Why can we not submit video evidence of cheating/hacking/win trading?

[Stormfur]

I edit videos as part of my work. I have a master's degree in this very subject, so it's safe to say that I've done a lot of editing. A lot.

I know customer support, GMs and such have said in the past that they cannot accept video evidence because it could be edited/tampered with. But I'm not sure they really know what goes into actually doing that.

It's not as easy as, say, photoshopping an image. You can't just "erase" characters out of the scene or edit the clip to make it look like they're doing something that they aren't. Just like with real-life movie composition, you'd have to meticulously set up a scene, get the right angles, take multiple shots, sift through the footage, etc.

It's a lot of work.

And I mean, really - who is going to go to all that trouble in a video game? Even if they did - it's really easy to tell. It's not like editing an actual, real-life shot because nothing is scripted. Every player character is moving independently of each other. Even the best video editor can't simply splice things together and make it look smooth and seamless.

And even if someone takes a clip on Twitch, it's saved on the server. Here again, even if someone downloaded it, edited it and reuploaded it, it would be easy to tell at a glance that it was tampered with. Now, I'll grant you that video evidence alone shouldn't be the only determining factor in whether or not action is taken against a player.

But legitimate PVPers -- who play by the rules -- are tired of being curb-stomped by people who manipulate the rankings and playing field for their own personal gains. We know GMs have access to combat logs, so they can see how much activity was done (or not) in a given timeframe, but that's an awful lot of sifting to go through, when video evidence could lend more credibility in addition to existing text reports.

I just wanted to voice my concern and maybe help shed some light on what is really involved in editing such things.

[Arthur_Gwen]

Because they consider win traders' rights over other players'

[Mavrias]

The same reason they don't take screenshots as evidence of harassment. It can be manipulated.

Also if your email being curb stomped by wintraders, they might not be win trading.

[Mrydeen]

Because it can lead to abuse, bias and false accusations.
If there is a violation, report it and let SE do their internal investigation.

Openly posting, shaming is unhealthy, also it can also easily create a negative image to FFXIV.

[Zandeth]

Because it can lead to abuse, bias and false accusations.
If there is a violation, report it and let SE do their internal investigation.

Openly posting, shaming is unhealthy, also it can also easily create a negative image to FFXIV.

They aren't asking why we can't post stuff here, they're asking why we can't submit video evidence to the GMs. Which I can also attest to, it's practically impossible to edit something like that in just one match's worth of footage.

[Korihu]

The same reason they don't take screenshots as evidence of harassment. It can be manipulated.

Also if your email being curb stomped by wintraders, they might not be win trading.

The entire post talked about why "it can be manipulated" is a slightly shaky excuse for videos because it takes A LOT of work to be able to edit these things and it is highly doubtful an average player or even a player who happens to be a professional video editor could possibly edit some of the described things seamlessly and convincingly.

They should, at the very least, consider live streams.

[Stormfur]

Right, I don't mean to post here -- I meant to submit it to a GM for it to be used in addition to other reports (that they could verify independently -- like combat logs). Videos shouldn't be used as the only evidence, but rather than force the GMs to sift through what must be a mountain of text, video would help actually demonstrate what goes on in some of these matches.

And re: being curb-stomped by win-traders -- I don't mean in the match itself, but rather on the leaderboard. Sorry for the confusion!

[Cynric]

They could always require time /scoreboard/names to be present the entire video, and for the video to be the entire match duration ending with the scoreboard.

You'd have to be beyond good to edit all of that and make it look believable. You'd have to get the same players in multiple matches, take all those matches and edit them together, each player including you would have to make the same movements and attacks the entire match, medals would have to be the exact same timing when picked up, everything.

That's almost impossible.

[Rakhabit]

The same reason they don't take screenshots as evidence of harassment. It can be manipulated.

How would one manipulate a live stream to falsely show that someone is cheating?


It's ridiculous, especially when one of the players that keeps getting reported is a player who has been cheating in PVE and PVP for literally years now, with one of his exploits even commented on by Yoshi P himself, yet the player is still playing the game and did not receive any kind of punishment. Until I see that player banned, there is no way to convince me that SE will ever deal with wintrading and other exploits in pvp.

When the actual guy in charge of the game makes an official comment saying "yeah there was some exploiting going on there, we will fix the exploit" yet they don't punish the player at all, then it's safe to assume that they have no interest in punishing anyone.

[Mavrias]

I responded to and specifically said videos, not live streams.

If the exploit is fixed, then the problem is fixed. That specific one, not necessarily every exploit. Idk if that person was punished or not, generally because SE has a policy where they don't tell you if another player is punished. Could have been a warning, could have been a temp ban, could have been a perma-ban and the guy remade. No one knows.