Ai bots in ultimate raids.Pvp cheating. Crafting bots.

[Oizen]

I don't think anyone disagrees with you, and there are certain plugins that have absolutely clowned on Cosmic exploration

[RyoXander]

I just don't get the mentality around cheating in something that's supposed to be purely for enjoyment lol

[BlisteringFrost]

I just don't get the mentality around cheating in something that's supposed to be purely for enjoyment lol

Because it's no different from an addiction. Once it starts, you won't stop.

[syldon]

I just don't get the mentality around cheating in something that's supposed to be purely for enjoyment lol

MMOs are a power game. Ego becomes be all and end for some people. I have a passionate hate for cheating processes in games. Cheating isn't just a one off these days. It becomes a progressive abuse. I saw what Pindle bots and Meph bots did to diablo 2 in the early 2000's. It absolutely ruined an amazing game.

As for RMTs, there is so much money to be made from it that SE will never stop it. You cannot track the programmes these people are running. All they do is rewrite them with renamed code. They are literally making millions every day. Hiring a clever programmer is chicken feed compared to the pay off. There was a video posted on the EU wow forum about a guy talking to a botter from a Scandinavian country. This guy said he was earning a large amount per year from 3 bots running continuously (I want to say $40k, but it was awhile ago. sorry). This was on one machine. Professional RMTs run banks of system with hundreds of bots. They keep fresh accounts on stand by to put in place as soon as an account is banned. It literally takes minutes to get back up and running once a ban has taken place. As long as people are willing to spend real money for in game cash, then SE cannot prevent it.
I have to admit though, SE do a really good job of containing these people. I only ever see their spam in the three main cities. Something other games should strive to do.

[Johners]

If by anti-cheat, you mean one of those kernel installers that are active when you turn on your PC, then I want a refund. I will never pay for a game that wants to spy on you to such an egregious level. I have yet to see anyone botting in FF. The best systems are report and remove. It is in the best interests on the devs to actively support that. I really don't understand the crafting botting? There is a macro system already built into the game. When all you have to do is spam a macro where would the botting come into it?

There's a lot of misinformation around kernel-level anti-cheat, any software developer can spy on their users without having a kernel-level component within the application. Not to mention the average user is more likely to blindly trust a game developer, surely they wouldn't abuse that trust by doing anything malicious. More importantly, cheating exists even if you don't see it and you can even benefit from it without seeing. If Square Enix were using a solution such as EAC (with enforced Secure Boot, TPM and HVCI/VBS), it would take one patch cycle/raid tier for the player base to see the actual extent of "cheating" within FFXIV. Even plugins to mass automate crafting macros, so you can AFK instead of nursing the PC every 30 seconds, are a form of cheating.

As for getting refund if they did add an anti-cheat, that's unlikely. GTA Online, for example, has recently implemented BattlEye and none of the PC store fronts which sold that game were providing refunds. Whether or not you, the individual, would want to keep playing afterwards is entirely up to you. I, for one, would still be here and wouldn't reduce my expenditure in the game (beyond just the core fees of expansions and the monthly subscription).

If anybody wants to read about why games use kernel-level anti-cheats, there are some good write ups out there including this one: https://vx-api.gitbook.io/vx-api/my-...de-anti-cheats

[Kahnha]

Anti cheat would be poor for this game lot of extra issues come with anti cheats.

To fix cheaters in pvp would propose just having the blacklist function block the players from queuing into the same instances so if for ex Ronso Hakeen ques in and is sandbagging and enough people run across him decide to blacklist him for it he won't be able to keep cheating that and barring free accounts from ranked pvp if it is not already done, it would make the process of making more sandbag accounts longer and likely become unviable.

14 is a low resource cost (client side resource cost) game it would be good if the MMO stayed that way it wouldn't answer the issues peps are having in pvp anyways because the peps sandbagging will still be able to do it they are using legit accounts to do so it's like.... using a hammer on a screw.

now if people were becoming immortal doing unlimited dmg and using dev tools that would be cause to ask for an Anti cheat.

[CCheshire]

Because it's no different from an addiction. Once it starts, you won't stop.

what does this mean, tho?

Also, I'm glad FFXIV doesn't have an invasive anti-cheat since many plugins apart from cosmetic are actually missing QoL features that might even make it to the real game like checking off collectibles and word bubbles were added later on. No one is harmed by them other than it makes our lives easier to overcome tedious parts that have aged poorly over a decade.

[Evermomo]

Kernel level anti-cheat would probably mean the end for me. (I'm planning to move to Linux for my next pc build, just sick of the windows environment.) This would also be bad news for anyone who is moving due to 11 making their hardware "obsolete."

Winning or losing in a video game is not that serious, so I don't care about encountering cheaters some of the time. But I use my computer for work and bills and all that other stuff my life depends on. There are a combination of risks and hassles that come with giving kernel access to what is, ultimately, a developer of a digital toy. For me, it's not worth it-- if something goes wrong, it's going to be a huge pain to deal with that effects other software or maybe even my entire machine. No thanks.

[Elephantality]

PvP I agree with, since they directly affect you. Cheating to get weapons and stuff ... yeah, it sucks, but the bigger problem is people boosting others through boosting services.

All cheating should be banned regardless.

[BlisteringFrost]

what does this mean, tho?

Also, I'm glad FFXIV doesn't have an invasive anti-cheat since many plugins apart from cosmetic are actually missing QoL features that might even make it to the real game like checking off collectibles and word bubbles were added later on. No one is harmed by them other than it makes our lives easier to overcome tedious parts that have aged poorly over a decade.

Pretty reasonable question. There was a case study done with Destiny 2 a couple years ago, actually, because of how horrible the game was getting with cheaters, particularly in PvP. Most recently they just slapped over 3,600 accounts who cleared the newest raid on Contest mode (think Week 1 raiding but with extra mechanics basically, but it's only available for 2 days after the first clear, then the easy version unlocks for everybody to farm) in under 20 minutes (not mathematically possible). But I digress. This case study was a guy hunting down a lot of the cheaters contact, and not so much to do anything malicious, or vigilantism. The guy just wanted to ask a question. WHY? Even after they get banned and come back. Why?

The tl;dr is they literally just can't play the game without them anymore. It's too different for them to handle. It's not all that different from a bad addiction in a way. A good example was when Nintendo released LOZ: Tears of the Kingdom. There was a nasty glitch that let you duplicate items on a massive scale. Many players were using this to dupe Diamonds to hyper-generate Rupees and rare crafting materials. When Nintendo inevitably fixed this bug, there was a massive outrage over it. People literally refunded or dropped the game entirely, because they couldn't cheat anymore without reverting the game back to a previous patch state. Which, realistically, most people dunno how to do that. Their experience was too drastically different without it that they wouldn't play it anymore.

The same logic applies here. A lot of cheaters do it just because after their first time doing it, they can't even comprehend playing the game any other way. In some cases it's for RMT, or to self-inflate ego. For others, it's literally no different than an addiction.