Request for TOS Clarification: "Third Party Programs"

[Raist]

think the key phrase here is this:

"tools to conduct actions players would not normally be able to do in the game"

So long as you aren't using it as some sort of cheat/exploit or something like that (doing something that alters how the game runs/communicates/etc.), should be OK. Was the general rule in XI and why (for the most part) Windower was tolerated until it became known someone was abusing portions of it's capabilities--ie: don't give yourself an advantage over others, and certainly don't blab about it.

As for VPN... that isn't really altering the game's data to give you an unfair advantage. You are simply changing the mode of transit by encapsulating the packets differently to bypass issues with your ISP's routing rules and such. Depending on your medium already in use, it may already be getting repackaged in some form or another for transit. For instance, cable uses an mpeg stream for part of the transit. The data is simply encoded a specific way for transit and then decoded back to it's original form at the other end. So, they kind of don't have a leg to stand on for going after someone if they are using a VPN.

The big taboo is when you are actively intercepting and altering that data to be/do something differently than the game would normally be able to generate with it's built in interfaces and such.