THIS HAS TO END

[Mike]

how do u even chat in chinese anyways? not sure u can type chinese alphabet in FF11... :?

Mostly with pinyin.

[Alhanelem]

The difference is that you actually have to be at the PC to press the macro to yell.

If you think this never happens, well, it does happen. People manually use /yell and /shout macros all the time for recruitment or trying to buy/sell stuff. Multitasking is a thing. Press your chat marco, tab to web browser, tab back to game and press it again. Of course, 15+ years ago it wasn't possible. So at least they eventually let us window the game without tools.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't WoW officially support add-ons? If so, that's a completely disingenuous comparison.

"officially support" in the sense that it's not a TOS violation. But their GMs nor tech support will help you if it breaks anything. Which it absolutely can.

I just really don't like the whole holier-than-thou vibe I got from your comments on this subject. Maybe that really isn't your intent, but that's how it came off to me. But at least you can draw a distinction from outright cheating (i.e. cheatengine) and quality-of-life / accessibility improvements. and I think SE looks at these things in context (and considers spirit and not just letter of the rule) as well.

FFXIV does this as well. The producer himself has gone on the record saying he doesn't have much of an issue with people using things like parsers or stat tracking for self improvement, even though it's *technically* against the TOS. They generally only take action if such tools are used to harass/harm others i.e. being toxic towards another player for putting out lower DPS than you'd like)

Originally, FFXIV was going to allow UI modding (and the built in UI is built with LUA script), but they ended up just investing their energy in continually improving and expanding the flexibility of the UI, which is vastly more customizable than WoW's built in UI.

This is something that the FFXI devs never handled very well, which is why UI mod tools exist. If they actually listened to the feedback back in the day (and/or actually implemented the New UI they started but never finished), most of the people who use those things probably wouldn't find them necessary.

But it's too late for that now. UI improvements would likely require too much dev time and would compromise the release of new content. I wish I could time warp back to when we had the test server, got more people to try it and convince SE se to have kept working on it.

Anyway, that's enough rambling from me. I probably overreacted and I'm sorry for that.

[Stompa]

Although FFXI is a computer game, and relies on modern technology, it is still fundamentally a *game*, no different to classic ancient games such as chess or card games.

When a person agrees to play a game, they are accepting a challenge, and they are accepting the rules of the game.

If a person is not playing by the rules of a game, they are not actually playing the game at all, merely cheating.

FFXI has strict game rules, and this is one of the reasons why FFXI is a Classic Game.

Among FFXI's strict game rules, are rules against "third party software" and the buying / selling of in-game currency, Gil.

If a person is using *any* third party software, or buying / selling *any* Gil, that person is no longer playing the FFXI game by the game's strict rules, and imho they are no longer playing FFXI at all, but rather they are playing a desecrated and defiled and insulting parody of the magnificent game called FFXI.

When the FFXI Team does not have time or resources to Police the violations of game rules, specifically use of third party software, buying / selling Gil, etc. it must fall on players themselves to clean up the game, at least to the best possible extent.

If no players bought Gil, if no players used third party software, then those problems would not exist.

As an individual, you can contribute to cleaning up the game, by strictly playing by the game's rules. Don't use third party software, and don't buy Gil. Encourage other players, especially new players, to do the same.

By simply taking this stance, on an individual level, of playing the game by the actual rules of the game, you just made the world a better place.

[Alhanelem]

FFXI has strict game rules, and this is one of the reasons why FFXI is a Classic Game.

Among FFXI's strict game rules, are rules against "third party software" and the buying / selling of in-game currency, Gil.

While I would agree with the notion that FFXI is "classic", it isn't classic by virtue of having rules.


--Disclaimer, I know you were more focused on the RMT issue, but since you mentioned rules in a general sense, I feel like the content of this post still applies. --



Also, its important to remember that the spirit of the rule is generally more important than the letter. The spirit of the rules on third party tools and programs is that in a multiplayer environment, certain things that can potentially be done with outside intervention may give players an unfair advantage. Note that the word "may" is important there. I believe SE doesn't really want to keep people from playing the game purely because of the rules, and this is why they are unlikely to act on things like making UI elements easier to read, or other accessibility/QoL type improvements.

Inflexibly forcing the rules by letter only serves no one. When an apparent violation of a rule (any rule) is apparent, the proper course is to analyze the situation and determine if following the letter of the rule seems appropriate, or if no actual harm is being caused and the spirit of the rule is being adhered to.

In much fewer words, there's a difference between people *actually cheating* and people with good intentions trying to ensure a good experience for themselves and the others that my interact with them.

And in short: I don't feel that following the rules strictly to the letter makes the world a better place. The world and everything in it exists on a spectrum, not in black and white.

And I resent the implication that me using an overlay to make the HP bars bigger so I can see them clearly with my less than stellar vision, would be "cheating." This wouldn't so I can have an advantage, this would be just so I can play the game.

Note that FFXIV has a multitude of interface options and adjustments available so that this can be achieved without external tools. I find it highly unlikely that SE is going to punish something like this. Accessibility is important and something that the original FFXI team apparently never planned for.