So can we talk about the screen issue here?

[Troxbark]

Comparing ultra-wide monitors to hacking the game?...

It's just copium while they try to justify their cheats.

[Eorzean_username]

It's just copium while they try to justify their cheats.

It's pointing out the ridiculousness of clutching your pearls in moral panic if someone finds a solution using software, but saying, "Oh well that's fine" if they accomplish the exact same end result using hardware.

"What?! 1-button combos?! In MY Hydaelynian FFXIV?!" (monocle flies off)

"Oh you set up your programmable keyboard to step through your combo automatically, haha, coolcool fr fr"

"Oh you paid a VPN to improve your latency, great idea"

"Oh you moved to San Francisco, that's dedication bro"

In other words: the panic isn't about people having relative advantages. It's about defining and controlling what advantages people are allowed to have. I'm guessing because most people feel "morally justified" buying new hardware ("It cost money! And FFXIV would disable it if it wasn't okay!"), but afraid of installing software modifications ("GitHub is hard! And Yoshida-senpai will put me in the peepee corner!").

So basically. You're hiding behind morality ("No one must CHEAT in my SACRED FINAL FANTASY FOURTEEN!"), but not actually crusading against inequalities ("Oh expensive hardware is fine, connection differences are fine"), just picking and choosing the inequalities that you approve of.

"Hack" → "Haha, this word is bad, I am Batman, I will stop these evildoers!"

"Expensive third party hardware or extra connection fees" → "Haha, I am Elon Musk, look at my technological brainpower for buying this!"

So it's exhausting.


"It's easier for this person to react and adjust to mechanics due to their triple-monitor surround display"
"Oooh cool."

"It's easier for this person to react to mechanics due to their software tool"
"This is outrageous! It's unfair!"

"It's easier for this person to react and adjust to mechanics due to their 25ms latency"
"Oooh cool."

"It's easier for this person to react to mechanics due to their software tool"
"This is outrageous! It's unfair!"

Do you approve of relative advantages, or not? Does everything need to be completely-equal, or not?

Should FFXIV be limited to only 2-button mouse and basic DELL keyboard? Should the viewing-area be hard-locked, like competitive RTS games? Should everyone be given the same artificial 250ms simulated latency? Should HUD customization be removed?! (A good HUD layout makes information significantly-easier to notice and process, after all)


If the real argument is just, "Rules are rules, no matter how arbitrary or strange in practice, and breaking any rule is cheating", that's... not inherently "wrong", just very stubborn.

However, it's also a very different argument than faux-concerns such as, "Oh, but think of the poor orphan PS5 players!" and "This is so unfair! It's such an advantage!".

Because if those were really the fundamental concerns, a lot more 3rd-party solutions would be hot-button topics — like latency differences (which PS5 players also struggle to solve), view-area differences (a lot easier to do triple-monitor on PC), MMO mice, or... that HORI Tactical Assault Controller that Yoshida used to advertise and talk glowingly about how much easier it made controlling his character and rotation?

(I mean right? Mr. Yoshida, if you want an authentic experience, you should ONLY be using a traditional keyboard and a 2-button mouse, right? After all, other True Gamers™ have managed to clear with such simple control hardware, as the game was tested and designed.)


So yeah, the fact that multimonitor / ultrawide setups provide significant increases in situational awareness during battle content really is comparable to "hacking the game". You're achieving the same end result: a distinct relative advantage against other players.

And that's what everyone's so upset about, right? It doesn't matter how big or small the advantage is, it's just not acceptable to have those differences?

[Amenara]

So yeah, the fact that multimonitor / ultrawide setups provide significant increases in situational awareness during battle content really is comparable to "hacking the game". You're achieving the same end result: a distinct relative advantage against other players.

And that's what everyone's so upset about, right? It doesn't matter how big or small the advantage is, it's just not acceptable to have those differences?

You can adjust your window size in windowed mode to allow you to set widescreen resolutions if it matters that much to you, granted I would hold off on it if I were using a 1080p monitor as it would start to get really small.

[NekoMataMata]

It's just copium while they try to justify their cheats.

Someone's living in your head rent free.

There's a whole other thread to talk about cheating

Excuse me for using the whole incident with the world first to bring up something that I thought was important and something that I thought would gain some traction better if brought up now.