any of this matters. Vanishingly few people are going to leave Steam because of something like this; calling for a boycott is an irrelevance.
* "Network" should be taken very broadly here to include any software ecosystem thingie that people on other platforms can and do use a lot. So for instance, MS Office, or DirectX. That's why it would be good if Vulkan supplanted DirectX 12, and it's good that Office runs on Wine (even though I personally don't like Office and never use it outside of work).
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 1 January 2018 at 7:47 pm UTC
Quoting: LeopardI wonder what GOG done for Linux exactly if you say it will remain correct if we replace Valve with GOG.OK. This news had initially nothing to do with GOG, yet, you could not resist to accuse GOG "lovers" of "unethical" behavior.
Here you go!
QuoteSame old Valve lovers taking their chance to defend Valve, with forgetting being mindful of Valve's actions: enforcing DRM and vendor lock-in, not giving a sh*t about promised release cancellations AKA "SteamOS Sale", big Vive launch fiasco, introdusing crappy "Steam Runtime", making yet another Linux distro (but without Linux logo!) as a way to get rid of "fragmentation"…I took the liberty to actually add some facts to the post in order to fill it with substance and dilute pure emotions of the original. Hope, you don't mind. :S:
Also a note; Valve doesn't like Linux as half as your love towards them.
Sometimes I wish to turn back to these dark days, before 2010 (first Humble Indie Bundle). Valve does not deserve this kind of praise.
Quoting: LeopardI'm not a Valve lover but I want to support them by using their store because they support Linux , unlike GOG.No, you are not "supporting Valve", you are outright bashing users of other services and stores, commanding everyone we should be eternally thankful to Holy Glorious Valve Almighty for its kindness and love (of which we are not worthy, apparently).
Quoting: Alm888you are outright bashing users of other services and storesDo you actually see that you are doing exactly this?
I gave you that advice earlier when you were attacking Feral without ever having owned one of their games: "Get a beer and take a deep breath". Same advice here with Valve.
Stupidity does not protect against punishment.
And in the end these guys (guilty or not) are only banned from TF2 - they are still alive, are not hurt, do not suffer from hunger, ... but are simply dumb.
Assumed I invented wannacry. Should I use "wannacry" as my private/public linux/unix account?!
Quoting: LeopardSometimes i wish to turn back to these dark days, before 2013. Valve does not deserve these kind of treatment.Me, before Linux (2014): Ahoy pirates, let's sailing the torrent seas! (seriously I don't want pirating anymore)
Quoting: johndoeCommon guys, stop this childish Valve vs GOG wars.As me currently exploring GOG and itch.io, I agree with that.
Quoting: GuestWell, if you want to cry about it, sure. It's your party, can cry if you want to.
Seriously though, probably best to wait and see how it realky goes. Banning without warning for a bit of username fun is bad, but I can't say if that really happened or not.
Now I'm confused.
Do you know what "wannacry" is/was?
It is/was a malware which encrypted thousands of windows computers in may 2017.
Maybe I should have used "sambacry" (linux version of wannacry) or something even more worse like the name of this austrian dictator who killed countless jewish people in ww2 to fortify my last assumption?
Quoting: GuestWoooooosssshhhh!
The sound of the joke flying by over your head. Listen to broader music - I'll let you google around to figure it out.
Oh, and leave that Godwin's Law crap at home. Makes you sound about 12. And a disrepectful 12 year old at that.
No, thank you.
I'm 42 years old, have a wife and wonderful two kids I have to take care.
No time to listen to music made for kids.
And thank you for your kindness.
Luke_Nukem Jan 1, 2018
Quoting: johndoeMaybe I should have used "sambacry" (linux version of wannacry) or something even more worse like the name of this austrian dictator who killed countless jewish people in ww2 to fortify my last assumption?"Catbot" is literally Hitler now. Logic checks out.
Quoting: GuestYou are mistaken. MS never had a server monopoly or even very close. Unix was always big; Linux just gradually became the biggest Unix.Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: GuestI think you're a bit naive about this. Microsoft does not retain a desktop monopoly more than 20 years after Win95 because power is with the users in the end. Well, maybe "in the end"--as Keynes said about market equilibrium in the long run, "In the long run, we are all dead".Quoting: Mountain ManQuoting: GuestGNU/Linux users can afford to ditch Valve. Something else would fill the void, quite easily.It was literally decades before Valve filled the void in the first place. If we abandon Valve, how many more decades will we wait before someone else replaces them?
Valve only did anything as a backup plan. Gaming was growing before they did anything, even desura was there first. If Valve get uppity, I would simply go elsewhere. Power is with the users in the end, and it's good to remind companies of this sometimes.
Monopoly power exists. Perhaps equally important, network effects are powerful; every major network* that the Linux platform is shut out of reinforces its status as a second-class citizen. Steam is a very major network; deliberately shutting ourselves out of it would reinforce the status of Linux as a second class citizen. That would be a really stupid strategic move if one wants Linux use on the desktop to prosper.
Not that any of this matters. Vanishingly few people are going to leave Steam because of something like this; calling for a boycott is an irrelevance.
* "Network" should be taken very broadly here to include any software ecosystem thingie that people on other platforms can and do use a lot. So for instance, MS Office, or DirectX. That's why it would be good if Vulkan supplanted DirectX 12, and it's good that Office runs on Wine (even though I personally don't like Office and never use it outside of work).
Microsoft may dominate desktop right now. They did so in the server space once upon a time. Funny what happened there.
The major reason MS were unable to establish such a monopoly was that they sucked so bad as a server for a number of years that the differences were readily measurable in money. That's much more difficult to establish on the desktop.
The situations are not remotely comparable.
But if you want a comparison, server Linux did not prosper by doing things like reject Samba. Desktop Linux will not prosper by doing things like reject Steam (or for that matter GoG's Galaxy if we can get our mitts on it). Not that you personally should use it if it doesn't fit your needs.
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