I got thinking about this when I was looking at stuff generally on steam it's amazing how I can't even find a run of the mill multiplayer shooter these days. Yes I know there's crap like PUBG but that's spyware now as well and it runs like potato because the maps are too big. Apex has the same problem, spyware, Call of Duty, already ranted about that, they try to make you give your phone number just for the privilege of logging into your own account the glowie cunts.
You know the games industry is in the shitter when they're not even bothering to put out a typical shooter and they've decided that third person walking simulators for the sake of ticking off diversity boxes. These are not difficult genres to do and they could probably retain a playerbase if they made them playable but they can't even manage to do that anymore.
I guess Helldivers 2 technically counts which is why everyone is playing that, but you know the playstation account nonsense. CS:2 is an obvious one but the lobbies seem to be filled mostly with bots and Turkish players now.
The reason the anti-cheats are kernel level is because the cheats are also kernel level.
CS also has always had its pro players/anyone who wants to play actually good ranked use FACEIT client because normal CS has always been botted to hell.
The more I think about it the more I feel they're going to simply kill off multiplayer gaming especially with how you've now go phone number requirements being a thing and we're inching closer and closer to the perfect internet society that boomers like Jordan Peterson dream of. It's only going to be the indie titles that do anything decent anymore but I do wonder with all the online safety crap we're going to see regulations get set up big time.