Re: Regarding the Use of Third-Party Programs and Player Safety

[EunJuAnna]

No where in this thread did I complain about people using quotes as being hysterical. You're confusing me with another poster. Might I suggest taking a step back and taking a deep breath?



So "people" is now just a singular 'she'.

The plugin doesn't give away personal information that can lead to IRL stalking, which means one of three things.

1) You're making 'her' up to try to prove a point, which is the likely scenario.

2) She gave away her personal information to strangers in FFXIV, which is no one else's fault but her own. A hard lesson to learn, but still a lesson.

3) This happened outside of FFXIV altogether which is completely meaningless to the discussion at hand, as this is about the plugin causing stalking within FFXIV.

Which is it?



Sounds like to me you just needed an excuse to be angry on the forums.



Of course it isn't a security issue. No actual personal information or data is being leaked.



The blacklist feature still works. The plugin doesn't change anything.

again, you assume so much.

[EunJuAnna]

Sounds like to me you just needed an excuse to be angry on the forums.

thanks for the self report

[ElysiumDragon]

Hold on, doesn't the block feature basically erase them from the overworld on your side?

So like, unless they know exactly which instances you're queuing into, then short of pure chance, the thing everyone's complaining about isn't a huge issue?

[Exmo]

Hold on, doesn't the block feature basically erase them from the overworld on your side?

So like, unless they know exactly which instances you're queuing into, then short of pure chance, the thing everyone's complaining about isn't a huge issue?

That's correct. Once you've blocked sometime they can't interact with you in the overworld and they're invisible to you.

[Kaurhz]

Hold on, doesn't the block feature basically erase them from the overworld on your side?

So like, unless they know exactly which instances you're queuing into, then short of pure chance, the thing everyone's complaining about isn't a huge issue?

It does remove them from your view, yes. But in many respects the plugin actually undermines this effort.. From my understanding of a clip showcasing this that was on Reddit and now on YouTube, it could track character name, last zone, and last time seen in that zone, in addition to historical data. People are under the assumption that all this tool does is maps characters to a single ID, but it actually does far more tracking than just mapping account ID.. - This is why some people are at the edge of their seat complaining, because that information can be seen as pretty invasive, and then it questions "What's next?"

Obviously they cannot interact with you, but they can certainly still be invasive to you and those around you at the time, and honestly the only thing that someone needs to do is create an account, which there are people that absolutely would do such.

[KairiElise]

Just watched the youtube video and wow...dude that made this is clearly a psychopath and all because someone undercut him on the market. The amount of data they get from a single click on a character and then the ability to add them to "favorites" is just beyond words. They get notifications for any type of change the person does even down to customizations (which I am assuming is Name changes and Appearance). It's also rather interesting that the stalker while clicking away on different characters and being downright creepy can set their own characters to private and make themselves unsearchable on the app. So I am not sure that even having the person blacklisted as it currently stands will help. They can still see you but you cannot see them. The only thing they can't do is have words with you..but who needs words when they have all this? The passive aggressive and destructive nature of this plugin if used by anyone should be detected and have them instantly banned.

[Absurdity]

Just watched the youtube video and wow...dude that made this is clearly a psychopath and all because someone undercut him on the market.

This game attracts some very "special" people.
They've been here for a long time, being able to make and use plugins like this just aids their already unhinged behaviour.

[Valet]

You know, having read most of what was said here I'm surprised people cling to either of these arguments :

"We don't need an anti-cheat; it would solve nothing - The problem lies in the infrastructure"

"We need an anti-cheat; it would solve everything - The problem isn't necessarily related to the infrastructure"

Any concerns in regard to losing players and whatnot is irrelevant; it's bound to happen regardless at some point in time. FFXI is still up and running and its playerbase is a fraction of what it once was.

Speaking of which, FFXI also has a big "cheating" / botting problem to this day - Should we start worrying about losing players for this game as well, or would it be better to address things in a proper manner once and for all ?

I personally think they should both revise their infrastructure & implement an anti-cheat. At the very least, it would mitigate issues and filter undesirables.

Cheats, exploits, mods & etc. will always be a thing one way or another, everybody knows this. But what's the harm of trying to implement more "long-term" fixes to recurring issues ?

[veeika]

I'm too lazy to @ any of the people discussing this, but I think people who downplay stalking in this game underestimate the kind of person one has to be to become a stalker. It's an obsessive type of person who will go to many lengths to contact you or anyone you are in contact with to either get through to you or to ruin your reputation depending on the stalker type. The game having its very generous free trial kind of makes that easy - they can easily create as many free alts as they wish if the victim blocks the stalker.

I understand it's hard to empathise when you haven't experienced stalking yourself. I haven't had any issues in my years as I mostly keep to myself in this game, but I have dealt with a stalker "on the internet" who used to be a very close friend once. Shit creeps up on you, it's really not as simple as one might think. I'd recommend listening to people talking about their experiences before you criticize them for being sensitive or whatever. However as someone above pointed out, you're not going to see too much on the forums about FF stalking because that would be exposing themselves. There's many stories out there. It can heavily impact your life.

My sub ends tonight so signing off as soon as I showed up lmao Square messed up badly and I just wish they acknowledged their own fault in this situation. Stalkers have and will exist, but this update just made it all too easy to get player information. I don't think many online games implemented a blacklist in this disastrous way.

[AshtonCrowe]

but I have dealt with a stalker "on the internet" who used to be a very close friend once

. . But was your stalker cute tho?

/s