Japanese FFXIV streamer receives a suspension for using add-ons.

[kaynide]

The easiest case in point:

I'm a healer, my swift cast is down, someone else promptly eats a marker and dies.

A) We both say 'no swiftcast' on TS, I start hard casting the raise without the need to wait.

B) I spot their swiftcast is on CD, I start the hard cast raise without the need to wait.

These both use a 3rd party program to quickly let me gauge information I 'shouldn't' be privy to which in turn helps me make a decision quicker to gain an advantage in content.

Yet one is absolutely fine, the other is a 10 day ban and a permanent mark on your account.

Why?

Because you can just as easily type out "no swiftcast ready" or have it macro'd.

Voicechat is simply not something that's going to get you banned because people use phones or -heaven forbid- simply play the game together in the same room.

Having software that actively reads data from the game, especially data you shouldn't be able to see (other healer's cooldown times) is very obviously different.

[Sebazy]

Because you can just as easily type out "no swiftcast ready" or have it macro'd.

Voicechat is simply not something that's going to get you banned because people use phones or -heaven forbid- simply play the game together in the same room.

Having software that actively reads data from the game, especially data you shouldn't be able to see (other healer's cooldown times) is very obviously different.

This is precisely the point. I could even be playing next to my co healer and simply peer over at their hotbars quickly to see if they have Swiftcast. Once we've got the routine down I could memorise if they use swiftcast consistently at a point for movement. I could make a mental note if they got a raise recently or if I had not long heard it's fairly distinctive audio cue.

This is all a huge nothing burger, yet one of these will land you a 10 day ban etc etc.

[Scaramouche]

Because you can just as easily type out "no swiftcast ready".

As a ps4 player I have to

click 1 or 2 times touch pad
press right pad
press circle
press triangle
Go to every letter 1 by 1
press R2
press circle


All that without being able to move/attack while the virtual keyboard cover a good chunk of my screen.

[Vahlnir]

As a ps4 player I have to

click 1 or 2 times touch pad
press right pad
press circle
press triangle
Go to every letter 1 by 1
press R2
press circle


All that without being able to move/attack while the virtual keyboard cover a good chunk of my screen.

Virtual keyboard on the PS4/5 is the worst. You should honestly invest in a wireless/wired keyboard for chat.

[Avatre]

As a ps4 player I have to

click 1 or 2 times touch pad
press right pad
press circle
press triangle
Go to every letter 1 by 1
press R2
press circle


All that without being able to move/attack while the virtual keyboard cover a good chunk of my screen.

As Vahlnir said below you, invest in a wireless keyboard. I did a while ago, and it saves tons of time when trying to type out anything because that virtual keyboard is trash and prevents you form doing anything else. At least with a wireless keyboard you can still move to avoid mechanics if need be.

Even a $20 one will work. Just keep it beside your chair, and turn it off when you're done for the night(I recharge mine once every couple weeks).

[Punslinger]

If the rules are no addons and stupid people stream with them showing then they deserve a ban !!

Because rules are always just and never poorly-conceived or unevenly-enforced, right?

Having software that actively reads data from the game, especially data you shouldn't be able to see (other healer's cooldown times) is very obviously different.

How is it "data you shouldn't be able to see?"

Given: The game records your co-healer's use of Swiftcast in the combat log.
Given: Swiftcast has a known cooldown of fixed length.

Conclusion: You can look at the combat log and the elapsed time to determine the remaining cooldown. Or is subtraction a secret forbidden technique we're not supposed to understand? (Actually, given how much trouble people had with Construct 8...)

[Shurrikhan]

Or is subtraction a secret forbidden technique we're not supposed to understand?

Ogi: Hikisan
奥義: 引き算
Secret technique: Subtraction

Pruned before Samurai could even be released due to "cognitive bloat".

[VerdeLuck]

Because rules are always just and never poorly-conceived or unevenly-enforced, right?

The rules have always been this way
SE doesn't want you using addons, mods, or plugins period.
They have no way to know if you're using them unless you outright say it or stream it and someone reports you.
But again, they really do not want you using them and if a report comes their way from someone and it has concrete proof you were using an addon, mod, or plugin, they will ban you.
It's always been like this, they don't ban everyone because the only people who are banned are the people who are reported with concrete proof of using them, whether an admission connected to their character name, or by streaming it.
Complaining that there's uneven enforcement is silly because they do evenly enforce it when they have proof, most cases just don't have enough proof for them to act on it, and these streamers are offering the proof up on a silver platter by admitting on stream they're using it, going to use it, or by having them visible.

[IdowhatIwant]

Complaining that there's uneven enforcement is silly because they do evenly enforce it when they have proof, most cases just don't have enough proof for them to act on it, and these streamers are offering the proof up on a silver platter by admitting on stream they're using it, going to use it, or by having them visible.

But you are wrong about there has been even enforcement, specially seeing how people have been streaming with add ons turned on for almost 10 years now with 0 enforcement.
I just think it's kind of funny that he was banned for a dps meter and an add on to show buff timers under the buffs on the party list, SE bans him and says he we are going to add some of this stuff into the game.

[Punslinger]

and these streamers are offering the proof up on a silver platter by admitting on stream they're using it, going to use it, or by having them visible.

Counterpoint 1: Those streamers were only banned after a bunch of channers decided to brigade and witch-hunt them, going on a mass-reporting spree. Square doesn't actively monitor stream feeds to patrol for add-on usage. We know this because Square didn't bother banning these streamers before the mass-reporting. Which tells me that Square really doesn't give a toss about people using add-ons as long as it's not for harassment.

I'm not sure how to make it any clearer that it's Square allowing themselves to be weaponized as a form of harassment against streamers that's the problem here.

Counterpoint 2: Anybody playing copyrighted music using BRD performance actions is also "offering the proof up on a silver platter" when it comes to their ToS violations, since it's performed "in public" and in-game. Yet the same crowd that considers the ToS sacrosanct when it comes to add-ons is oddly silent about reporting these violations. Curious, especially given that Bard Music Player is an add-on specifically designed to facilitate this.

Counterpoint 3: Anybody posting pictures of their in-game home on Housingsnap or other websites, and showing off furniture placement that is only possible via glitches, is similarly "offering the proof up on a silver platter." Even without using BDTH to automate the floating process, even doing it by hand in-game is still technically exploiting bugs in the code. (Bugs that Square has left in the game for over half a decade now, likely because they're so heavily relied upon by interior decorators.) The only outrage over housing I see is that there isn't enough of it, and that the lottery was badly-coded. I've yet to see people calling for Shei Cloudbank's head over her tutorial videos showing people how to float furniture.

Counterpoint 4: Proportionality is important. Is an automatic 10-day ban for using a QoL UI improvement, like, say, chat bubbles, that has zero impact on the fairness of clearing raids, in any way proportionate to the severity of the "offense?" This is like a judge suspending your driver's license because a cop caught you doing 36 in a 35 zone. It's an inappropriately strong punishment.

Counterpoint 5: "If streamers didn't want to get brigaded, they should've worn a longer skirt just not streamed with add-ons," is a victim-blaming stance that justifies harassment on the mistaken belief that the target "deserves it."