Hardware & Technical Discord and Steam. Does it work for ED and JWE?

[Hooplah]

Greetings,

I have some unfounded (and maybe a founded or two) concerns using Discord and Steam for playing ED and other games.

I had Discord for awhile but wasn't using it a lot so I went to remove it from the PC. What a pain in the rear! There are so many hidden files that Windows uninstaller won't find plus they would reload upon a computer restart. It took additional software and skills to remove them. I once removed viruses from customer's computers and this brought back a lot of memories! It is not that Discord is in any way a virus but the uninstall procedures make me question why they made it so difficult to remove. My guess is that they want to continue gathering data on your PC per where you go and what you do. I also have concerns per it's data collection design, malware uploads and bot abilities many researched on Google as well as these examples:

Spyware on Discord
Norton's Symantec concern about malware on Discord
A Frontier Forum thread on the bot issues

Steam is also all over the place per good and bad reviews so hard to tell. I have seen support requests on the Forum and wonder why there isn't a separate Steam sub-forum in the Bug Reporting section. Being fair I cannot tell if it is a user issue or an actual ED/Steam generated problem. I was condidering Jurassic World Evolution: Deluxe but with unfounded concerns maybe I should await a direct PC download version. Then maybe it will never come.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

So what are your opinions on Discord and Steam? Is your computer safe using Discord? Does Steam add problems when playing ED? Do you have issues or does everything work great for you?

I also welcome any Frontier personnel replies on Discord and Steam especially with the upcoming release of Jurassic World Evolution. Feel free to post your confidence in Steam and post FAQs links on how to properly use it as well as what not to do when playing a Frontier game via Steam.

Regards

 

[Winter Jasra]

Never had a problem with steam, nor with steam and Elite.

Never had any problems with Discord either, but if you're gonna upload data to a bot then yeah could be a silly thing to do.

Heard lots of people say windows uninstaller is useless and will in most cases not uninstall everything it perhaps should, CCCleaner used to get recommended a lot for uninstallations and file clean-ups - not sure if it's any good still, but I still have it on my PC:

https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner

 

[Slopey]

Issues with Discord/Steam have nothing to do with ED/JWE - hence moved to the Tech forum.

 

[Hooplah]

Issues with Discord/Steam have nothing to do with ED/JWE - hence moved to the Tech forum.

I would disagree with previous ED issues and JWE coming online. Issues with Discord/Stream have a lot to do with playing ED. But that's Ok. I wasn't sure where to post in it the first place. Still I wonder are you moving it with less discussion per an emotional response versus a place to discuss the issues with the most response? Are you scared about something? I of course don't expect an answer. That's OK.

Regards

 

[RexKraemer]

Steam: I would say in general ok, less issues e.g. the update of ED, no special security issues, valve is quite security aware, and data gathering also not an issue in steam.

Discord: proprietary software, no self-hosting, no clean deinstallation (statement from you, I don't really know). Conclusion for me: don't use.
I am using teamspeak on a Virtual Server (debian) for me and my friends/games.

 

[Henkka77]

Been using Steam almost 14 years = zero problems.
Been using ED via Steam since the launch = zero problems.
Been using Discord with Elite for over 2 years = zero problems.

Then what?

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

I was condidering Jurassic World Evolution: Deluxe but with unfounded concerns maybe I should await a direct PC download version. Then maybe it will never come.

I doubt very much that will happen. ISTR that Planet Coaster was available via the Frontier store for the first month or so then went Steam-only. If they were going to have a direct download for JWE they would have done it from the start, including pre-orders.

 

[Necronaught]

I would disagree with previous ED issues and JWE coming online. Issues with Discord/Stream have a lot to do with playing ED. But that's Ok. I wasn't sure where to post in it the first place. Still I wonder are you moving it with less discussion per an emotional response versus a place to discuss the issues with the most response? Are you scared about something? I of course don't expect an answer. That's OK.

Regards

How on Earth does Discord have anything to do with ED? It's third party software and nothing to do with FDev. You run it in the background while playing Elite or anything else computer related.

 

[Lucifera Danzig]

Spyware on Discord
Norton's Symantec concern about malware on Discord
A Frontier Forum thread on the bot issues

The issues of spyware/malware is unfortunately a matter of doing business on the internet.

The important thing to note is the Symantec article doesn't specifically say Discord incorporates the malware directly, but rather the malware makers rely on the user being trusting enough to blindly open a file that they shouldn't be opening. That's going to happen anywhere.

The issue of the Community bot is a matter of a small group making a plug-in that people installed on their Discord servers, then said plug-in makers altered the code to do things it shouldn't. Easiest way to avoid that is not allow bots, or only allow bots you make yourself or can see the code to. If you don't use bots at all, this isn't an issue.

As far as the matter of Discord's "information collecting," there's this response by one of the devs to a Reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3pxre5/discord_sucks/

Relevant excerpt:

"Hey there - I'm one of the developers and CEO of Discord. I thought I'd comment since I think you're misinterpreting our policy a bit. We are not interested in what pictures you're posting or your chat messages nor do we want to profit from them. That's sleezy business IMO. You'll notice in that paragraph of "Your Data" that you quoted above, it says that you grant us license to use it subject to our privacy policy, in which we clarify we will not sell data to advertisers. One example why you have to grant us rights to use your data is so we can send your messages to your friend so she can read it. It's literally impossible to build an internet service where you submit data (and doesn't leak your IP) without something like this. Our intention is to make money by selling optional cosmetics like stickers, emoji, themes, etc. and we may or may not use virtual currency for it, hence the stuff about a virtual currency. Anyway, I hope that clarifies things. We are really trying to build and run Discord in a way that would make us happy as gamers, and therefore, you too Happy to answer any more questions."

 

[Henkka77]

Yup, i wouldnt worry until Facebook buys Discord. Which will most likely happen eventually..

 

[ethelred]

Been using Steam for at least 10 years (not for ED though) - zero issues

Been using Discord for a lot less, but had no issues. I get your concerns and it's good to be aware of the risks. However for both Steam and Discord the benefits outweigh any risk as far as I can see - I'm not on random channels/servers and so I know the bots that are used either because I know the ppl personally, or I trust the channel manager.

That's an acceptable risk for me - YMMV.

 

[Caramel Clown]

Discord isn't a virus, it's like PC cancer Teamspeak FTW. Best sound quality to this day.