this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
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What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews. (lemm.ee)
submitted 3 days ago by bimbimboy@lemm.ee to c/games@lemmy.world
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[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

They added spyware to it.

Here is excerpt from the tos, shared by user in steam reviews of the game.

important Info in Terms of Service:

• Mods are a bannable offense • Display of Cheats/Exploits is bannable • Forced arbitration clause and a waiver of class action and jury trial rights for all users residing in the United States and any other territory other than Australia, Switzerland, The United Kingdom, or The Territories of The European Economic Area • You can be banned for using a VPN while connecting to online servers • Cannot access game content on a Virtual PC

Collected Data Types: • Identifiers / Contact Information: Name, user name, gamertag, postal and email address, phone number, unique IDs, mobile device ID, platform ID, gaming service ID, advertising ID (IDFA, Android ID) and IP address • Protected Characteristics: Age and gender • Commercial Information: Purchase and usage history and preferences, including gameplay information • Billing Information: Payment information (credit / debit card information) and shipping address • Internet / Electronic Activity: Web / app browsing and gameplay information related to the Services; information about your online interaction(s) with the Services or our advertising; and details about the games and platforms you use and other information related to installed applications • Device and Usage Data: Device type, software and hardware details, language settings, browser type and version, operating system, and information about how users use and interact with the Services (e.g., content viewed, pages visited, clicks, scrolls) • Profile Inferences: Inferences made from your information and web activity to help create a personalized profile so we can identify goods and services that may be of interest • Audio / Visual Information: Account photos, images, and avatars, audio information via chat features and functionality, and gameplay recordings and video footage (such as when you participate in playtesting) • Sensitive Information: Precise location information (if you allow the Services to collect your location), account credentials (user name and password), and contents of communications via chat features and functionality.

I wouldnt touch anything this company has produced.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

They added spyware to it.

No, they didn't.

Just because something sounds outrageous, doesn't mean it is true.

Borderlands 2 hasn't been updated since 2022:

Borderlands - Last updated: 3 August 2016 Borderlands 2 - Last updated: 4 August 2022 Borderlands 3 - Last updated: 8 August 2024

No Borderlands titles include anti-cheat: https://areweanticheatyet.com/?search=borderlands

Here is another person, 7 years ago trying the exact same outrage-based engagement farming strategy of linking a TOS update and implying a nefarious intent: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/8naopt/take_two_a_spyware_apocalypse/ It's exactly the same "Take two is spying on you!!!" content and yet, none of the Borderlands games have added spyware and none have added kernel anti-cheat.

Also, if you read the 2018 and 2025 TOS you will notice notice that the information that they collect in the 2025 TOS ( https://www.take2games.com/legal/en-US/ ) is exactly the same as it was in 2018.

TL;DR - Just because you read it on the Internet, doesn't mean it is true.

[–] snek_boi@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 minutes ago* (last edited 6 minutes ago)

Interesting. So the terms of service have not changed, and yet people are saying that they did. I wonder if there are criticisms that are still valid. For example, the terms of service that you linked:

  • do not let me use a VPN (¶6.4)
  • do not let me use glitches (¶6.4)
  • do not let me own the game but instead give me a limited license to it (¶2.1-2.2)
  • do not inform you about updates to their terms of service (¶10.2)
  • force me to enter arbitration and do not let me be part of a class action lawsuit or have a trial by jury (¶17.5)
  • link to their privacy policy, which:
    • does not let me opt out of having my data bought, merged, and sold through ad networks or data brokers (§ Categories of Information Collected, § How We Use Information and Our Legal Grounds, § Sources of Information We Collect, and § When We Share Information ¶ 5— all sources combined)
    • does not attempt to deliberately minimize data collection to protect user data (with the only exception of children's data, their purposes are extremely vague § How We Use Information and Our Legal Grounds, they do not anonymize data, and they broadly do not make the attempt to do so— I cannot provide a citation because there is no attempt to do this in their privacy policy)
    • does not specify the purposes of gathering and using information about any installed application on my device (§ Categories of Information Collected)
    • does not let me opt-out of data collection categories for specific purposes (cannot give a direct citation because they simply do not do it; instead, they wrote vague types of information they collect —such as "details about... other information related to installed applications" in § Categories of Information Collected, as well as vague purposes in § How We Use Information)

So, coming back to the original claim you were debunking:

They added spyware to it.

Your response was

No, they didn’t.

And after reading their terms of service and privacy policy, I agree with you. If it is true that they haven't changed their terms of service, then they didn't add it. Instead, it was always there. They have always said that they gather "details about... other information related to installed applications" on my device for purposes that can include merging and selling my data to data brokers and ad networks.

[–] Yermaw@lemm.ee 1 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

I sometimes wonder what I casually believe because I read it while scrolling for something interesting. I don't have the time or inclination to fact check every single detail I come across.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

I'm sure I believe a lot of nonsense from reading the Internet.

That's okay, we're just human. The problem is when people try to 'inform' people of things that they 'know' from reading social media. That's how these situations are created, so many people believe this because so many other people believe it and then repeat it as fact without themselves ever checking.

It's like a feedback loop of ignorance, caused entirely by people who care more about getting social credit for talking and less about saying things that are true.

[–] overload@sopuli.xyz 2 points 8 hours ago

Totally. And then these rebuttals are time consuming to fact check too.