Antivirus Software and PC Gaming: [NEWS] Webroot SecureAnywhere® AntiVirus for PC Gamers Released



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Userlevel 4
I know Cheat Happens' trainers DO call home. It's a security check for their "Exclusive to paid members" trainers to make sure only the paid member that downloaded it is the one using it. I guess it's checking the IP and if it's found calling home from too many different ones it disables it or something.
 
A small price to pay for me really. At least they are reputable and I know their trainers are not viruses.
Userlevel 7
I am a long term gamer myself I have a decent sized boxed collection of old Dos/Windows games as well as a decent enough console collection (I have a photo somewhere). WSA doesnt impact any of my games although I regularly whitelist my PC and the games I play which probably helps.
 
As for trainers etc being blocked by WSA a good number of them that I have looked at are actually doing malicious things like contacting remote servers so do be careful when using them (I use some myself).
 
Currently playing through the new Xcom game which is quite excellent just as good as the originals in my opinion.
 
 
Userlevel 5
I'm an avid gamer with a wide range of games that I tend to play. Although the machine I play on is pretty bulky in terms of performance, I don't think I've ever noticed anything from Webroot while playing. This includes playing MMO games, which are particularly heavy on the network traffic.
 
While some here have commented that trainers and other 'cheating applications' don't function properly, I don't remember having encountered that a lot with WSA. The one I frequently use is called Cheat Engine, which manipulates the memory of the game directly. Initially I was expecting Webroot to complain (as it's probably virus like behaviour to manipulate memory like that), however I never saw it being blocked or prevented by WSA.
 
For people that are looking at getting the most of their performance out of their games (Yes, I'm looking at your Crysis 🙂 ) WSA would be a great addition if people aren't running it at the moment. Since it out-performs it's competition this would be ideal to supplement other security measures that most gamers take already.
 
Maybe marketing can think of something to bring this up to the global gamer community as I only see advantages versus other AV solutions.
Userlevel 7
I will start off by saying I am not currently much of a gamer, but I have been a pretty heavy gamer in my past.  It was my practice to ALWAYS shut down my AV protection while gaming: the performance hit on the computer from the AV was just unacceptable.  Any slowdown of the computer ended up in me being fragged instead of fragging my opponent.  (Quake III).
 
I have seen how much of an impact WSA-Complete has on my current computer.  This computer is old folks.. 2008 model.  It was not top of the line by any means when I got it.  The CPU is mediocre, and downright bad by today's standards and I only have 3 Gb RAM.  I have essentially NO computer impact running WSA-Complete except when scanning.
 
If I was running an AV solution this light back in my Quake III days, the protection would have been left ON while gaming.
 
Just me .02 worth.
Userlevel 7
Badge +6
Webroot is the only AV I would run while gaming. You just can't have your AV taking up 100MB of RAM and performing any inspection of non-executable content when you're trying to game. If an antivirus requires some kind of "gaming mode" then obviously it's wasting resources when you're not gaming and reducing protection when you are. "Gaming modes" are an admission an AV product isn't up to par when it comes to performance impact.
 
The only negative with PC gaming when it comes to Webroot is its intense heuristics, memory protections and untrusted process sandboxing, which make things like cheat trainers really not reliable at all. I've had to swear them off but it's probably in my best interest. I'll probably put in the work to whitelist them when I run some old GTA games again with well-vetted trainers but until then it's not worth it to me. If Webroot wanted to improve this they could implement a way to just tell it to shut up about everything when it comes to a certain file. It's a pain to convince WSA to let me run something that it thinks is an infection and modifies memory. Probably a good thing for 95% of people since trainers are a major vector since they specifically require the disablement of a lot of antiviruses to function.
 
I'm running a GTX780 Classified, and I'm not going to waste the performance of a $700 card. With Webroot I don't have to pick between performance and always-on protection. 
 
Games are an infection vector since they are not usually as scrutinized for security holes but as online gaming moves more and more to MMO/hosted server solutions this is less of a risk. However, the only thing that would probably stop a hijacked game executable would be a HIPS solution anyway. It's not something I would trust an antivirus to solve regardless of vendor.
Userlevel 4
*Raises hand*.  I've been collecting and playing PC games since 1978. I have a collection of 5000+ PC games, all store bought.
 
Webroot is perfect for my needs in that respect. Although sometimes I'll use a trainer for some older ones just to mess around after I've beaten a game. (Lifetime membership to Cheat Happens), and Webroot doesn't seem to like some of them, even though I know they are safe. It's the nature of the app I guess. It IS doing stuff to another program that may appear virus-like.
 
Anyway, No problems with Webroot and games here. And nothing I can think of to improve it in that respect.
 
My Steam library is currently at exactly 300 on top of my physical collection.
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Thanks Jim for the great Questions as I would like to know gamers Opinions.


 
Daniel

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