Honestly, this seams a bit unfair. My understanding is that VAC is free or very inexpensive and pretty decent, while other options are potentially better for some cases and more expensive. Valve making a reasonable anti-cheat available is a good thing IMO.
So it existing is a good thing, it just may be the wrong fit for a given game (e.g. more popular games probably need a more intense anti-cheat).
If a game isn’t detecting cheaters well enough, blame the game, not the anti-cheat system it uses.
Even with GoG, you still pay for a license. Yes it’s better because you can get all the files for another install, but if you don’t own it why pay for it?
What has Valve done right?
Overall, I prefer Valve and Steam over a Chinese holding firm that almost has the monopoly over the gaming industry and the company with a black logo that has a close-minded CEO and Sweeney’d to Tencent.
Honestly, this seams a bit unfair. My understanding is that VAC is free or very inexpensive and pretty decent, while other options are potentially better for some cases and more expensive. Valve making a reasonable anti-cheat available is a good thing IMO.
So it existing is a good thing, it just may be the wrong fit for a given game (e.g. more popular games probably need a more intense anti-cheat).
If a game isn’t detecting cheaters well enough, blame the game, not the anti-cheat system it uses.
Beyond all of those, there’s GOG.
Even with GoG, you still pay for a license. Yes it’s better because you can get all the files for another install, but if you don’t own it why pay for it?