Time for an anti-cheat

[caffe_macchiato]

Ah, but WoW is the proof that anticheat works! Just don't google 'rotation bot'.

You mean you have to pay for that in WoW? This just proves the point that if you make cheating more difficult, it becomes more rare and expensive for people to do. It becomes less normalized, which means the game becomes more fair. Why can't we have that?

In FFXIV, plugins like that are completely free, open-source and integrated in the launcher. WoW has nothing compared to the capabilities of FFXIV's API.

[Sindele]

In FFXIV, plugins like that are completely free, open-source and integrated in the launcher. WoW has nothing compared to the capabilities of FFXIV's API.

For those of you at home, this is what one calls 'a lie'. Like, blatant, bold-faced, Fox News-grade, disprovable-in-ten-seconds-by-anyone-who-looks lying. You should be better than that. You aren't, clearly, but you should be.

Odd, I googled it and some of the main results are about massive banwaves... guess the anti cheat does work!

Yeah, right between the six different ones that have been in operation for multiple years, and a bit under the article about the one that was only killed after almost a decade by a lawsuit rather than any actual engineering work.

Anyone who knows what they're looking for could kick off a mighty banwave in this game in a couple days with access to the server logs, a little scripting, and a spreadsheet. As it always has been, it is an enforcement problem, not an engineering problem.

Of course, this is assuming one has an interest in actually solving the extant botting problems, rather than grinding multiple unrelated axes under the catch-all guise of 'cheating'.

[caffe_macchiato]

For those of you at home, this is what one calls 'a lie'. Like, blatant, bold-faced, Fox News-grade, disprovable-in-ten-seconds-by-anyone-who-looks lying. You should be better than that. You aren't, clearly, but you should be.

That's fine, and you're welcome to have that opinion. I'm not allowed to post any proof because it breaks TOS.

But you will never have a World First race be publicly acknowledged by the developers again. The game will look and feel less and less like FFXIV when all of your friends start asking you where your plugins are. You will realize that less and less people play the game because it's been trivialized to obsolescence and people would rather ERP instead. You can stick around in FFXIV, but you will be disappointed. Most likely, you will move away from FFXIV and find a different game. You will say this is a good thing and proves that FFXIV is perfectly fine, but you will struggle to find your same friends in those new games. Bad decisions with FFXIV will hurt people the same way that WoW's fall did. Many people are still upset about what happened to their previous game, so why should we let that happen here? It didn't have to be this way.

[Doozer]

But you will never have a World First race be publicly acknowledged by the developers again. The game will look and feel less and less like FFXIV when all of your friends start asking you where your plugins are. You will realize that less and less people play the game because it's been trivialized to obsolescence and people would rather ERP instead. You can stick around in FFXIV, but you will be disappointed. Most likely, you will move away from FFXIV and find a different game. You will say this is a good thing and proves that FFXIV is perfectly fine, but you will struggle to find your same friends in those new games. Bad decisions with FFXIV will hurt people the same way that WoW's fall did. Many people are still upset about what happened to their previous game, so why should we let that happen here? It didn't have to be this way.

Can you tell me if I'm going to win the lottery as well?

[Boblawblah]

That's fine, and you're welcome to have that opinion. I'm not allowed to post any proof because it breaks TOS.

But you will never have a World First race be publicly acknowledged by the developers again. The game will look and feel less and less like FFXIV when all of your friends start asking you where your plugins are. You will realize that less and less people play the game because it's been trivialized to obsolescence and people would rather ERP instead. You can stick around in FFXIV, but you will be disappointed. Most likely, you will move away from FFXIV and find a different game. You will say this is a good thing and proves that FFXIV is perfectly fine, but you will struggle to find your same friends in those new games. Bad decisions with FFXIV will hurt people the same way that WoW's fall did. Many people are still upset about what happened to their previous game, so why should we let that happen here? It didn't have to be this way.

Have you tried to convince your friends to play something else? It seems obviously they're the only reason you're still here, why not play other games with them?

[Aword3213]

That's fine, and you're welcome to have that opinion. I'm not allowed to post any proof because it breaks TOS.

But you will never have a World First race be publicly acknowledged by the developers again. The game will look and feel less and less like FFXIV when all of your friends start asking you where your plugins are. You will realize that less and less people play the game because it's been trivialized to obsolescence and people would rather ERP instead. You can stick around in FFXIV, but you will be disappointed. Most likely, you will move away from FFXIV and find a different game. You will say this is a good thing and proves that FFXIV is perfectly fine, but you will struggle to find your same friends in those new games. Bad decisions with FFXIV will hurt people the same way that WoW's fall did. Many people are still upset about what happened to their previous game, so why should we let that happen here? It didn't have to be this way.

Square Exnis thanks you for the undying support with fantasia purchases.

[NekoMataMata]

For those of you at home, this is what one calls 'a lie'. Like, blatant, bold-faced, Fox News-grade, disprovable-in-ten-seconds-by-anyone-who-looks lying. You should be better than that. You aren't, clearly, but you should be.

Neither of you are being completely honest here.

My old FC's raiding channels had a bunch of pins for entirely free add-ons for the popular launcher people use. Stuff that would add overlays and tell you where to move. I doubt it's naturally integrated into the launcher since you need guides to set it up, but it is free.

I assume whoever runs the launcher has the same outlook as SE and doesn't want the drama that would come from trying to police whatever people use it for.

[Mosha]

Neither of you are being completely honest here.

My old FC's raiding channels had a bunch of pins for entirely free add-ons for the popular launcher people use. Stuff that would add overlays and tell you where to move. I doubt it's naturally integrated into the launcher since you need guides to set it up, but it is free.

I assume whoever runs the launcher has the same outlook as SE and doesn't want the drama that would come from trying to police whatever people use it for.

There talking about autorotation specifically and it falls into the same stuff you mentioned it isn't directly integrated into the launcher.

[Sindele]

Neither of you are being completely honest here.

My old FC's raiding channels had a bunch of pins for entirely free add-ons for the popular launcher people use. Stuff that would add overlays and tell you where to move. I doubt it's naturally integrated into the launcher since you need guides to set it up, but it is free.

I assume whoever runs the launcher has the same outlook as SE and doesn't want the drama that would come from trying to police whatever people use it for.

I'm being as honest as is possible without flying too close to the sun. There's wild enough stuff out there without making new things up.

Mosha's right, but I'll add that the most common tools like the ones you mention predate the launcher and don't necessarily require memory injection (though I believe it's used currently because it's more reliable than the alternative after the TCP compression changes this year.)

I would say that valve's method of using machine learning on the server side, combined with manual reviewing, and player based reporting, does a decent job though without requiring a strong AC. Being server sided it might not detect a lot, but the worst offenders can often be caught (and lets be honest, those are usualy the worst to face. one that is barely notible is often not deemed a problem as it can still be fun to play against them since they arent flawless and can be beaten).

And this is where SE realy needs to do better effort. Those gold advertisements with machine learning could most likely have been detected in less than 5minutes using such methods.

Lots can be said about Valve's business practices, but their approach to cheating and enforcement has consistently been some of the best-in-class and a model worth following.