Is playing FFXIV on Linux against ToS?

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Originally Posted by Johners

The key difference between the official macOS client and running the Windows client via WINE/Proton is that only one needs a third party launcher.

On Windows, the launcher uses a proprietary Microsoft standard that doesn't work in WINE/Proton so you have to setup a version of XIVLauncher in order to actually play the game. If we run that against the word-for-word terms of service, it's a third party tool and breaks the terms of service to do so. If SE ever change the launcher so it runs fine in stock WINE/Proton, there's nothing else that suggests you'd be breaking the ToS, you'd just receive no customer support as they don't officially support this use case.

On macOS, Square Enix ship the game with a CrossOver compatibility layer that works with default launcher. This doesn't break the terms of service because no additional third party tools are being used but rather it's a custom and officially supported compatibility layer.

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This is not true, the use of that third party launcher is absolutely not required to play on Linux as the newer launcher is not actually necessary.

I'm doing it right now. It runs in Proton/Wine and there are working scripts to do it for you published on Lutris, you can look at them and see that the one labelled as using the official version only installs from an official source.

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Originally Posted by Tyzi

Have had a look around and have not seen any concrete information, and thought I'd ask this question here now with everything happening regarding mods/third party add ons.

Is it against ToS to play on Linux using the official launcher, or through Steam?

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I don't know. I'm still trying to figure out if playing it on my Gameboy Advance is going to get me banned.

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Originally Posted by Johners

On macOS, Square Enix ship the game with a CrossOver compatibility layer that works with default launcher. This doesn't break the terms of service because no additional third party tools are being used but rather it's a custom and officially supported compatibility layer.

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The official launcher only works on now quite old and insecure versions of OS X. Pretty much like the MAC equivalent of Windows 7.

If you want to use the current release of OS X you can't run the supplied launcher. It's simply not compatible.

SE are actively selling a product that won't work on the current OS.

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Originally Posted by hagare

right...
because Linux isn't supported

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I'm not worried about the game getting support I am aware its not supported and don't expect that while the Linux marketshare is so small. But I would like to not get banned just for playing on my preferred platform lol

First off the Mac Launcher is broken because its not a swift UI app and SE refuses to do anything they don't feel is necessary, unfortunately they are not the best judges on what is actually needing to be fixed. I'm being nice btw.

The launcher on Mac experiences massive UI issues such as when trying to move the window itself and not being able to unclick/deactivate it's dragging. It simply follows the mouse movement anywhere on the screen even when not dragging the window bar. I have spoken to SE 3 times about this and they insist nothing is wrong, when clearly every Mac user has this issue with their launcher. I even supplied them a Swift UI implementation that would fix all their launcher problems, their response was "Sorry we do not work with content creators." Like umm... what? Who said I was a content creator? If being a programmer makes me a content creator then ALL SE developers are content creators. Don't get all butt hurt because I fixed your flaws. I wasn't asking for credit I just wanted you to fix it.

Second, you cannot be banned or blacklisted for running the game on any unsupported architecture, this is not in the ToS at all, and even if it was you are not required to follow it. After all, you are paying for a service they are providing and they would also be breaking their ToS by discontinuing that service because you tried to use what you pay for. The game is a port on any system other than windows and uses wine. I thought that the new launcher update would change to crossover but that has never happened. The client on Mac and linux still use wine, and a very dated one at that.

Since the latest patch (6.55) my client cannot go into raids, my BLM casting time was reduced and my rotation is no longer the same. But no classes were touched right? So this leads me to believe it's a porting issue they are continuing to ignore.

It is not against ToS to use an unofficial launcher (such as XIV on Mac which allows retina displays to work yet SE still doesn't?) or unsupported OS that the ports work on. If it was against ToS I wouldn't be playing the game anymore since I'd have no way to launch it without XIV on Mac Launcher, which was made by Apple employees btw. XIV on Mac launcher utilizes crossover also as well as more native retina resolutions and 4k. Unlike the "official" launcher.

When a company says an OS is "not supported" it simply means they do not attempt to fix problems for users on the unsupported platform, there is no native code for it or any APIs that are included for anything unsupported. It doesn't mean you aren't allowed to run it on unsupported arch, it just means they don't recognize it as a supported platform.

On a side note, who else remembers SE telling us Mac users they would have a native Mac client available after the massive break in Mac users when they broke us with an update? Funny that never happened, I feel like I was lied to since I already had the game preordered for the native Mac client, and it never happened. This is why SE as a development company is failing, they don't even recognize the power in Metal or the new M series SoCs, if they knew anything or had any interest in making amazing graphics they would be making a native Mac client using metal APIs, and THEN base all other clients off of it as the new graphic standard. They would save so much development time and have immense graphical upgrades. But here we are updating shaders and lighting without taking into account the lack of power in DX12 or that its future is looking bleak, continue going down that road SE.... sad.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

The official launcher only works on now quite old and insecure versions of OS X. Pretty much like the MAC equivalent of Windows 7.

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Well, they fit well together, since this launcher looks exactly like an artifact from late 2010: its laggy, its slow, it cant save passwords, it cant properly interact with steam to save login. Some times I don't even bother to play the game coz of this launcher asking my password again and I am too lazy to type it, and then press ton of buttons to finally log in into the game world.