Read the EULA, if you don't want an anticheat that requires those permissions then don't install the game.
Something having kernel access doesn't make it a rootkit, it makes it high-risk for misuse by a threat actor. Only if the software was exploited by a bad actor to acquire root/hardware permissions would this issue actually become something.
That, or if the anticheat wasn't uninstallable and/or dodged scans intended to locate it, etc.
Putting the responsibility to understand legalese (and advanced concepts like rootkits) to such an extent on the end user is just straight gaslighting. Nobody has the required expertise to determine what an EULA actually says outside of the lawyer who wrote it, and even then, I wouldn't guarantee it.
Ugh. As in blaming someone, casting aspersions on them for something that isn't their fault or responsibility. Words broaden in meaning. If you're going to quibble about semantics, I got nothing to say to you.
I have no idea if the gamers installing it are "unaware" (I never played such a game), however it's still a shitty practice. The average Joe has no idea what the hell a rootkit is and it's predatory to exploit this. Also, no game should install rootkits. For the love of god, it's a videogame.
most anticheats run in the kernel, even the most popular ones like battleye and vanguard.
also they are often installed automatically while launching games for the first time, without any prompts
slef hosted servers don't solve cheating on their own either.
proper authoritive server shouldn't send or accept any information that isn't strictly necessary, like positions of players that are in a completely different part of the map
I STILL don't buy Sony shit because of that. They booby trapped their product and idiots still buy it. There are plenty of competitors who don't do that.
Which one? There was the 2020 one by winnti group that attacked Linux servers for a decade, and another in 2021/22 called symbiote, but I don’t know how long that one was hidden for.